It has been an extremely busy month for staff here at Lush Reading. After stocking our first palm oil-free soaps last Christmas, the formula has now been rolled out across all our soap lines. The result is that Lush’s palm oil usage will be reduced by 250,000 kg each year.

To highlight this and to educate our customers, the company has installed “interactive” windows in all of its stores.

We asked customers to come and paint their hands green and apply their palm print to the palm tree displayed in our window. After that, they were encouraged to wash their hands with one of our palm oil-free soaps and given a free sample to take home with them. The message on the window read: “Wash your hands of palm.”

I was surprised to discover the level of awareness out there on this issue already, as many of our customers seemed well informed and concerned.

I was also pleased to see how this campaign really inspired my staff. It was fantastic to see them really getting motivated as they learned more about the subject and passed on their knowledge to others with great enthusiasm. Getting to show off our three new soaps to customers was a bonus.

There is a definite green theme to all our activities this month. Our store has also decided to take a stall at a Green Fair in our shopping centre. If we can keep busy and get customers engaged, we can really help the environment – and our sales, too.

Store manager’s diary by Lisa Titcomb, Lush, Reading.

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