Who is Owl & Bee®? We're really glad you asked!
We were founded in Belgium in 2020 on strong principles of ethics, sustainability, environmentalism, ecology, and social responsibility. We take these values so very seriously that we proactively fight for these principles in everything we do.
We take great pride in helping people feel better in themselves, and wish to promote a feeling of self-worth and healthy self-esteem; after all, we are all beautiful, inside and out, no matter who, how, what, or where you are!
We absolutely deplore waste of any kind, including unnecessary ingredients, and we always place strong ethics, the environment, animal and human rights, and our social responsibility as a member of society above profit.
So, what are your founding principles?
The company behind Owl & Bee® was founded to make a profoundly positive impact on society and the environment. For this to be the case, ethical and moral concerns always take a priority over financial profit.
These ethical and moral considerations include:
- The fair treatment of every employee of our company, and those of our suppliers;
- The wellbeing, health, and safety of each and everyone of our customers;
- The environment, both locally and globally, and how it's impacted by our activities;
- Fair trade, including an absence of illegal or morally questionable activity, money laundering, or exploitation of people, animals, or the environment;
- The rights and well-being of animals, particularly with respect for their safety, and certainly in regards to animal cruelty, suffering, animal experimentation, or any other exploitation; and
- Human rights, not only including those specified in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR) and the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR), but also extended definitions such as those defined in the Yogyakarta Principles.
These principles have been with us from the beginning, and impact every decision we make.
How do you uphold your principles?
We impose our principles upon ourselves in multiple ways:
- Our company and subsidiaries are all founded with our strong ethical principles built into their founding constitutional statutes, ensuring that all employees and the board of directors always keep the business operating in good faith, and these documents are always publicly available on the business register for anyone to verify;
- Every supplier we work with must be a signatory to our Ethical Supply Agreement — a contractual obligation that ensures they share our values, for example that they do not harm animals, that they do not act in a way that harms the environment, and that they treat their employees fairly and are socially responsible in their local communities;
- Every retailer, shop, or distributor in our resale network we work with is a signatory to either our Trusted Reseller or Authorised Distributor programmes, which ensures that our products are only sold in shops which also share our vision;
- We have been a signatory to the Terra Carta since March 2021 — an initiative from His Royal Highness The Prince Of Wales's Sustainable Markets Initiative, who himself has been an advocate for decades on the topic of environmental protection, climate change policy, and the sustainable economy; and
- We ensure all of our products have passed rigorous vegan certification, which implicitly ensures our products do not exploit or harm animals in any way.
Beyond this, if you think there is something we aren't yet doing, or if you think we have done something wrong, then we insist that you contact us and let us know!
Why are you so fussy about all of this?
Oh that's easy — we simply want everyone who buys our product to be sure they are really making a responsible choice. We do the hard work on your behalf, because we believe it's normal for companies who make things to also be responsible for the impact that they have on our beautiful little planet.
With so much misinformation out there, we hope that you can trust that we are making the right decisions on your behalf when it comes to the ingredients we use, our choices on packaging, and our supply chain. We want to make the most amazing products, but we also don't want this to come at the expense of our planet.
I still want to know more about your company
That's wonderful! We encourage critical thinking and always hope that people dig into the facts to find the truth! You can start by finding out more about us on our corporate website.