One of the pioneers of the natural beauty industry, Anita Roddick amassed a fortune of $200 million through her cosmetics and toiletries business, The Body Shop, making her one of England’s richest women.  Anita began The Body Shop with the vision that all types of businesses could be run ethically, and that every ingredient has a story.  Anita passed away in 2007, and her husband, Gordon, now manages her fortune.

Of her inspiration to start The Body Shop, Anita said, “My early travels had given me a wealth of experience. I had spent time in farming and fishing communities with pre-industrial peoples, and been exposed to body rituals of women from all over the world. Also the frugality that my mother exercised during the war years made me question retail conventions. Why waste a container when you can refill it? And why buy more of something than you can use? We behaved as she did in the Second World War, we reused everything, we refilled everything and we recycled all we could. The foundation of The Body Shop’s environmental activism was born out of ideas like these.”

Tomorrow: #7- Roxanne Quimby, Burt’s Bees