EP177. Sustainable pampering with eco-pioneer Green Circle Salons

When we talk about beauty, we often immediately think of the physical formulations that we end up holding in our hands. You know, the serums, the shampoos, the deodorants, you know what I mean? Which is totally understandable when you think about it, because they sit at the very core of the beauty industry. But there is a much bigger beauty industry out there beyond just product. I'm talking about salons, estheticians, hairdressers, barbershops, nail salons, spas, you name it. These are the havens that we visit to address our skin and hair needs and receive some much deserved pampering. And there are millions of salons worldwide. I can't even put a number on it. It's that big. In the US alone, for instance, there are about 1 million hair salons. Now, extrapolate that worldwide and you quickly see that the numbers we're dealing with are enormous. So salons are a huge part of the beauty industry. And of course, that means that salons also have their role to play in making the industry more sustainable, because every day they're sending mountains of waste to landfill. Leftover chemicals, packaging waste, even human hair. It's easy to think that it's negligible when you're only talking about one salon, but it quickly adds up when you realize how vast this part of the beauty industry truly is. I recently even heard a statistic that in the UK the beauty industry employs more people than the automotive industry. So I think that puts it into perspective a bit better. So today on the podcast, we're going to talk about the sustainability of salons. And we're going to meet one pioneering company trying to make a difference through responsible waste management and education. Settle in for my latest Green Beauty Conversation. Welcome to Green Beauty Conversations, the podcast that challenges you to think about how you buy, use, make or sell your green beauty formulations. In my weekly episodes, I explore the sustainability of the beauty industry and encourage you to join me in changing the industry for the better. I'm your host, Lorraine Dallmayer. I'm a chartered environmentalist, biologist, and the CEO of award winning online organic cosmetic formulation school, Formula Botanica. We have thousands and thousands of students in over 180 countries around the world who study with us to become organic beauty formulators and entrepreneurs. Visit our website@formulabotanica.com to try our free online formulation course. And if you want to be the first person to know what's happening in green beauty, make sure you subscribe to this podcast in your favorite podcast app. So in today's episode, I'm joined by Shane Price, an ecopreneur and the tour de force behind Green circle. Shane started Greencircle Salons in 2009 after working with a team of salon professionals and manufacturing insiders to gain an understanding of the need for a solution to the environmental impacts of the beauty industry. With a background in molecular biology and biochemistry, Shane says he is committed to protecting the environmental integrity of our planet and exploring ways that people in urban settings can live sustainably. Hi, Shane, how are you doing today?

Terrific, thanks. It's a beautiful morning here in Toronto, so I cannot complain.

It's going to be an amazing interview. I'm really looking forward to this one. We've never covered this topic before on the on the podcast. So let's start from the top. Tell me about Green Circle Salons. What is your company and what do you do? Sure.

Green Circle Salons, really we're focused on supporting beauty professionals in North America on their journey towards sustainability. So that's a hair salon, a spa, a barber. And inside that space, that's sort of the challenge that we solve is the waste that's going to landfill from across those different sort of verticals in the beauty industry. In North America alone, salons send about 877 pounds of waste to landfill every single minute. So that salons in Canada and the United States about every minute. So it's close to £420,000 a day, almost half a million pounds a day. And so what excites the Green Circlers, the people who work at Green Circle and get to set up bed in the morning, is solving for that sort of meaty, juicy problem.

Wow, those are some fascinating statistics. We're going to dive into that in a little bit more detail. But first of all, tell me why you started GreenCircle Salons, because I know you have a bit of a personal history here as well.

Sure, yeah. The why is interesting. I think probably if we go back to when I was a little kid, my parents had five kids and so we spent an inordinate amount of time out in nature, camping, hiking, canoeing, paddling on the lakes around Ontario. And I think I grew up just always paying attention to the conversation about sustainability and the planet. And, you know, when climate change became a thing, it was always very interesting to me. I had an environmental startup in Japan that I ran for about eight years. But when I moved back, I went into a hair salon to get a haircut. I'd never actually been into a hair salon before and I was kind of blown Away by the great sense of community, but also the amount of waste that was sort of landing on the floor, the salon floor being bagged and put out to curbside. And so it was sort of the spark of an idea in 2009. And then shortly thereafter, we created a focus group, about 20 salons, to study how we do this properly and make it work for everybody. Go on a listening tour and understand. And then we launched the company Green Circle Salons just after that.

