Little Soap Company, the Worcestershire-based natural soap pioneer, has been honoured with a 2026 King’s Award for Enterprise in Sustainabilty, one of just 185 organisations recognised nationally this year across all award categories, and one of the most coveted accolades in British business. Notably, the Sustainabilty category is the most competitive with only 15-30 awards given annually.
The award recognises the company’s outstanding and whole-business commitment to sustainable development: a principle that has guided every product, ingredient, supplier and operational decision since founder Emma Heathcote-James began hand-crafting soaps in her Cotswold cottage in 2008.
Emma’s founding ambition was simple but radical. It was to make pure, natural soap, free from synthetic ingredients, hidden chemicals and plastic excess, genuinely accessible to everyday consumers, at everyday prices. At a time when organic and natural soap simply wasn’t available on supermarket shelves, Little Soap Company became the first organic soap to reach mainstream UK retail, setting a new category standard that the industry has been scrambling to follow ever since.
Today, the company’s ranges, Organics, Naturals, Eco Warrior and Little Beast, are stocked by Waitrose, Tesco, Sainsbury’s, Morrisons, Boots and all the online giants. Little Soap Company is now a multi-million-pound UK business, selling one bar every 30 seconds, demonstrating that sustainability can drive commercial growth.
Unlike many businesses for which sustainability has become a recent strategic pivot, Little Soap Company was built around it. The company has been B Corp certified since 2020, one of only three UK soap manufacturers to hold the certification, and was recertified in 2023 with an improved score of 90.7. It has been declared carbon negative by Carbon Neutral Britain for three consecutive years (2022, 2023 and 2024), offsetting more than double its entire Scope 1–3 emissions.
Every product the company manufactures is plant-based, vegan certified, cruelty-free and made in Britain. Packaging across the range is 100% recycled and recyclable, using FSC-certified cardboard and 100% post-consumer recycled (PCR) plastic where bottles are used. Fragrance comes exclusively from pure essential oils, with no synthetic additives.
Little Soap Company is not just selling soap, they are removing plastic from our bathrooms. The company’s Eco Warrior range alone has avoided over 22.5 million plastic bottles to date from the supply chain, and saved more than 20 million litres of water in consumer use. Each soap bar lasts up to six times longer than a liquid equivalent and can replace four to five plastic bottles.
The company’s liquid soap ranges, which represent just 3% of its product portfolio, are made exclusively with Prevented Ocean Plastic certified bottles and are positioned as a transition product to gradually encourage consumers to switch to bars. A 2030 Zero-Plastic plan is in place to eliminate plastic from the supply chain entirely.
What sets Little Soap Company apart is not just what it makes, but how it operates. Its supply chain is UK-based and audited annually against strict ESG standards. Suppliers must hold BRC, RSPO and SEDEX certifications as a minimum, and be aligned to the Living Wage. The company has ended relationships with suppliers who failed to meet its ethical standards, and has declined significant commercial opportunities – including requests from major retailers to launch refill pouches – where these would increase, rather than reduce, consumer waste. This reinforces its position against greenwashing and short-term sustainability claims.
It has commissioned independent consumer research confirming that 82% of its customers have reduced their bathroom plastic use since switching to Little Soap Company products, 63% have switched from liquid soap to bars, and 65% say the brand has influenced more sustainable purchasing decisions across other product categories too. At Little Soap Company, they believe the most sustainable products aren’t defined by packaging and ingredients alone, but by their ability to change behaviour.
Emma Heathcote-James, founder and CEO of Little Soap Company, says:
“As a British business supporting UK manufacturing, jobs and communities, receiving a King’s Award for Enterprise is a real honour, especially following our Queen’s Award for Innovation in 2022. We are incredibly proud of our team; their dedication and passion have taken my idea from a kitchen table start-up to a nationally recognised brand leading the way in sustainable soap, proving that sustainability doesn’t have to mean compromising on quality and can be accessible for every budget. Sustainability isn’t just about the products, but the team too. It’s embedded in how we work, how we hire, and how we make decisions every day. This award shows that a small UK business can drive large-scale environmental change through everyday products.
Our mission doesn’t stop here. This award strengthens our commitment to educating consumers and driving positive change across the whole industry.”
This King’s Award for Sustainable Development follows the company’s 2022 Queen’s Award for Enterprise for Innovation, which recognised the launch and impact of the Eco Warrior range specifically. This year’s award is a recognition of the entire business including its culture, its governance, its supply chain, its people and its commercial model.
