Susannah Richardson of Butchers salon in Chester dispels five sustainability myths…
Introducing sustainability to the salon should be top of your to-do list, but too often it’s a struggle to know where to start.
Susanna Richardson, co-founder of the award-winning Butchers salon group, says: “There are too many misconceptions about becoming a more sustainable salon, which often deter salon owners from trying to improve their business’s green credentials.”
Butchers, which has salons in London, Leicester, and Chester, was named Best Sustainable Aveda Salon in the World and Susannah dispels some of the most common myths about becoming sustainable.
1. "It costs the Earth to go green."
This is the most common myth and the most untrue. Switching to LED bulbs, fitting low-flow shower heads, or partnering with a recycling scheme like Green Salon Collective are all great advances for a salon looking to become more sustainable, and none of these changes will break the bank. Most of these adjustments also recoup any costs through lower bills within a year. The expensive route is trying to overhaul everything at once. The smart route is doing it one decision at a time.
2. "You have to gut your salon and start again."
Honestly, you don't have to, and we certainly didn't when we built Butchers. Almost everything that made the salon sustainable happened gradually over years rather than weeks; one supplier swap here, one waste partner there, and one energy provider changed quietly in the background. Build it slowly, and the transformation is barely visible until you look back at where you started.
3. "Clients won’t pay extra for it."
Clients aren't paying extra for sustainability; they're paying for the experience that sustainability is woven into. The atmosphere, the products, the way they feel walking through the door. Price your service for the experience and the ethics ride along inside it.
4. "Sustainable products don’t perform."
Aveda is the loudest argument against that myth in our salons every single day. The colour holds beautifully, the treatments deliver, and the styling products work as hard as anything on the market. The idea that you have to trade performance for principles belongs in 2010.
5. "It’s just a marketing angle."
If sustainability lives only in your Instagram captions, then yes, it is, and clients will sniff that out faster than you think. If it lives in your suppliers, your bins, your bills, your team training, and your client conversations, then it becomes the actual spine of the business. The difference between greenwashing and the real thing is whether you'd still be doing it if nobody was watching.
For more information head to butcherssalon.com.