Amazing. And what a story. Well, so you help salons create customized waste management solutions, basically, because you're talking about all the waste. You said half a million pounds a day. I mean, that just on one continent as well. Imagine what it is worldwide. So how many salons do you reach right now?

Right now we are engaged with about 4,000, just over 4,000 salons, which equates to about just over 16,000 waste warriors. We like to call our community Waste Warriors. And yeah, so it's a good number. We've just launched in Belgium, Luxembourg and Netherlands, so the Benelux. And so we're growing our movement there as well with some partners, and we're growing this every day. But I also like to think about it, you know, wastewear community is also all the guests that are supporting the salons by, I guess, supporting sustainable beauty.

Yeah, absolutely. So you work with a lot of salons then, mainly North America, now also in the Benelux, and you're providing these customized waste management solutions for each of them to fit their needs. How on earth do you achieve that when you're working with so many of them?

Sure, yeah. So, no, it's a great question. I think that, you know, when we, when we look at customization, we really have worked in the industry long enough to understand the different segments and types of salons. You know, how you have your sort of big behemoth type salons, you know, with 60 to 100 staff, you have sort of smaller salons than that, and then you have your independent agents, boutique salons, who might be working in their home or sharing a space in a suite or this sort of thing. And so we've really sort of worked to customize programs that fit those major containers of salon professionals. And as I said, it's really going on a listening tour and understanding what's important, important. And what's common amongst all of the salons that we've spoken to on our journey over the last 14 years is, and we sort of, I guess, built our program around these pillars, is helping salons to be green, genuinely Green through all the waste diversion to build revenue as part of the mechanism to help support the cost to do this, because it's never for free when you're taking on any sort of business endeavor. And to gain new customers through helping salons with their marketing, communications stance around the great work they're doing. We want to make salons the hero to the people that matter most in their lives, which is likely their family and also their customers. And so that's sort of how we're very salon centric in terms of how we communicate the messaging around the great work we do.

Amazing. So how is that message resonating with customers? So far?

Fantastic. You know, the biggest fear I think, that I hear inside of conversations with salon owners and even brands, manufacturers, when we talk to different big organizations that we work with and collaborate with, it's that question of how do customers respond to paying a little bit more? It equates to about $2 in Canada, $2 more on the bill that they pay. And it's the biggest fear, I think it's the biggest opportunity for a salon because 99.9% of people around the world, certainly in North America, feel like they want to do everything they can to support clean air, clean water and clean soil. You're going to have people who say, I don't care. I don't believe, I don't want to engage. And that's okay. That's okay, too. It's perspective. But salons, as responsible business owners, are taking a stand to say, and they're galvanizing around something that's really important. And it's hard for anyone to argue that. Right?

Yeah, yeah, I totally get it. Well, let's talk a little bit about the impacts. I mean, you shared some stats with me earlier. I just wrote them down. 877 pounds per minute in terms of waste from salons in North America. Half a million pounds a day. Can you tell me a little bit more about the impact that a typical salon can have on the environment?

Sure. So if you break it down, you know, daily, about 63,000 pounds of that is the hair clippings. About 110,000 pounds is aluminum, about aluminum and metals, about half the number. So about £250,000 is the paper and plastic and about £42,000, the leftover residual hair color. So not only is that it's. It's incredible. And not only is that like, you know, not great for the planet, but it's also, it's not great for the salon's bottom line. This is just wasted retail opportunity. And so when hair goes into a landfill site in a black garbage bag or a garbage bag or in any capacity, it gets buried under soil and then cement and, and capped. And then they do this process again. So you have layers of a landfill site and hair is an organic material breaks down into methane, which we know is a contributor to CL and global warming. And so we look at, for example, we look at something like hair and we think about how do we create circular solutions so that the hair comes out of the salon. We work with it to some degree, work with partners to figure out how to put it back into the salon in a usable form so that this sort of problem of landfilling is, is solved against. And so we've created a circular system for hair. The recycling bins that we send to salons as part of our program is made from recycled plastics and recycled human hair. We've worked with a group in the us, Virginia Tech, to develop the technology. We just recently launched a hair comb that's actually made from hair fibers and shampoo bottles and conditioner bottles from salons. And that's been a two year, it's probably been more like a five year journey to get there. But, but this is, this is sort of, I guess, how we look at all of waste. They're really just resources for making the next product or providing the next opportunity. And so with hair salons, there's a lot of stuff made from plastic that goes into a salon. And we're now reconfiguring the way we can use this plastic to make different products.

