2 mins
A 360° APPROACH
Professional brands continue to make strides to be more sustainable in the key areas of ingredient sourcing, packaging, recycling and operations. Ellen Cummings shares a few of the most recent initiatives
1 Ingredients
Clients have become increasingly interested in the provenance of the products they use, whether they’re looking for UK-sourced ingredients or cruelty-free options. Another area which can affect their decision making is whether the ingredients used in products are sustainably sourced and cultivated.
Marine skincare brand Phytomer, for example, doesn’t use pesticides in its ingredient cultivation, and its molecule extraction is solvent and chemical free. Two thirds of the ingredients are sourced locally to Phytomer’s laboratories in Brittany, France. Phytomer has a 1,000m2seaweed cultivation plot where the seaweed is harvested by hand and certified organic. Once the seaweed has been used to manufacture ingredients, it’s used for compost and mulch.
The rise in demand for vegan products has also led to some sustainable ingredient sourcing. Heaven Skincare’s Nettle Venom range – aplantbased alternative to the Bee Venom range – features founder Deborah Mitchell’s patented Nettatoxin, which is extracted from nettles collected by hand from hedgerows near her home in Shropshire.
2 Operations
Environmental impact goes beyond what salons, spas and their clients can see. The way in which brands choose to run their manufacturing and warehousing facilities is also important – for example, IIAA has solar panels on the roof of its warehouse, which it uses to partially power the building. Meanwhile, Phytomer has set up filtering gardens with local plants in order to filter wastewater from its production site and also uses renewably sourced electricity.
3 Packaging and recycling
The beauty industry has a reputation for creating a lot of waste product, with products needing to be well packaged in order to maintain their integrity and efficacy. However, this waste is something many brands are aware of and have been working towards reducing for several years.
IIAA, for example, has a recycling scheme for its Environ brand, whereby it buys back empties that have been returned by clients to salons. The scheme even recycles containers from other brands, but doesn’t offer a credit for these items. IIAA then sends these empty containers on to a firm which repurposes the plastic into secondary products.
Meanwhile, towels and robes specialist BC Softwear has launched a new flip flop recycling initiative to help tackle the “flip flop mountain” that sees billions of pairs thrown away every year.
“We supply approximately three million pairs of footwear per year and are all too aware of the impact that has on the environment. We’re delighted to be piloting a new scheme with the Exclusive Hotels Collection to collect, recycle and re-purpose all their discarded flip flops,” says BC Softwear chief executive Barbara Cooke.
4 Equipment
Sustainability can go beyond the products you use in treatments and retail to clients – the equipment you use has a role to play too. For example, the creation and maintenance of traditional cotton towels has an impact, with current mainstream cotton requiring a lot of water to produce and using agricultural practices that negatively affect the environment. An alternative to this could be towels made from more eco-friendly materials. Towel manufacturer Easydry has developed disposable eco-towels which are biodegradable and 100% compostable in two weeks, meaning you don’t need to be endlessly washing towels in your salon or spa.