It's Easy Being Green
Being good to the Earth as well as to your clients is becoming an increasingly vital part of the salon industry. We ask an owner, distributor and manufacturer, “What is your company doing to be a good environmental steward, and how do you communicate that to your clients?”

Mary Rose Cannistraro
Owner
On the Green Salon and Day Spa
St. Marys, Georgia

"On the Green Salon and Day Spa has been recognized by St. Marys Magazine as one of coastal Georgia's most demonstrative Earth stewards. As a full-service salon and spa, we have embraced Aveda's commitment to 'care for the world we live in.' We have considered our green initiatives in designing our facility with low-VOC pain, low-flow faucet aerators and low-flow shower heads and toilets. We have LED and T5 lighting, as well as an energy-efficient water heater and appliances. We also use organic towels and sheets in our spa. All of our disposables are eco-friendly, and all of our marketing materials are printed on recycled paper with soy ink. As an alternative to printing employee schedules, we have a laptop to view them.

"Being green is a top priority. We participate in Aveda's recycling program by collecting plastic caps from our community. Partnering with Matter of Trust, we have collected hair and nylons to help clean up oil spills. Our team has been named an Aveda Earth Month Leader for our dedication to raise funds supporting clean water projects.

"On the Green is constantly thinking global and acting local for our environment and community. Our guests are proud to be a part of our culture as they sense our passion to be eco-friendly and our love for our beautiful planet."

Greg Kellogg
Director
The System Paul Mitchell School
Springfield, Missouri

"When we began our school in 2005, one of our core values was protecting the environment along with offering world-class cosmetology and education. The 2009 Princeton Review's Report on the Country's Best colleges included 'greenness' among its rating factors. Potential students have definitely put it on their checklist of requirements for what they want their academic facility to be.

"We communicate environmental stewardship through our hugely popular Green Team. A student-run program, Green Team members are a group of future professionals who are 'environmentally focused change-makers.' Our Green Team works every day to preserve the natural resources that are required to successfully run a school.

"We are striving to move a majority of our paper curriculum online soon. Online textbooks, tests and offering a variety of apps that can be used on our future professionals' iPads is something we want to integrate within the next 5 years. We want paper to be something of the past and to harness technology to help our fight to preserve the planet we live on."

Joan Malloy
CEO
Alterna Haircare

"Alterna Haircare was founded more than 15 years ago as the 'Alterna-tive' hair care brand with the mission of providing 'good-for-you' luxury hair care products. We like to say that what we leave out of our products is just as important as what we put in; every Alterna product is free of harsh, harmful chemicals and excludes sulfates, parabens, phthalates, sodium chloride and synthetic color--just to name a few--and we use pure, natural ingredients like organic bamboo extract and pure caviar extract.

"You don't have to choose between products that work and products that are good for you and the environment. We want to make sure our clients know what we are promising, so we put our 'Free Of' message right on the front of the bottle."