Amazing. Let's talk about hair a bit more. Because, I mean, I have long hair, I go to the hairdresser, they cut off a tiny bit, I look at it on the floor and I'm like, well, that's negligible. But I suppose I've never sat back and thought, my goodness, how much hair are we globally putting to waste every single day? And it must be just millions of tons. So what sort of circular solutions are there for hair? You mentioned the comb. What else would we be able to do with leftover hair?

Yeah, there's some incredible work that's being done. We're engaged in various projects. It's hard to talk about because these are what I would call long game solutions that take time adaptation in different industries and so on and so forth. But for example, you know, hair is primarily a type of protein. It's a keratin type based protein. And you can extract this keratin, this protein from air in Some really amazing sustainable ways that we discovered working alongside a group in California. They actually discovered it. We just are working with them in their technology. But you can remove the protein and that protein can then be applied as a growth stimulant for plant growth acceleration. So not replacing fertilizer, but in addition to augmenting the work of, of fertilizers, it can help to stimulate plant growth and cell wall growth. And this is obviously an exciting opportunity, but the research required, the funding required to bring this to life is significant. And so it is a, it is an ongoing sort of interest in project for Green Circle. But that's an example. You know, in 2010, the oil spill happened in the Gulf of Mexico and we, along with our salon community in Canada, we had an launched in the US yet, but we shipped all of our hair to the Gulf of Mexico where volunteers came together and they used those oil booms to absorb oil that was encroaching on the shoreline. It's potentially one of the best opportunities for hair. The big challenge is breaking into the industry of emergency response. There is a very well defined supply chain there and it's hard to break into that with something that is ubiquitous around us every day.

Yeah.

And primarily free. So, yeah. So it's a hard one to break into. But I think there's opportunity and we keep working in that space and our waste warriors are excited. That seems to be what excites the most, is picking up oil spills. But in some ways, planning for a disaster as part of your business model is not something that I personally feel I, I have some anxiety about. So my preference is find circular solutions where you can put this hair back into a salon in a really unique way that replaces heavy, heavily petroleum based plastics that maybe we're using otherwise.

Yeah. Amazing and fascinating what we can do with hair, of course.

Absolutely.

Never even thought we could use it in oil spills. And they go, I even used to work in oil and gas. So what sort of other projects does Green Circle salons put in place with these salons? Then you talked about recycling hair in particular, but you also mentioned plastic. Aluminium. Aluminum, sorry, cardboard. What do you do with those?

Yeah, so I mean, aluminum is infinitely recyclable. Right. So we want to, we want to be collecting aluminum. This is a stat for you. And this is from the Environmental Working Group based out of Washington, in. North. Sorry. In the United States alone, every three months, Americans. So enough aluminum into landfill. That's all. Industries to rebuild. All of Delta United and what's the other American Airlines So that's about 2700 plane. We've sort of done the research on it was about 2700 planes. That's about if it works out to about one plane every hour. And so really when we talk about it in this way, we realize how significant what looks to be insignificant really is. Right. When you look at the scale that it's happening on, which is what you're pointing to earlier. And it's so true. It's just when I walked into that salon in 2009 and I saw what was going on, yes, it was only a very little bit. Yes, it was only a few bags up to curbside. But then a city like Toronto that seems to be fairly progressive around its recycling efforts, Canada in general, how is that happening? You know, there are solutions available to us. Really, there are solutions. We just have to green circle. I guess the beauty of what we've done is we've built an entire system that allows a salon to do great work, be green, build revenue, gain customers, and save money through investing some money in LED lighting or low flow faucets. And so all these little pieces coming together, all these individual businesses working together collectively has an incredible impact, which is what we're seeing. Sorry, I don't know if I answered your question, but around projects, but certainly aluminum is a big one. It's infinitely recyclable. Plastics, again, commodities traded all across North America and around the world. So easily recyclable. Residual leftover hair color is another one. So we work with an organization right now and we have that hair color separated into an oil layer and into an aqueous water layer. That water layer is neutralized and can go back into the wastewater grid safely. And the leftover oil can be used to actually power the system that makes this whole program possible. So it's an energy source can be used at the plant to power the system that makes the separation possible. Yeah, so I mean it's, it's. That's kind of some of the interesting projects we're engaged in right now as it relates to waste.

