SUSTAINABLE developments

Running a sustainable salon could be simpler than you think. We quiz two sustainable salon owners about the small swaps that can lead to big changes

Sustainability in beauty has become a huge focus, as spas and salons strive to make changes that will benefit the environment. Jennie Lawson, owner of Mimosa Beauty in Essex, and Ellen Elizabeth, owner of Ellen Elizabeth Beauty in Ipswich, share some of the changes they have made in their businesses.

How did you come to launch a sustainable salon?

Ellen Elizabeth: “I started my business in 2019 after leaving a salon where I didn’t feel aligned with the way it was run, the products they were using, and their ethos. Starting my own business was the best decision I ever made. I’m vegan and sustainability has always been really important to me.”

Jennie Lawson: “I’ve been in the industry for 17 years and became sustainable in 2016 when I moved from working on my own into a salon where I took on a team of five and redeveloped a three-story salon to be completely sustainable.

“Because I’m a scuba diver and I have seen the waste and the damage that we’ve done to the oceans, I didn’t want anything that was leaving my salon to then go into landfill and end up in the ocean.

“I’ve now gone back to working on my own but I’m still sustainable. In the transition, there’s not a single thing in my current salon that isn’t from the old salon. For example, I had all the curtains taken down and remade to fit the space I have now.”

How did you choose brands and products to work with?

EE: “When I started my business, I was in the comfort zone of what we used in the previous salon but I realised I wanted to work with brands that matched my ethos.

“I didn’t want to just wipe out my existing brands because they could have had a sustainability plan coming up so I messaged them individually and said, ‘Do you have a sustainability policy? Do you have plans to become cruelty-free or to release vegan products?’ Most did not so I then knew, ‘OK, that’s no longer a brand that I’m aligned with’. Then I then did my research to find brands that I was more connected with.

“Even six years down the line it’s an ongoing process. I don’t think it’s something that can be done overnight. You need to consider what your core values are and what really bothers you. Is it recycling? Is it the manufacturing of the product? Is it whether or not it comes from a local brand?

“There are a lot of products, for hygiene reasons, that have to be single-use and that is what I found really difficult, so instead of using single-use plastic items, I found bamboo and other materials that were more sustainable. It’s surprising the cost is not that different. You just need to find the right sources.”

JL: “Where I’m very skin focused, I’ve got brands where the results I’m getting are so good I want to keep them so I started thinking, ‘Where can I challenge them on certain things?’ I work with a lot of small businesses and UK brands. I challenge them in regards to things like creating refills to reduce packaging. I’m like, ‘If Molton Brown can make handwash refills in plastic bags, you can do it for cleanser – you’re a small business making it independently.

You can make those choices’. But I agree it comes down to your personal values.

“I look at sustainability from a longevity lens so when it comes to towels, there’s controversy around washing and water usage but I’ve had my towels for seven years. So, from a longevity mark, I believe that that’s better than having endless single-use towels.

“This is what I find fascinating about sustainability though because it doesn’t matter what you’re doing as long as you’re doing something, but there has to be a lens that you look through to make your choices.”

What are some simple operational changes salons can make?

JL: “Next time a bulb goes, replace it with LED. 90% of us should be using LED lights right now. It’s also really easy to put your wax pot on timers so you don’t need to come in an hour and a half early and you’re limiting the amount of electricity you’re using.

“Make sure you fill the sink up once to do all your mitts in one go in the morning. I’m talking really practical things but small steps that can make big differences to your water usage.

“Then with an air con unit, for instance, you’re better to turn it on in the morning at 19ºC and leave it on all day than to keep turning it on and off because it’s more sustainable when you look at the maths.”

EE: “In my salon, I have a box per client and they all have their own wooden spoolie, their own nail file and so on in the box. So, I’m not then binning a single-use product. I’m actually reusing it but for that one client. They love that; I do a pedicure and use a pumice stone then they come back and it’s in their box. You need the storage for it but little things like that actually make my life so much easier.

“With things like couch roll, it’s very simple, but buy recycled. That way, it’s already been something before but it’s been repurposed, so you can then feel OK about using it as a single-use product.

“Start with the really small things that you use every single day, because you might only use 10 spoolies a day but in a month that soon adds up.”

What other methods do you use to get your clients on board?

EE: “I’ve implemented a green fee in my salon. I add 99p to each service to plant a tree. I first got into this when I went into a restaurant and at the bottom of the receipt it said, ‘You have planted a tree’. And it added 99p to the bill.

“I spoke to the waitress and she sent me the details for the company they worked with called Sustainably Run Restaurants. I reached out to them and said, ‘I’m not a restaurant, but would you be open to expanding your business to plant trees for other businesses?’ And they said, ‘Sure’, so, they’ve actually now rebranded and they’re just called Sustainably Run.

“Their main planting site is in Tanzania. They pay the community the fee to plant the tree on their land, which then protects their properties from things like their mudslides, because the trees in their community are being cut down for tobacco farming.

“They plant fruit trees so they can grow food for their families and sell the surplus, so it’s also creating an income. It’s a full 360-degree project.”

JL: “Tree planting is a huge thing for us too. We plant a tree for every online order placed and I do that through Ecologi, which has exactly the same concept. I take the hit for that.

“I cover the costs of all my sustainability initiatives at the moment but I look at that as donating my time. For example, for the £89 it takes for me to recycle over the entire month, I donate one hour of my time to cover that cost.”

How do you manage recycling?

JL: “My advice is to look in your local area to find an independent recycling company. I don’t believe that the council are doing enough because otherwise we wouldn’t have the landfill that we have.

“It’s about finding different resources and looking at your local setup because these aren’t global companies. These are independent companies like us that have found a sustainable solution to a problem, but you’ve got to look for them.

“78% of our waste is fully recycled and the other 22% goes into RDF, which is refusederived fuel. We don’t separate our rubbish at all. It goes into one bin outside, and that’s the end of that.

“At the time I chose the recycling company to work with I had a team of five or six, and I wanted to make sure that their job was as easy as possible because if you’ve got four separate bins, and the gloves have to go in one, the couch roll in another, and the wax pots somewhere else, it’s never going to happen. It’s about making your life from a sustainability point as easy as possible.”