Anita Roddick was one of the truly remarkable women of our time. She virtually invented the concept of the ethical business. Creating the Bodyshop to support her young family she went on to make it a huge success. But to combine business acumen with vigorous campaigning for environmental, health, social and human rights causes was unique to her at the time. Whilst imitation is the best form of flattery, she stood out from the crowd of her imitators till the day she died. A true original, her business success was always widely reported and yielded significant financial rewards. What was barely known until a year ago was that she and her husband Gordon were quietly supporting a great variety of environmental, human rights and healthcare projects with very generous amounts of money. Whether it was meetings of Amazonian Indian fighting for rights to their land, human rights organisations campaigning for a prisoner on death row, or homeless people in the cities of Europe and America ? Anita was always there to help.  

Anita invented a new way of combining the quest for business success with the fight for good causes ? whether persuading millions of her customers to lend their names to the campaign for saving the world?s rainforests or getting them to support her campaign against the testing of cosmetics on animals. Anita reinvented the concept of charisma and yet her friends knew her as a modest and even humble person. She travelled the world to learn from ordinary women, and particularly those still living close to nature, about how to look after their own bodies and how to safeguard the good health of their families. She seemed happiest being at home with people in the remotest villages in the furthest corners of the earth. And coming back to her own home she was always brimming with the excitement of these experiences. 

Anita?s personal friends were not the rich and the famous but people of deep conviction ? people who wanted to change the world. For she was truly aware of the precarious state of our planet ? deforestation, climate change, the abject poverty of millions, these were the issues that occupied her and her husband?s minds above all else.  

Anita?s legacy is that of a fighter for a better world as someone who could help to make changes. Business leaders had to listen to her because of her own business success. Politicians invited her to give them advice and in these meetings she never pulled any punches. As someone with her eyes wide open she found it intolerable to see injustice and depravation. She was the first person to organise support for the appalling conditions of orphanages in Romania and with help from the staff of the Bodyshop, she set an example that many others in Europe followed. The resulting improvements to many orphanages in Eastern Europe have meant a better and happier life for tens of thousands of orphans in the region. 

As a member of the World Future Council, Anita also set her sights on the rights and needs of future generations. We live in an age that is largely concerned with the here and now and the legacy we are leaving for future generations is a grim one: of global warming, deforestation and depleted ecosystems. Only through great international efforts can we now deal with, or even reverse these unacceptable developments. Anita was keenly aware of the need for a very rapid change that must involve us all. We will miss Anita deeply as a founding member of the World Future Council that is, above all else, seeking to act as a voice of future generations.  

Anita was a very precious person and someone without whom the world is a poorer place. Now is the time for her example to spread and for younger people to learn from her. Her self-made wealth put her in a unique position to act for a better world. But her motivation can be shared by everybody who is concerned about how we can create a sustainable, just and peaceful world. Anita held a deep conviction that we have it in our power to make this a better world, that we have the tools to do so and that it is unacceptable and unforgivable if we fail to do so. Her example is there for all to see. Anita would have been the first person to admit that she was no angel, that she was imperfect, that she sometimes did not live up to her own high standards. But in the ethics stake there are few people that could teach her a lesson. Anita will be deeply missed and her untimely death is a tragedy for us all.