Hair Scene Blog
Sustainability at Hair Scene – Hair & Beauty
Sep
Step By Step Sustainability
Our accreditation journey
At the start of 2023 we began the journey to become a completely sustainable salon. During this time, we have discovered methods to better the environment through minor adjustments to our everyday activities within the salon. We’re continuing to spread awareness and perform these actions outside of the salon as well.
At first, this idea seemed very simple and easily doable. We were totally wrong! After many hours of researching, we came across “Sustainable Salons” which is a social enterprise that helps its salon members sustainably reduce salon waste. Amazing! Someone to do it for us!
After looking into this, we discovered that the cost to use this service would mean that we would have to increase our service prices to cover that. Which, considering the Cost of Living Crisis at the moment, was not ideal. We concluded that we would do this ourselves. I mean, if we were so passionate about being eco-friendly then how hard could it really be?
The Hair & Barber New Zealand Green accreditation is a checklist accreditation level of Quality + Care accredited by Sustainable Salons themselves. Obtaining this certificate means that we are also eligible to apply for the Hair & Barber New Zealand Gold accreditation. Two birds, one stone!
Having this checklist made life so much easier. We were able to go through each step, make a plan of what we need to achieve and how we can implement these actions into the daily salon workflow. We realised that we actually already carry out a number of requirements i.e. recycling foil & metal, reusing gloves, neck towels, reusing paper printouts, LED lighting and purchasing second hand crockery from op shops.
Now, after completing our checklist, we have solid systems in place to continually reduce the amount of waste we create and increase our knowledge around water & energy saving. We are also making efforts to buy and donate second items, reuse general and salon equipment and spread awareness to our clients, friends and family.
Some sustainable measures we implement to maintain our eco-friendly salon:
Aluminium Waste:
Behind our basin area, we have a bin for all our foil, cans, colour tubes and other metal waste.
This gets emptied into a larger bin around that back of the salon and then eventually taken to the metal man in Silverdale to be recycled.
Compost Chemical Waste:
This was one that we struggled with a lot! Unfortunately, there was no good way to recycle chemical waste. The best option was to dispose of it in a landfill as opposed to putting it down the drain and out into the ocean which is what we used to do.
Now we are focusing on reducing the amount of colour we use so we can have the least amount of waste as possible. At the end of the week, we weigh the amount of colour waste we produced and compare it with the previous week. Each week we are finding that we’re wasting less and less!
Compost:
We use this compost bin for waste such as food scraps, virgin hair, used coffee grounds and teabags (excluding any staples) Once the bin is full, Tasmyn takes it home to use in her garden!
Sustainable Purchasing:
Our main retail range Schwarzkopf Professional, Bonacure Clean, has recently changed the packaging of the products. Now, each item is 97% recycled bottle and recyclable packaging!
Similar to our retail range, three of our colour ranges, Igora Royal, TBH and BlondMe, have also adopted the practice of using sustainable packaging. The colour tube being 100% recycled aluminium, the cap being 100% recycled plastic and the folding box being a minimum of 92% recycled cardboard.
Putting in the work to make a difference
Green Scheme Certification
We are involved in a local pilot survey and are being issued with our Green Scheme Certificate in our Health & Beauty Category.
Green Accreditation
We have just received our Green Accreditation from Hair & Barber NZ.
Green Accreditation is accredited to salons/barbershops that show they have implemented environmentally sustainable policies and practices and can demonstrate a commitment to building a greener future for their salon/barbershop.
