[Updated] 13 ways to make your salon more eco-friendly

Are you looking to take steps to become a sustainable beauty salon or spa? We talk to the salon and spa operators who have already made great strides in their business to be eco-friendly, sharing these easily implementable tips so you can do your bit for the environment too. 

12 ways to make your beauty salon or spa more sustainable:

1. Make simple swaps 

Mimosa Beauty in Chelmsford prides itself on being an eco-friendly salon. For owner Jennie Lawson it’s the everyday changes that beauty businesses can make that have the most impact. “It’s honestly the really small things, it’s not hard at all; like changing all your light bulbs to LED,” she says. 

The salon has done away with monthly magazines in its reception area and instead has a well-stocked library of hardback books for clients to flick through while waiting for their appointment. “The other thing about having magazines is that some promote the attitude that there’s something wrong with you,” says Lawson. I want clients to read material that helps them nourish their minds and bodies. We’ve got cook books, travel books, poetry and kids books too.” 

Lawson also favours British-manufactured product houses, mainly because of the reduced carbon footprint in getting the products from where they’re made to the salon. 

Mimosa works to reduce its own footprint by using a landfill-free recycling company that Lawson pays to ensure as much of the salon’s waste as possible is properly recycled. “It all goes into normal bags in our normal bins – all the wax, tissues, paperwork, and so on, and they sort through it all.” As an incentive to think more consciously about waste, clients can bring old product containers into the salon to be recycled and get 5% off their next in-salon product purchase. 

2. Set realistic goals

“Before starting to implement sustainable swaps, I’d first advise conducting an ‘eco-audit'," says Katie Millington, owner of Love Beauty Gatley salon in Mancheter, and Babtac member. “Be realistic with the changes – if it fits to your budget and is easy to maintain, implement them as soon as possible. If you need more budget, put a plan in place as a more long-term goal.” Often, some of the simplest swaps are also ones that can save you money, she advises: "We were all taught in college to use tissue for processes that we really don’t need. If you’re using tissue roll to provide a ‘clean’ workspace for your tools, could this be replaced with a wipe-clean tile or tray?” 

3. Cut out plastics

Single-use plastics are traditionally one of the biggest culprits in salon and spa waste but there are ways to combat their use. Titanic Spa in Huddersfield has banned single-use plastics; guests use recyclable paper cups rather than water bottles. 

“We also have eco-friendly re-useable water bottles with the Titanic Spa logo that guests can buy and keep. These have sold extremely well so it’s been a cost-effective move, but it’s also encouraging that guests are engaged with our sustainability goals,” says managing director Warrick Burton. 

Other simple things like putting recycling bins in obvious places can really help. “Being more eco-conscious can even be as simple as encouraging your guests to recycle. We provide recycling bins around the spa and in our spa apartments, and although we remain largely paperless by directing guests to our website and e-materials, our spa brochures are printed on recycled paper with vegetable ink dyes,” adds Burton. 

4. Go paper-free with bookings and pricelists

Going paper free in your business is a great way to reduce environmental impact whilst saving money. Abbi Caraccio, owner of Asteria Wellbeing in Suffolk, suggests going digital to help you go green. 

“With a huge amount of online booking systems that have come on the market over the last few years, they provide a considerably more eco-efficient way take bookings. We have scrapped appointment cards and now clients receive emails and text messages to notify them of booked/rescheduled appointments.”

Caraccio suggests educating your clients about why you’re taking advantage of technology by pushing for clients to book more treatments thanks to online booking systems.

“Encourage clients to take photos on their phones of a single price list that you have in the salon or direct them to your website. This way it saves money and gives the clients a clearer picture of what you are striving to achieve. Online booking also encourages people to book other services which they may not have thought about before!”

5. Build sustainable partnerships 

Find a sustainable charity or organisation to partner with so you can give back and support the movement towards a sustainable future with your business. 

Ellen Lloyd, owner of Ellen Elizabeth Beauty in Ipswich, was the first beauty salon to join with Sustainably Run, an organisation primarily working with restaurants to plant trees in developing countries to help offset the environmental impact from businesses.

“It’s a super easy way to give back to the environment in an industry that can take so much. An automatic contribution is added to each bill. For every 99p collected, a tree is planted offsetting the environmental impact of the treatments, changing the lives of people in the developing world.”

It’s not just your business making an impact, but your clients too, with Lloyd encouraging that you let clients know how they’re helping you become more sustainable.

“My clients feel as good as they look when they leave the salon knowing they have done their bit too!” 

6. Start with the basics

“Our industry has a large carbon footprint, so as salon and spa owners we have a duty to do our bit for the planet,” says Kirsty Kianifard, director of Uniquely Organic EcoSpa in Hove. “Traditionally, the volume of imperishable waste products that we all churn out is vast, so this is a great place to start.” 

With sub-zero waste predicted to be a big trend, Kianifard suggests beginning your eco journey by sourcing supplies like cotton wool, cotton buds, tissue and couch roll ethically, or finding ways to eliminate them completely. 

“You can source biodegradable consumables from brands like Simply Gentle and Who Gives a Crap, which offer organic and fair-trade cotton wool and tissues,” she says; or if you want to take it one step further, take a leaf out of Uniquely Organic’s book: “Where possible, we avoid using disposable materials all together and opt for organic sheets over couch roll and washable mitts over cotton wool.” 

