Helping your salon achieve sustainable status can feel like an impossible challenge, especially in an industry that heavily relies on water and electricity. However, small changes can boost sustainability in your salon, here’s how.
How Salon Owners can Encourage Sustainability in the Salon
If you’re looking to encourage sustainability in your salon, as a salon owner, you need to practice what you preach. Stephen Buller and Anita Rice, Co-Founders of Buller and Rice, are a perfect example of this, explaining that they lead the conversation around sustainability with their staff, who are each given different responsibilities. “Our team are the core of our salon and are as passionate about our values as we are. Each staff role allows them to take part in how we reduce waste and maintain our salon’s sustainability,” Stephen says.
Salon owners can further contribute to environmental goals is by carefully selecting furniture – something that Olivia Crighton, founder and Director of Glasshouse Salon, prioritised. “When we moved location in 2021, all our elements were carefully considered, including using innovative reclaimed and recycled materials,” she tells us. Another option for sustainable salon furniture is Takara Belmont, whose products are crafted with longevity in mind while also integrating new technologies to reduce energy consumption.
Meanwhile, ensuring your whole team is onboard with the process can make the transition easier. Olivia adds: “My advice for those looking to make their business more sustainable is to research and scrutinise all the details – it can be as simple as changing up the drinks menu to include local brands, to big things like combatting colour waste. It’s about being creative and taking the time to put best practices in place that will make the difference long term.”
How Salon Managers can be More Sustainable in the Salon
Supporting the day-to-day running of the business, salon managers are in a prime position to make sustainable switches, for example, getting the best deal on your energy contract. Salon managers can also ensure staff are disposing of waste by partnering with initiatives such as Green Salon Collective, who have made it their mission to recycle the unrecyclable thanks to their easy-to-use return scheme. As a bonus, they even help you earn money while using the scheme thanks to a ‘green fee’. Salons ask clients to pay a discretionary £1-2 fee on each visit to offset the cost of recycling. According to GSC, most salons profit from this, or are cost-neutral at worst – what have you got to lose?
How Hairstylists can be More Sustainable in the Salon
Hairstylists are best placed to encourage clients to share in the salon’s sustainable ethos, for example, through product recommendations. If you’re already using sustainable products, educate your clients on the benefits – both to their hair and the environment.
In addition to offering conscious products, brands also champion social-environmental initiatives such as Davines’ We Sustain Beauty – a movement that aims to take climate action by raising awareness of the importance of biodiversity and regenerative organic agriculture on a global scale. Additionally, Maria Nila’s partnership with Plan Vivo, which sees them helping farmers plant trees in Central America in an effort to provide climate compensated packaging.
If you’re sharing these recommendations with clients, you want to be confident that you’re doing your part. Leaf Scissors aim to produce and source the highest quality hairdressing tools while constantly looking for ways to make their business more sustainable. They’re also proud to plant at least 10 trees for each pair of scissors sold – since they were founded in 2019, they’ve planted 162,052.
How Hair Colourists can be More Sustainable
One of the prime culprits of waste in salons in colour. Joshua Miller, joint MD at Charlie Miller, Edinburgh, explains that to try and combat waste, they began using hair colour management software, Vish. “The data we got from Vish revealed that many of our younger stylists were mixing up more colour than the experienced ones. Having this data has allowed us to set clear guidelines on colour usage and monitor it all.”
Salons can also reduce colour-related waste by partnering with Green Salon Collective, who provide a service to wash and prepare colour tubes and used foil, ready for recycling. Aside from waste, salons can also boost their environmental credentials by selecting colour that has been made using sustainable methods. Abbey Hudson, Colour Director at Glasshouse Salon, shares: “I am proud to work with Organic Colour Systems, which is manufactured locally in the New Forest and formulated with Soil Association certified organic ingredients. Our hair colour contains no ammonia, resorcinol or parabens and the lowest possible amount of PPD (a petroleum derivative) – plus the gel-based colour comes in large, 100% recyclable bottles made from post-consumer waste recycled plastic.”
How Salon Assistants can be More Sustainable
At sustainable salon chain Blue Tit, staff are encouraged to get involved and offer new ideas. “One of our assistants recently mentioned a company that could help us reduce our waste further, which made us realise this is 100% something we need to be looking into, supporting and gaining more knowledge about,” says Founder, Matthew Gebbie. “As a result, we are now in conversation with the company.” In addition to taking action in response to staff concerns, Blue Tit also ensure all team members’ efforts are recognised by giving a monthly shoutout on B-Corp actions achieved by the salon. Meanwhile, juniors ar Buller and Rice help to collect hair clippings, which are repurposed by Green Salon Collective into cushions which help absorb oil spills in the ocean.
How Front of House and Operations can be More Sustainable in the Salon
At both Buller and Rice and Blue Tit, front of house staff play a key role in the salons’ sustainable efforts, taking care of refill bars – where clients can bring any empty pot, bottle, tube, or tub into the salon to be refilled with shampoo, conditioner, and selected haircare. Glasshouse Salon also offer a refill service, where customers can bring in empty Oway and OSC bottles to refill, while receiving a 10% discount – further incentivising customer to make the sustainable switch.
There are so many ways to boost your business’ sustainability credentials and by getting the whole team involved, the transition may be smoother than you thought!
Speaking of sustainability, it’s Sustainability Week here at HJ, so if you’re looking for more green-focused content like this, check out our schedule!
Today's sustainability content is sponsored by Davines.
