Our year with The Body Shop: A multi-store collaborative engagement
Photos courtesy of The Body Shop taken by Desy Cheng
PECO is very grateful to have been selected as the local artist for their concept stores in BC as they support like-minded sustainable enterprises. Since opening in 1976, with its first store in Brighton, UK, The Body Shop has grown to being a leader in socially conscious business by being deeply engaged in environmental protection and animal rights.
Since early 2023, PECO has been working together with various store teams within the Vancouver area collecting and sorting over 200 pounds of empty product containers, household plastic waste and shoreline plastics that were incorporated into unique art pieces.
The theme of each piece was unique to each store but generally focused on the natural environment.
Cumulatively, the final artworks use 89 lbs of plastic waste. That’s about 8,089 plastic bags diverted from landfill.
As part of our collaboration, The Body Shop was also gracious enough to include PECO as part of its Meet the Maker series:
PECO Process:
Collaborative Cleanup to Sorting and Melting
Our engagement started with an enthusiastic shoreline cleanup in downtown Vancouver with participants from a number of stores in the Metro Vancouver area. The Body Shop members had already committed to a number of cleanups prior to the PECO event. It was evident that there is a ton of energy and will from employees to see change happen on plastics. Overall we had a ton of fun.
A brief slideshow of our PECO process from cleanup to finishing.
Metrotown Centre Burnaby, BC (2023)
Whale Watchers
33 lbs or 2,972 shopping bags
Whale Watchers was our first commission with The Body Shop. The design, spread over two panels, is an abstract of a whale. But as the title suggests, the real focus is on the small fish that are often seen swimming next to larger ones. We chose this concept to herald the many people that do small efforts towards a better world. Hopefully, the viewer is left with a sense of this light-hearted and fun duality.
Photos courtesy of The Body Shop taken by Desy Cheng
Orchard Park, Kelowna BC (2023)
Sunflower
14 lbs or 1,300 shopping bags
Of all the natural wonders found in and near Kelowna, none symbolizes this region’s abundance more than the sunflower. The presentation of the sunflower with roots is not only to represent the Syilx People of Okanagan but also of the efforts The Body Shop is making to respect its own roots towards a more sustainable shopping experience.
Photos courtesy of The Body Shop
Willowbrook Mall, Langley, BC (2023)
Humpback Dives
33 lbs or 2,972 shopping bags
We couldn’t express BC’s natural environment without including a diving whale. Incorporating the majesty of the humpback means accentuating its presence within our waters as a creature we all admire from onshore. Between May and October each year the shoreline of BC becomes a haven for humpback whales and whale watchers alike. We hope the Willowbrook Body Shop store will have admiring onlookers and visitors year-round with this artwork.
Photos courtesy of The Body Shop taken by Desy Cheng
Guildford Town Centre, Surrey, BC (2023)
Sea Salmon
18 lbs or 1,647 shopping bags
The last of our series is the Sea Salmon. As the main subject in this artwork, we positioned the jumping salmon to highlight our admiration of this species. Yet, we are confronted with the fact that the salmon has been highly affected by man’s impact on BC’s coastal landscape.
Photos courtesy of The Body Shop taken by Desy Cheng