A quick glance at the internal environmental strategies of five beauty companies.

We hear from Eric Schwartz, COO and General Counsel, OPI; Jill Kohler, President, Kohler Academy; Jim Davis, VP Marketing, FHI Heat; Steve Goddard, CEO, Pravana; and Van Stamey, Founder and CEO, Thermafuse.

Does your company recycle?

Eric: We recycle waste material made in the manufacturing process—our strategy is to minimize all solid waste and to recycle or recover the energy whenever possible.
Jill: We recycle in our student break room and our staff break room.
Jim: Yes, we recycle. And, when appliances are returned, we repair them and send to local homeless shelters and charitable organizations.
Steve: Yes, Pravana recycles.
Van: We recycle the drums and barrels we receive chemicals in and all corrugates. Oils from gearboxes and motors are recycled, too.
 

Is your business paperless?

Eric: Not 100 percent, but we’re increasingly trying to limit our paper use.
Jill: We’re paperless on many tasks, such as student evaluations
of educators.
Jim: We have an extensive computer system allowing us to do about 80 percent of paperwork online; only essential documents are printed.
Steve: No, but we use both sides of the paper when printing.
Van: We’re not completely paperless, but we use both sides of paper when printing.

What is the most important green strategy your business implemented in the past year?

Eric: Our paperless system for picking and packing products match other efforts we’ve made to move toward electronic data interchange and eliminating paper invoices.
Jill: Talking about our environmental footprints—how what we consume can help or hurt the planet. Our awareness causes change in our school, families and communities.
Jim: By reducing the time it takes to style hair, we save loads of energy. Our tools use 30 percent less power than professional brands and 50 percent less than consumer.
Steve: Upgrading the heating and air conditioning to a programmable thermostat. We use a tankless water heater and switched to cornstarch peanuts in shipping.
Van: We upgraded our boiler system so we don’t use a constant flow of gas to keep the boiler running for hot water.

Does your business use energy-efficient lighting?

Eric: Yes.
Jill: We invested more than $25,000 in energy-efficient lighting. We even received a cash rebate from our electric company.
Jim: All of our fluorescent bulbs are energy-efficient throughout our corporate headquarters.
Steve: We replaced all lighting with energy-saving fluorescent lights and installed motion sensors to turn the lights off when no one is in the room.
Van: Yes, we went through the office, lab and factory and replaced all light bulbs.