As part of SALON TODAY’s eco-themed issue, we invited this month’s sponsors to highlight their latest green initiatives:

AVEDA
www.aveda.com
Light the Way is a limited-edition soy wax candle sold during April in honor of Earth Month to raise funds and awareness for clean water rights across the globe. This year’s candle, timed for Aveda’s 30th anniversary, features a new, French-inspired stress-relieving aroma formulated with certified-organic ingredients, including lavender, lavandin and clary sage. The candle provides a meaningful way to support clean water rights for only $10.

AWARE PERSONALIZED BRANDING
www.club-aware.com
Aware Personalized Branding has moved away from the use of parabens in all of its new product development. The company has also begun to use certified organics in its new hair care and spa formulas. In March 2009, Aware reformulated its Color Retention System to make the entire line 100-percent vegan, using sulfate-free shampoos and paraben-free preservative systems. As part of Aware Products, Aware Personalized Branding is a proud member of the National Products Association. The company’s laboratory has produced a complete line of NPA certification-compliant bases that are available for custom formulation of hair, skin and body care products.

MOVING TARGETS
www.movingtargets.com
Moving Targets’ new resident direct mail program has added two demo videos, Why New Movers and How We Work, to their website to reduce the number of paper documents they mail to prospects. These short videos replace nearly 50 pages of printed materials.

OPI
www.opi.com
OPI Products is committed to a policy of no animal testing on any of its products, and to seeking out and using raw ingredients that have not been tested on animals. All packaging has minimal impact on the environment. OPI works with suppliers to design packaging according to the following principles: Facilitating recycling by reducing the variety of raw materials involved; labeling product with details of its components and their recyclability; continually involving packaging suppliers in efforts to produce environmentally sound packaging; reducing the variety of plastics employed and using plastics of similar composition.

RENÉ FURTERER
www.renefurterer.com
“Beautiful hair only grows from a healthy scalp” is the core mission behind René Furterer. Symbolic to the brand philosophy, Complexe 5 is a scalp treatment containing more than 50-percent pure essential oils of orange and lavender. It is free from sulfates, silicones, parabens, artificial fragrances or colorants, and packaged in a fully recyclable glass bottle. It tones the scalp, elates the senses and strengthens hair from the root.

SAM VILLA
www.samvilla.com
The staff at Sam Villa was interested in developing a virtual corporate office to reduce their carbon footprint. “This drastically minimizes the consumption of office products and utilities such as paper, ink and electricity,” says Kurt Garehime, founding partner and president of Allvus LLC, dba Sam Villa. “We also utilize the latest telecommunications technology to reduce fuel consumption and carbon emissions. We’re instantaneously in the same virtual room together when we need to be.”

VERASOFT
www.korvue.com
PrimeServ, a Verasoft subsidiary, plants five trees for every new PrimeServ eBlast client. For every 1,000 new clients 5,000 trees are planted. This initiative is headed by Plant-It 2020, which is dedicated to properly planting, maintaining and protecting as many indigenous trees as possible worldwide. In addition to replenishing cities and forests, Plant-It 2020 also periodically provides educational workshops on forestry issues to thousands of children. Founded by the late singer John Denver in 1992, Verasoft’s reforestation projects in many countries often directly help humanity by increasing crop production, fresh water availability and fuel-wood via dropped branches.

SHORTCUTS SOFTWARE
www.shortcuts.net
Shortcuts has many clients who are concerned with going green and it is one of the primary drivers behind salons becoming computerized. From e-mail receipts to exporting reports instead of printing, Shortcuts encourages cutting back on the usage of paper in the salon by distributing reusable client information cards. When a new client comes in, they fill out a laminated card with an erasable marker; the information is entered into the computer and the card is wiped clean for the next guest. Shortcuts also supplies Energy Star compliant hardware that has been tested for energy efficiency.

SALON TRANSCRIPTS
www.salontranscripts.com
Salon Transcripts takes the steps to be a green-conscious company by reducing paper usage by minimizing printing, offering documentation and manuals for download, recycling internal documents and printing on recycled stock when possible. The company also recommends educational webinars, in place of traditional on-site training.