The design of Lush’s new SOS Sumatra shampoo bar was inspired by a recent art installation by Lithuanian artist Ernest Zacharevic, who created a giant ‘Save-our-souls’ distress signal from oil palm trees in an Indonesian palm oil plantation.
The stunt highlighted the plight of indigenous communities and endangered species such as the orangutan, whose land and habitats are being destroyed by the palm oil boom in Indonesia, the world’s biggest producer of the commodity.
LUSH teamed up with conservation charity Sumatran Orangutan Society (SOS) for the campaign, which launched on Friday, and all funds raised from shampoo bar sales will go towards converting a disused palm oil plantation into a permaculture demonstration site and conservation training hub in Sumatra. This will be aimed at helping small scale farmers improve the variety and profitability of their crops, working alongside the natural rainforest trees, rather than chopping them down.
Permaculture is sustainable and self-sufficient farming that works with, and not against, natural ecosystems.
The plantation is located on the edge of Sumatra’s Leuser Ecosystem, one of Southeast Asia’s richest expanses of intact tropical rainforest, and one of Asia’s largest carbon sinks. The national park is losing forest cover at a rate of 5,500 hectares a year.
The launch of the shampoo bar in Asia built on the #SOSSumatra campaign which LUSH launched in Europe, which raised US$175,000 from selling limited edition palm oil-free orangutan-shaped soaps. The funds went on restoring 50 hectares of oil palm plantation land to forest in the buffer zone around the Leuser national park.
SOS Sumatra shampoo bar had a brand new base, that’s completely palm oil and SLS free - containing extra virgin coconut oil from Nias (an island off of mainland Sumatra), sodium coco-sulfate and water purifying moringa seed powder. Hair will be left soft, moisturised and delicately scented with uplifting patchouli and orange oils.
