The salon industry has a lot to be proud of. Phorest has always been in awe of it. The energy. The camaraderie. The creativity. Over the pandemic, salons have demonstrated incredible resilience and adaptability. We were also reminded of what a vital role salons play in the community and how truly valued a trip to the salon is for confidence and self-care. When lockdowns lifted, they were one of the places people were most eager to return to.
Unfortunately, there is an ugly side to the salon, too: all the waste.Â
The typical salon is a recycling nightmare
There’s the issue of plastic bottles and hair towels, plus colour tubes and foils, which are contaminated with dye. Then there is the chemical waste and even the hair itself. Because many of these items are so specific, local infrastructure is rarely set up to properly deal with them. So, most of it ultimately ends up in landfills.Â
When it comes to running a salon, owners are already time-pressed and constantly juggling many other business considerations. Even with the best intentions, transforming your salon into a total green operation is a challenge. This is why Phorest is partnering with Green Salon Collective. Together, we can reduce the legwork so your salon can fully embrace sustainability.Â
Meet Green Salon Collective
Founded by a team of hairdressers, environmental experts and campaigners, Green Salon Collective is working to create a circular economy for salon waste throughout Ireland and the UK. They have an environmentally conscious answer for practically any type of waste your salon would generate. Unlike a generic mixed-recycling approach, their specialised processes ensure that everything is either properly recycled into something useful, composted, or recovered into energy. Their goal is to eliminate the need for salons to send anything to landfills at all.
Green Salon Collective has innovative solutions for salon waste. For instance, they produce ‘hair booms,’ filled with discarded hair clippings, for cleaning up oil spills.
Becoming a Green Salon Collective member begins by choosing the best starter kit for your waste needs. Next, Green Salon Collective will set up your salon with designated bins for collecting the waste. Once your bins are full, you only need to fill up your return box, schedule a collection, and Green Salon Collective handles the rest.
Public consciousness about climate change has reached a record level
More than ever, people are taking steps in their day-to-day lives to reduce their personal impact on the environment. And they are increasingly expectant that brands and businesses mirror their efforts. Besides being an ethical choice for the planet, your salon’s commitment to sustainability will help you to attract like-minded customers. Upon joining, Green Salon Collective will include your salon in its online locator so that when customers are searching for Green Salons in their local area, yours will show as an option.Â
Share the additional costs with your clients
Making sustainable choices today often means going against the grain of our current systems, or entrenched habits. Most people understand that it often requires additional effort and costs. By working with Green Salon Collective, not only are you lessening your salon’s overall impact on the environment, but you are also helping your customers alleviate their individual impact each time they choose to book an appointment with you instead of going to a salon that isn’t doing the same. This guarantee is an added benefit that your clients will appreciate. In fact, most Green Salon Collective members offset the extra cost of being a member by charging their clients a small, maybe €1 or €2, surcharge or ‘Green Fee.’Â
You’ll be surprised how receptive clients will be to this small extra cost. And Green Salon Collective will give you all the marketing materials you need to approach this conversation with clients and clearly demonstrate its value.Â
Phorest’s Custom Fee feature makes adding this to the bill simple.
With a few short steps, you can easily add a Custom Fee in the Phorest system. You have the flexibility to choose whether the Custom Fee will be a percentage of the total service bill or a flat rate. You also have the option to apply the fee automatically. So once you create your ‘Green Fee,’ you can set it and forget it.
Sustainability is a company-wide value at Phorest. And this dedication resonates from the top down. For Phorest CEO, Ronan Perceval, protecting the planet is a personal passion. Earlier this year Phorest also welcomed former Davines Group CEO, Paolo Braguzzi, to our Board of Directors. One of our founding principles has been to use our technology to enable salons to go paperless. As a Phorest salon, you can handle consultation forms and receipts digitally, while the Phorest Go app equips staff with all the information they need to hand. Besides this, we have also made efforts within our own business operations.
Some of Phorest’s sustainability undertakings include:
- Becoming one of the founding members of Irish Tech Goes Carbon NeutralÂ
- Working with forestry partners in planting real-life ‘Phorests’
- Restoring native Irish woodland to improve biodiversity and counteract our own C02 emissions as a business
- Installing green energy and solar panels in Phorest HQ in 2019
- Promoting hybrid working in 2021, which will reduce the number of people having to commute to an officeÂ
As Phorest invests in sustainability ourselves, we want to empower our salons to do the same. By joining Green Salon Collective’s circular economy and utilising Phorest’s custom fees feature, your salon is well on its way to being one of the role models our industry needs. The planet and your clients will thank you.
Phorest clients can contact their Business Advisors for more information about the Green Salon Collective Partnership and the Custom Fees feature.
If you’d like to learn more about what Phorest Salon Software can do for your business, book a free demo with our friendly team.