7. Reduce laundry

Constant laundry loads are an unavoidable expense and use of energy in a salon or spa. But you can ease the burden by introducing biodegradable linens. 

Rossendale, Lancashire-based Polished Beauty Clinic started working with Scrummi Spa in 2018, a range of single-use biodegradable towels, linens and accessories. “Scrummi Spa reduces our laundry cost by nearly 90% while cutting down drastically on the amount of micro-fibres entering the water system,” explains co-owner Elizabeth Wilkinson. 

As a result of having to use the washing machine far less, the salon’s carbon emissions are also lowered, and although the products are disposable they’re totally recyclable in compost. “Everything is completely compostable; it’s a 100% sustainable product,” says Wilkinson. “The cost of the range starts from 15p per pair of facial mitts, up to 63p per body towel.” 

Majestic Towels managing director Abbas Vawda suggests replacing multiple towel layers with a memory foam coach topper that has a wipeable cover. "Layering towels on treatments couches not only takes time which can impede treatment room frequency usage but also results in greater laundering needs," he says. "Modern manufacturing technologies  can create wipeable covers that can look and feel as good as towelling alternatives. They no longer have to be the heavy duty PVC type that can look a little clinical. Lightweight, wipeable fabrics are now more aesthetically pleasing, come in different colour options and feel soft to the touch."

8. Look at the whole business

It’s not only treatment products and supplies that can be swapped out for more environmentally-friendly alternatives. Samantha Davies, owner of Luna Organic Beauty Boutique in Cardiff, looked at every product used by the business and replaced as many as possible with substitutes that are better for the planet. 

“We use 100% recycled bleach-free toilet paper manufactured in the UK, non-toxic cleaning products and organic non-chemical coffee and bleach-free tea bags from UK Fairtrade brand Clipper,” she says. 

The salon also introduced biodegradable bin liners and overhauled its packaging and printed materials. “For product purchases, we use paper bags and tissue wrap sourced from suppliers that offer recycled paper stock options and have FSC-certification,” says Davies, “and also for our price lists, gift vouchers and business cards.” Even Luna’s aprons were an eco-conscious choice, made from organic cotton in the UK.

A free recycling service has launched to help beauty businesses who are struggling to meet their sustainability targets due to administrative and financial burdens. 

9. Get back to nature

If your salon or spa has outside space, consider following in Calm Organic Beauty’s footsteps and planting an organic garden to help sustain insects’ ecosystems, in turn supporting the environment for bugs and humans alike. 

“Our organic product house Herbfarmacy gave us a big selection of seeds so we grew lots of bee-friendly plants in front of the salon,” says Lisa Mansell, owner of the Kilgetty, Wales, salon. “We actually came second in our Village in Bloom competition, which of course is good for business too, and we are now working on a bug hotel project,” she says. 

Calm has also signed up to the Business Wales Green Growth Pledge, which encourages sustainability in Welsh SMEs. “I’m sure there are similar schemes in many areas,” says Mansell. “We have also signed up to the Refill scheme, whereby people can use the free app to show all the businesses around them that will fill up a water bottle for free.” 

10. Reuse where possible

At London’s Agua Spas in the Mondrian and Sanderson hotels, doing their bit for the planet is all about reusing to reduce waste. For example, the spa provides new slippers to every guest so instead of throwing them away, they are saved and given  to charity. The spa has also implemented a simple way of reusing old towels and linens by cutting them up to make cleansing mitts. 

11. Save your energy 

The first step to reducing your spa's carbon footprint is to carry out an energy audit, explains Brian Anderson, sustainable development manager at Chiva-Som, based in Prachuap Khiri Khan in Thailand, who has led the site to become vastly more efficient after doing just that. 

"We ran an aduti at Chiva-Som in 2013 and then implemented energy conversation measures by replacing existing equipment with energy-efficient technologies to decrease our electricity consumption by 26%, with a related 20% reduction in carbon footprint," he says.

"Last year, we completed another energy audit of the operation and plan to further reduce electricity consumtpion by replacing more equipment. All our water heating is achieved through solar-thermal systems on the rooftop of the building, most of our solid waste is sent to recylcing facilities, and we treat and reuse all our waste water for irrigation." 

12. Work with suppliers to reduce waste

For spas and salons that are already open and want to make changes to become more sustainable, but don't have the budget to go back to the drawing board, talking to your suppliers should be the statting point. As an example, when The Spa at South Lodge in Horsham first got its flip-flops, each pair came in a plastic bag so the team just asked the supplier to send them without, ultimately saving thousands of bags and cutting down the supplier's costs as well. 

13. Research product ingredients

Once you've been settled with a brand in your salon for a while, it's unlikely you'll think too much about what's going into its products. However, it's important to keep an eye on the sources that these raw materials are being taken from and whether they're being extracted in an eco-friendly manner.

Making sure your chosen brands know how they're putting together its products is essential to ensure sustainability, and is always worth asking about. For example, Aromatherapy Associates sources 100% natural ingredients with traceability right back to the farmer and the original source of the essential oil."

Elsewhere, innovative methods of material-sourcing are similarly being used. Medik8, for example, has a long-term commitment to move all its professional product to ocean plastic-derived materials; plastic waste sourced from  oceans, rivers and seas. Choosing a brand with an ethos like this will make all of the difference in the long-term.