Rituals launches 10% Profit Pledge—this is everything you need to know

By Rituals
Mon Sep 02 2024
3 min read

From today, we guarantee that 10% of Rituals’ annual net profit* will be used as a force for good, to support causes that improve the wellbeing of people and planet. We reveal why and how.

Winston Churchill once said, ‘We make a living by what we get, we make a life by what we give’. For 24 years, we have been selling products we hope bring a little happiness into people’s lives. At the same time, we have been growing as a business and undeniably getting a lot in return. This quote feels particularly resonant for us as a company right now. ‘We want to use our business as a force for good,” explains CEO and founder Raymond Cloosterman. “We are taking a pioneering position, re-thinking the way we do business and are contributing to society. It is our dream to become an impact brand.” With our Profit Pledge, we are putting our money where our mouth is.

Our commitment

Rituals commits to investing 10% of our net profit* towards causes and initiatives that support the wellbeing of people and planet. So, what does this mean? Our net profit is all the money we make, minus expenditures like employee salaries, store rent and production costs. If you think about the salary that arrives into your bank account after tax, and take 10% of that – that would be 10% of your own net profit. This long-term commitment of 10% is likely to be a substantial amount of financial funding. 

Help us Better the Balance

Since Rituals was founded, the purpose of our products has been inspiring people to find more balance in life. Helping people to find happiness in the smallest of things will always be our passion, but today, we believe the future of brands lies in taking more responsibility. It’s not just our customers that need to find more balance, it’s our entire planet. The effects of climate change have become crystal clear, the earth is heating up, there is too much waste going to landfills and too many communities all over the world are experiencing poverty. If you keep on picking fruit from a tree but don’t water it – soon it will stop growing. We all need to be much more aware of the impact of our actions and start changing our behaviour so it serves people and planet instead of depleting resources and increasing imbalance. As a global cosmetics and wellbeing company, we are not blind to the fact we have a footprint – but we are trying to decrease it. From providing income to impoverished communities, to protecting Indigenous forest land, the causes we are supporting through our 10% profit pledge are helping to make a positive impact on the world.

Setting the standard

Rituals may be the first business to commit to this pledge – but we hope we’re not the last. We want to start a ripple of systemic change across the industry. We are, by no means, saying we’re best in class, other businesses are giving more than 10% (albeit few). However, we do want to inspire any companies that know they can do more. According to the Edelman Trust Barometer, people are placing more faith in businesses and brands they love over the government and media. The world needs a societal shift towards more sustainable practices and positive impact and if consumers aren’t seeing this from authorities – they are expecting business to be the leading voice in societal issues. Our pledge is our commitment to consumers that we are using our business as a force for good.

For people

When we say that the causes we support are improving the wellbeing of people and planet - this isn’t just jargon, we can divide them into those two categories - people and planet. From providing income to improving mental resilience, we’ve partnered with organisations that help communities outside of our customer reach. Here are two examples:

Tiny Miracles

Rituals has been a proud supporter of Tiny Miracles since 2011. This fellow BCorpTM is on a mission to help communities in Mumbai, India to get out and stay out of poverty. How? Our goodie bags and beach bags are all handmade by women in Mumbai, India, who are part of the Tiny Miracles Foundation. Making these bags provides them with life-changing income, which allows them to provide housing, health care and education for themselves and their families. These bags have been hugely successful - last year alone they created 3 million in total. In recent years, bracelets have been added to the repertoire, to enable women who can’t sew or leave the house to make a living too. This job security allows these women to take their futures into their own hands.

Read more about our partnership with Tiny Miracles.

Super Chill

According the World Health Organisation, estimates predict that 1 in 4 people will be impacted by mental health illness in their life. It’s a scary figure – but what if we started to teach kids how to adapt a positive mindset from a young age? That’s exactly what the Super Chill Foundation is trying to do. Whilst kids are taught Maths and English at school, they may not be taught how to process emotions and deal with difficult situations. As the co-founder and exclusive sponsor of Super Chill, we share their passion for building the mental resilience of future generations. With their app, they are encouraging kids to see their mind as their superpower – something they can use to transform moments of discomfort into moments of chill. Designed for children aged 6+, the app is full of games and exercises based on mindfulness, breathwork and yoga that teach them how to keep a positive and healthy mindset.

FOR THE PLANET

To help restore balance to our planet – we want to support projects that help to conserve and protect some of the most vital and biodiverse areas on earth. Our main focus in the upcoming years will be our partnership with conservation enterprise, Sacred Forests.

Sacred Forests

We are funding the Indigenous Arhuaco community on their mission to reclaim, reforest and protect their ancestral land. Rainforests are hugely important in the fight against climate change, and for centuries the Arhuaco have protected one of the most lush, biodiverse rainforests in the world. Sadly, over the last 50 years, a lot of their sacred land has been lost to illegal activities like logging and mining. We are sponsoring their mission to buy back, reforest, and protect their sacred land for generations to come (by making it a UNESCO world heritage site!). You can read more about this project here.

For more information about Rituals’ sustainability efforts, read our most recent sustainability report here.

*From 2025 onwards, we commit to spend 10% of our net profit of the previous year (e.g. in 2025, we commit to spend 10% of our net profit of 2024).