LETTER:Investors care for environment

Sir: In your commentary on Anita and Gordon Roddick's decision not to take The Body Shop private (5 March) you imply that there are inevitably conflicts between environmental responsibility and shareholders' interests.

This need not be the case. In a recent survey of their views, 71 per cent of our shareholders either agreed or strongly agreed with the proposition that the company's mission "is important for them as a shareholder".

Happily enough for us, 59 per cent agreed or strongly agreed that the company's values represented "one of the major reasons" they invested in the first place.

Dr David Wheeler

General Manager

Ethical Audit

The Body Shop International

Littlehampton,

West Sussex