That's incredible. And it's fascinating to see what we can do with waste when we actually put our mind to it, rather than getting out of this take, make, dispose culture that we have. Fascinating.

That's correct. You're right, you're right about that.

Lorraine, do you find that people, particularly salon owners, are aware of their salon's impact when you initially approach them? How does it work? Do they come to you? Do you go and find them?

It's a bit of both 100%. So I think, you know, we did a survey recently and in the US we found that about 85% of slot owners are not aware that there is a recycling program available specific to them. The question I think we need to ask is once you are aware, would you be interested in a recycling program that will solve some of these problems? But the answer we asked was, are you aware? And so I think, yeah, probably you're right. Most salon owners are not aware. We have good market share here in North America. There are, let's call it 225,000 sort of larger salons across the United States and another probably 30,000 in Canada. And then you add onto that all the independent artists and you're talking about, you know, a million plus salons. And so 87% or 85% of salons not knowing about it. It becomes a big number. Education is key. And I think once what I've, what I've learned inside of Green Circle, once a salon joins the program, they generally love everything we do. Again, be green, build revenue, gain new customers and save money in the process.

Amazing. So how are you going to get the message out to the other 85%?

Well, this is where we need you, Lorraine.

I'm doing my best here.

Yeah, yeah. You know what we do, we partner with brands. So, you know, a big part of how we communicate the message and we build awareness is working with, you know, the, the l' Oreals of the world, the Paul Mitchells, the Avedas, the Davines, Kevin Murphy's and the brands that sort of are, are embracing sustainability. We do work with them and we, their sales teams and their education teams to inform them about the program. They in turn then speak to their direct customers about Green Circle. And that's been a huge part of our success in terms of our growth strategy. And in some ways these big manufacturers, these brands have educational centers, so academic centers where they're coaching cosmetology and hairdressing and beauty and so on and aesthetics. And so we educate at that level as well. I think we're involved now with about 120 different academies across North America where we are taking the waste, but also providing, providing ongoing education. And so if you're planting the seeds of the next generation, people who, who are born into a world where they do care, they do want to make a change is what we're seeing. This is probably the best, one of the best ways to do it.

That's fantastic. What a great way to get in, in those academies as well. That's a really clever idea.

We're teaching them, but they're teaching us. It's so much. It's this really great synchronicity that we formed with the schools because we're learning so much. There's a lot of creativity and they're hungry to experience the world, but to make a difference too. So it's kind of fun.

Amazing. So can you share any great success stories with me? You've been doing this for a while now. Have there been any salons with great stories that you can. That you can share with us today?

Absolutely. So when I first. We first launched in Vancouver. So Vancouver is a city on west coast of Canada, and it was our first city outside of Toronto that we were beginning to grow the Green Circle movement in. We launched there with a company called Sukis Hairstyling, and in the first place month of the program, we collected 40 pounds of leftover hair color. And so it was quite shocking to management. It was shocking to us. Not only is it wasteful from an environmental standpoint, but also a financial standpoint for the salon. And so. And they have four locations. This was just at their head location, their main location in downtown Vancouver. Immediately they began putting in measures to generate education and awareness. And we dropped that number down dramatically over the coming months. And I think we solved against that problem. So to me, that is a great success story for a salon that's related to education and awareness. There's a salon here in Toronto called Salon Evoque. And you know, we spoke to the owner recently and what we realized was pretty cool is that they're generating about $225,000 a year in additional income, or they can relate that income to their engagement with green circle salons.

