Sustainable Salons continues to drive sustainability, philanthropy and community-minded initiatives in the salon industry, winning awards for their endeavours and utilising salon super powers to truly do good and help the world. While the program focuses on three pillars of people, planet and profit to pioneer in this space, today we’re focusing on you – the people – and how you can create an impact for your local community through their work and initiatives.

A simple way to make an impact is with ponytail donations, and Sustainable Salons is the world’s number one donor of ponytails for charitable wigs. It necessitates 20 ponytails to make just one wig, and Sustainable Salons does significant work in educating the salon community and consumers on the shortage of ponytails for charitable wigs, as well as the donation process. Sustainable Salons also provides their members with the resources and training needed to assist ponytail donors with their cuts, to suit the very specific criteria that ensures hair is eligible for this process.

Since 2015, the organisation has collected 220,000 ponytails to be made into wigs for people suffering from medically-induced hair-loss conditions. Ponytails are collected from Sustainable Salons members or sent directly to Sustainable Salons in the mail. They have to fit a strict criteria in condition, length and processing, to then be further sorted and graded by the organisation’s depot team. The ponytails are donated to charities such as AAAF and Variety the Children’s Charity, or independent wigmakers, to be woven into charitable wigs or sold by charities to help fund other life-changing programs.

“We have been connected with Sustainable Salons over the past five years,” shared Deanna and Gary Beattie, owners of New Zealand’s Freedom Wigs, which they became involved with decades ago to help their own daughter, who was struggling with alopecia. “Freedom Wigs is committed to working with like-minded organisations, those that are ethical and want to give back to the communities that need them. Sustainable Salons most certainly fits this description. It’s a wonderful partnership.”

Additionally, the organisation does their part of stop food waste by partnering with OzHarvest and KiwiHarvest. Sustainable Salons donates the proceeds from the sale of metal and paper materials to these charities to help provide meals for people in need. Sustainable Salons collects hundreds of thousands of kilograms of metal and paper from salon members and sells these valuable materials to recyclers, in order to donate 100 per cent of proceeds from these sales to these important philanthropic institutions.

These funds are vital, as just $1 can provide between two to three meals between the organisations. This means that one head of foils is about enough for a quarter of a meal, and one bale is enough to feed 200 people. To date, the organisation has donated over 255,840 meals to OzHarvest and KiwiHarvest thanks to Sustainable Salons members.

Further investing in the community, Sustainable Salons supports people will disabilities, partnering with ‘for purpose’ organisations for materials and processing, to offer meaningful employment to those with disabilities and to conduct this necessary work.

50 per cent of Sustainable Salons’ depot workforce is made up of supported employees, and of seven total depots that the organisation has in Australia and New Zealand, Sustainable Salons has five partner depots where over 40 supported employees work on Sustainable Salons operations. These employees sort and process materials sent from Sustainable Salons members so that they are ready to be sent to Sustainable Salons’ recycling partners.

“I’ve made booms to help with oil spills, done multiple warehouse tasks including the ponytails sorting and separating materials, and I’ve even travelled with one of the drivers. I love all of the wonderful recycling that we’re actually doing in this job. I love doing everything, it’s all magic,” shared Jeff, a long-time supported employee with Sustainable Salons.

There are so many ways Sustainable Salons invests in people and helps salons help the planet in sustainability, philanthropy and more. Get involved with this revolutionary organisation, which paves the way in the salon space for the best possible causes.

For more information visit www.sustainablesalons.org

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