As much as we don’t want to admit it, there is some level of waste and carbon emissions that happens in any business, let alone a salon. With sustainability and going green being a top concern these days, there are many ways your salon can make changes in order to cut waste and run a more efficient operation.
Here’s how you can run a more sustainable salon.
It takes a fair amount of water, gas, and electricity to keep a salon operational – much of which can’t be avoided. You’ve got to heat or cool the work environment, use electricity to dry hair and heat styling tools, and water to wash hair and rinse out hair color. However, there’s plenty a salon can do to help save resources and cut its carbon footprint.
When planning your salon or updating your current one, consider swapping out some of your major appliances for more energy-efficient versions. As much as older refrigerators, dishwashers, and washers and dryers remain workhorses, they do tend to drink the electricity.
The same goes for water heaters. Some versions help heat water quicker and more efficiently, many with a faster recovery time.
Lighting is another way you cut your energy use. A highly energy-efficient lighting technology, LED lights use around 75% less energy and last up to 25 times longer than incandescent lighting. Consider swapping out some of your lighting fixtures for LED versions. If nothing else, use Compact Fluorescent (CFL) bulbs for existing fixtures.
On the water side, go for water-wise dishwashers, clothes washers, even toilets to cut back on the volume of water used. Also, consider installing eco-efficient water nozzles for your shampoo bowls. That way, your salon effectively uses less water to wash hair and rinse out the color on clients.
Also, look to change some of the habits in your salon: only wash full loads of dishes or towels, turn off appliances, even unplug them when not in use. Turn down the air conditioning or heating and turn off certain lights when the salon is less full.
In addition, try to eliminate the use of paper as much as possible. Ask to email receipts to clients and send digital confirmations, go for paperless billing, even ditch your paper scheduler in exchange for an online version. All of this will reduce clutter and eliminate the reliance on paper goods.
You can also make better use of your physical footprint. For example, let’s say you are a salon with a few spa treatment rooms. Perhaps those rooms are not performing as they should, no matter how hard you promote them. In that case, consider converting some or all of that space to other uses like more hair stations or even a color processing area.
One area that you can consider doing without is your waiting room, even some of your retail space. Although you’ll always need some room to accommodate a handful of waiting patrons, people are still opting to await their appointments in their cars.
Also, short of your best sellers, do you really need all of the inventory and space for retail? By activating your online store, you can offer the same great products without the space and expense of inventory. Instead, you can reconfigure some of that space to work as another workstation or two. One salon even converted some of its space into a selfie station, which helps them promote their business while engaging with clients. For them, it was a better use of their space.
One area of waste that most salons don’t think about is with hair color. It’s one of the highest-grossing services in a salon, but it can also be one of the most wasteful on product use. With a color management system, you can learn how to better track and monitor your color and help your salon cut waste, manage inventory, and boost your profits.
Our first guest today is here to talk about color waste and how you can help your team cut costs and save resources.
In a nutshell, what is Vish?
Tim: In short, Vish is a color management system that integrates with your Rosy system to streamline your day-to-day. Vish tracks every drop of color that is dispensed in your salon, helping salons accurately track inventory, reduce waste substantially, and boost profits.
How much color does a typical salon waste? And, what are the impacts on the salon financially and on the environment?
Tim: The average salon wastes 40% of its inventory. That’s 2 of every 5 tubes that go straight down the drain! Across the US, about 15 million pounds of color gets poured down the drain every year which amounts to 328,767 tubes thrown away every single day. The effects are detrimental to the environment. Take control of your inventory before it turns into waste and protect not only the planet but your bottom line as well.
How does Vish work?
Tim: Vish is a three-part system that connects everyone in the salon.
The color bar app sits on the back bar of salons and connects to a high-end scale via Bluetooth so you get accurate measurements and data in real-time. With all color being weighed there, all information is then passed on automatically to the front desk app and to the dashboard.
Vish front desk is a small widget that sits at your front desk to share any service or product changes that should be charged to the client. Did you know that the average salon is missing 15% of its revenue through service changes alone? (Think add-on toners that never get charged!) The widget also shows any extra product used on a service and allows the salon to charge the client for the exact amount of extra product, rather than an extra bowl charge that may not be accurate.
The Vish dashboard is where all of the analytics live. Dive deep into every service and every stylist to see their analytics when it comes to how much product they’ve dispensed and waste in every service, and so much more.
