Over the past 2 years PALOMA salon leader, Paloma and the team have been highly committed to using the brand as a platform to give back to those in need, while having minimal impact on the environment and empowering their community to make easy changes in their everyday lives to minimise the effects of Climate Change.

Semifinalist:
Paloma Garcia
PALOMA salon
320 Oxford street Paddington
Sydney, Australia

Story:

We believe style should not cost the planet and work to uphold sustainable practices in all we do. A proud member of Sustainable Salons Australia, we are 98% recyclable and even make our own, natural cleaning products for the purest environment possible.
The climate crisis is real, and while keep cups are a great start, we believe renewable energy is the most efficient solution. While the PALOMA building is leased and unable to install solar panels, our electricity provider is Power Shop, enabling us to power purely off the grid. Of course, all PALOMA lighting is LED.

Further efforts include the installation of ECO HEADS across all basins (saving up to 60% water while we wash!), and continued support of local businesses. For example, those hydrations and/or collagen shots added to your sparkling, they’re from Bondi-based health enthusiasts, The Beauty Chef. That soft, woody scent as you walk in? Courtesy of Maison Balzac. And that smooth, sherbet-y prosecco? That’s thanks to the tastemakers at P&V Sydney.

So passionate about the planet, we held an in-salon workshop hosting Australian environmentalist Anna Rose. The educational session took guests through some alarming statistics around our current climate crisis, but most importantly how we can all work together to avoid devastating tipping points. We’d be more than happy to share this information and answer any questions you might have, just ask.

A followed climate ambassador, PALOMA owner/founder Paloma Rose Garcia works hard to raise awareness wherever possible, rallying with her children. Paloma was invited to a 5-day Climate Conference in Heron Island hosted by The Climate council with Australia’s top panel of experts from Tim Flannery (environmentalist + author), Leslie Hughes (climate change scientist of 24 years) alongside fellow influencers Simon Baker, Heidi Middleton, Paul Kelly and Phoebe Tonkin. This was a pivotal moment for Paloma personally, making the commitment from then on to use her position as a hairdresser, industry leader, community leader + conscious citizen to help others understand what is climate change and empower people with easy solutions they can do to minimise their carbon footprint and help save mother earth.

The future is here. Together we can make a change.
Giving back to communities in need is in the PALOMA DNA. Post that traumatic bushfires season 2019/2020 Paloma + her team spent 3 separate weekends in the town of Cobargo (382kms south) looking after the hair of many victims that had lost everything in the tragic fires. Rounding up products from all suppliers, Paloma and her team gifted each person a goodie bag filled with hair and beauty products to uplift and helped them get back on track. Performing haircuts all day for the locals, we also held space for some very emotional break downs offering big hugs, lots of listening and giving them great hair.

Paloma and her team often do haircuts for the homeless from shelters in Kings Cross, to Newtown, on average 3 times a year. Once again offering great hair for people in need. We believe with great hair, confidence and happiness increases.

Timing:
-Within this whole period, we have been a sustainable salon, paying an offset per guest, to then repurpose all waste. 1293KG of paper has been recycled, 194KG of hair picked up off our salon floor turned into 162 hair booms = 647L of oil cleaned up from an oil emergency, 647kgs of plastic kept in circulation, 118,000 meals provided to those in need, 938kgs of metals recycled, 279kgs of chemicals recycled back into water.
-Our electrical supplier is Powershop, the greenest off the grid electrical supplier nationally. We pay a premium per year to carbon offset.
-We make and use all our own natural cleaning products with ingredients using white vinegar and Doterra essential oils to help the planet and care for our team

-June 2019, Paloma attended Dark Mofo arts festival in Tasmania with ATELIER the youngest benefactor program at the AGNSW. The four-day trip had an adventurist spirit, some nature time, artist studio visits, food and wine, performances, private viewings and music. The biggest highlight was spending a day at CSIRO understanding the effects of Climate Change directly on the local marine eco system around Hobart and learning about the powerful impacts of Kelp.

-June 2019, we ran Literacy is Freedom campaign in salon with ALNF (Australian literacy and numeracy foundation). ALNF believe all Australians have the right to literacy, because being able to read and write is the key to accessing education and employment, and to participating fully in society. For a week the whole team wore T-shirts by ALNF ‘Literacy is Freedom’. First step was getting the team well educated on the shockingly low literacy and numracy percentages in our indigenous communities around the country. Some schools in NT as low as 14% literacy within children. Then the team could hold conversations on this topic with guests. Our aim was raising awareness with our guests and community and importantly funds for the organisation. The salon matched the weekly donations by guests equally a total of $4,636.

-Sept 2019, Paloma, the + the team closed the salon 3 hours early and protested for School strike for climate in Hyde Park Sydney.

-October 2019 Paloma was invited to talk on a Modern Woman, a podcast, discussing all things being a woman in business, tackling climate change, raising children, the power of positivity + giving back.