Wow.

30% of their customer base has chosen to go to that salon because of their sustainability efforts. So again, they become the hero in their community. And obviously it's a win win where we're protecting the environmental integrity of the places that we love and want to share. And so there's a lot of stories out there around Green Circle and you know, from an independent artist who again, just goes home and says, listen, I went home and I told my kids, my husband what I was doing at work, and we kind of all broke down. I started crying a bit because emotionally, it's just really important to us that we're kind of doing the right thing as a business. And so, yeah, so I think those are kind of the some of the stories that I hear, but we hear them often.

That's amazing. Well, congratulations. And what incredible success stories they are. Not only, as you say, saving waste from going into the environment, but also, I mean, that's a huge amount of financial savings. That's a vast sum of money.

Absolutely, absolutely. So the program is designed, as I said, to generate additional revenue to offset the cost. But the beauty is by communicating the sort of great work you're doing, you're attracting like minded customers who want to channel their spending dollars into brands who are helping and not hurting the planet. So it becomes a real win, win.

Yeah. Love it. Okay, so final question. What is your vision for the sustainability of salons worldwide?

A great question and it's a great question because it's really sort of about a systems change that's required. So it is about the manufacturer, about the distributor, about the salon and about the customer and everybody recognizing that the responsibility of business is to do something great for our community, great for our society. So yes, we can make people look beautiful, but if that has a cost, you know, to the beauty of our planet, that to me feels problematic. So my big wish would be that the beauty industry as a whole begins to shift in every single country and that salons take responsibility for their impact and that salon guests or citizens recognize that they also play a role in supporting that transition and that brands play a role in ensuring that their products are manufactured with the highest integrity and they're shipped and delivered with the highest integrity. And so to me, it is a system that needs to change and I think we're on the right path. We're building a great community and yeah, I look forward to other insights and inputs into how we make this really for the benefit of our planet and for everyone.

I love it. That's a bold vision. It's a beautiful vision and I certainly will hope to play my small part in helping you achieve it. This has been such a good interview, Shane. It's been really lovely finding out more about you and your business. Where can other people find out more about you and Green Circle Salons?

Yeah, you can find us on our website@greencirclesalons.com we're also on Instagram, Facebook and the other social media channels. But yeah, look us up, connect with us in any way. If you have ideas, if you want to partner, if you want to support Green Circle Salon in your community, just connect with us. We're love to talk to you.

Amazing. We will include all those links in the show notes. Thank you so much for joining me today, Shane. It's been great talking to you.

Thank you, Lorraine.

I would love to hear your thoughts on this episode. Have you ever thought about the sustainability of beauty salons? Which statistic blew your mind the most? For me it was the 63,000 pounds of waist hair going to Leavenfell every day. It's unbelievable. Leave us a comment on our social channels as both the Formula Botanica team and I love hearing from you. And if you want to hear more about some of the topics we covered, please do delve back into the podcast archives. Go and listen to episode 77 in which I interviewed Anna Teal of the British Beauty Council to talk about their courage to change report on sustainability in the wider beauty industry. Or episode 69 in which Anna Green and I explore the concept of biodegradability in Beauty. Or episode 117 where I interview the founder of Repurpose Global, Peter Wang Hymdal on whether the beauty industry can ever go plastic free. There's a wealth of information in our old episodes and I do encourage you to go back and listen to them. Thank you for joining Shane and I for this latest episode of Green Beauty Conversations. I really hope you enjoyed it. If you did, please do leave us a five star review so that other people can enjoy these conversations too. Make sure you subscribe to our podcast on Apple Podcasts or Spotify or whatever your favorite podcast app is and stay tuned for the next episode. Follow Formula Botanicaormula Botanica on Facebook, Instagram, YouTube, TikTok, Twitter, LinkedIn. We're everywhere and come and give me a follow at Lorraine Darnayer on Instagram. Visit our website@formulabotanica.com and sign up for our free online formulation course today. Sam.