What can a salon look forward to seeing in terms of data?
Tim: Analytics on employee performance, color service charges (broken down by stylist and by service type), real-time inventory reporting, insights into product use, accurate values on product dispensed and wasted, and so much more!
How long does it take to start seeing enough data before the salon can implement any needed changes in how it dispenses color?
Tim: Vish meets with the salon owner when they first start and then again at 30 days to see if any small tweaks need to be made to see the best results. They meet again at 90 days to make any final changes and from then, salon owners are sure to see incredible results. Most salons will see results after month one, with the best results coming 90 days in!
At what point does the Vish system typically show a return on investment?
Tim: Vish starts paying for itself right away with the extra product charge feature. Even better, Vish has a money-back guarantee – if you don’t see results in the first 90 days, you’ll get your money back.
Our next guest is all about ways to cut waste and recycle within the salon. Please welcome Will Simpson from GreenCircle Salons.
Will, please tell us a little about Green Circle.
Will: Green Circle was founded in 2009 in Toronto and is now servicing over 4000 members across North America in every state and province!
In 2021 we recovered over 90,000lbs of hair color, and we’re closing in on 10 million lbs of total waste recovery since launching in 2009.
Members joining Green Circle Salons in April will get a special earth month bonus – 100 trees planted on behalf of the salon!
How much waste do salons typically generate? What are the impacts on the salon financially and on the environment?
WIll: We have a calculator on our website where you can key in how many guests you see each month and it will tell you how much waste you’re likely generating—it’s staggering!
The average green circle member generates over 550 lbs of waste per year, including 99 lbs of liquid color waste. For owners in the audience– consider your cost per ounce of mixed color, then multiply that by 1500. That’s how much money you might be losing by overmixing – but Tim’s already told us this!
What is your company’s mission?
Will: Our mission is to keep people and the planet beautiful.
Pro beauty has a big ugly secret- behind every service there is a mound of waste that has to go somewhere. We are working to find the best solutions for every type of waste, across hair salons, barbershops, spas, wax bars, and nail boutiques!
We learned through a 2020 study with Modern Salon Research that 84% salon guests care about what happens to the waste from their beauty services, and 60% of salon guests report that they would actually CHANGE salons if they knew that the waste from their services was now being recycled or repurposed.
We’re seeing this shift towards greener practices everywhere, and as consumer demand for healthier & more planet-friendly business approaches continues, it is becoming more important than ever for salons to get on board or risk losing ground to the competition down the street.
What sort of results are you seeing environmentally and in terms of salon profits?
Will: Every time you reduce waste, you increase profitability.
Green Circle Salons has created an Environmental Stewardship Fee (or eco fee) structure that enables salons to generate new top-line revenue which can then be reinvested into the business to operate even more efficiently.
Green Circle Salons members suddenly have the technology and structures in place to begin saving water, energy, color waste, and more—all of this positively impacts the bottom line of the salon
How can Green Circle help reduce the carbon footprint in salons?
Will: Beyond 95% waste recovered, we are also now providing Carbon Neutral Certification to all of our members. As we move globally to draw down our collective carbon footprint, this is something that consumers are going to become more and more aware of.
This latest addition really shows that Green Circle members are doing their part to lead the environmental conversation, setting the trend as salons always do and staying ahead of environmental mandates.
Tell us about the new indy program.
Will: The Artists program – years in the making, this is a simple subscription that is completely controlled by the participating booth rent salon, independent contractor, or boutique that enrolls.
This program has all of the waste recovery power of our traditional program for employee-based salons, but is designed to be more compact, more customizable for the needs of the Artists, and comes in at a lower price point.
Oh, and yes, participating artists are also automatically eligible for the Carbon Neutral Certification benefit!
How can salons get involved?
Will: The easiest way to get involved is to visit our website.
Once we’ve learned about your business, we’ll match you with a program that is designed around your needs. We work with everyone in the industry from manufacturers and distributors to booth rent salons and independent suite operators.
So, now that you’ve learned about ways to go green and make your salon more efficient, where do you plan to start eliminating waste and reducing your carbon footprint? See our easy checklist of resources here: Your Salon Efficiency Checklist
A big thank you to our guests: Tim Howard from Vish and Will Simpson from GreenCircle Salons. For more information about either of these companies, click below.
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