-October 2019 Heron Island Climate Change trip

-October 2019 Heron Island Climate Change trip
Amongst 50 highly regarded influential Australians invited, I was lucky enough to experience this once in a lifetime trip to Australia’s Heron Island, seeing the beauty first hand of the reef, and diving deep into the prevalent issues of climate change surrounding us and most importantly the solutions. This was the 3rd annual trip: a small group of leaders came together each year on Heron Island for an intimate 5 days with some of Australia’s leading environmentalists and experts including the Australian of the Year Professor, Tim Flannery, Amanda McKenzie CEO of Australia’s Climate Council, Anna Rose an environmentalist and author, and Claire Ainsworth-Hershall Climate advocacy and philanthropy specialist as a way to learn more about the science, impacts and solutions to climate change. Guests are a mix of creative and cultural leaders, philanthropists, media and business leaders from Simon Baker, Isabel Lucas to Paul Kelly.
Heron Island research station is a world class research and teaching facility run by the University of Queensland on an idyllic coral island off the coast of Gladstone. Whilst now 50% of Great Barrier Reef’s coral has been bleached, Heron Island is still south enough to have much of its coral intact.

On the trip we were lucky enough to swim with turtles while we learned from Australia’s best experts in climate change and renewable energy, met inspiring people and discover what kinds of shifts it will take to safeguard our future’s economic and environmental wellbeing.

It was a pivotal point in Paloma’s personal life, once she learnt, knew what she knew, she took on the responsibility to hare her knowledge and empower others to help create change.

-November 2019, hugely inspired by the trip to Heron island Paloma took on the role as community leader sharing knowledge. Paloma hosted their first community evening at PALOMA salon on Climate change with the incredible Anna Rose (environmentalist + author). We had over 100 guests, team members, community members, friends, family attend. Anna educated everyone on current climate issues nationally and I provided a climate change checklist and educated all on what they can do changes they can make personally.

-November 2019, the bushfires were blazing and we felt it was a great opportunity to get our guests topping up on retail and getting all their services done so we could donate the full day of takings to the NSW rural fire services. We donated $5,500.

-November 2019, Paloma + 4 stylist cut hair for the homeless at Eat.Shop.Chop by Oz harvest. We spent a day providing haircuts for the homeless.

-Jan 2020 Paloma + team members protested through the city of Sydney and demanded the government to take action on climate change with my children and friends. As Bob Marley would say ‘Get up, stand up, stand up for your rights, get up, stand up, don’t give up the fight.’

-Jan 2020, PALOMA donated a haircut/colour makeovers in salon for Hearts on Fire campaign raising money for the NSW fire services to the value for $750.

-Jan 2020, Paloma + her children protest on ‘Australia Day’ and stood in solidarity and choose not to celebrate Australia Day until our government changes the date.
‘I teach my children to be kind, why then would I celebrate a day that brings so much hurt? I teach my children to be inclusive of all, why then would I celebrate on a day that divides our people? This is and always will be aboriginal land.’

-Feb 2020 In My Blood It Runs premier. Paloma + Atelier (Art Gallery of NSW benefactor program) organise the screening of this brilliant and equally confronting independent film portraying our country’s social injustice and the harsh treatment of indigenous youth in the Northern Territory. We had special guests Adam Goodes there at the premier to be involved in the Q + A after the screening. PALOMA hosted artist mob from NT in salon to get their hair done before the premier, to feel special and show our community and guests our support to our people.

-March 2020 spent 3 separate weekends in Cobargo, Paloma + team provided haircuts for the people of the town after they had experienced the horrific bushfires. Cobargo was one of the worst affected areas in NSW with the bushfires, 70% of the town were left homeless. We partnered with KEVIN.MURPHY in supplying products to all these people. We held space for challenging conversations, gave them great hair, and helped with their road to recovery.

-April 2020, PALOMA self-care series launched in the midst of lockdown. Paloma + her team photographed step-by-step image carousels on how to do your hair at home. Assisting with our guests and community feeling and looking good amongst a pandemic.

-June 2020, Paloma + her children protested in Sydney for Black Lives Matter. 432 indigenous people have died in custody from the 1991 Royal commission into deaths in custody. We call and end to our systemics racism that allows this culture of corruption to go unchecked and our lives to be taken.

-2021 new PALOMA marketing/branding roll out. A whole new palette and empowered perspective to make our guests feel, see and believe in their own value. A more conscious and humane counterculture is already reshaping beauty ideals, including a growing belief amongst consumers that perfection is not the end goal. Instead, they will require products and experiences that complete them, rather than control them. The four main brand pillars: Self, Ease, Ritual, Sustainability.

-Pronouns included in team information on website.

-Jan 2021 our digital menu’s launched. No longer printed, a digital menu (built through a QR scanner) was launched with a comprehensive list of refreshments, services, hair how-to’s and relatable articles for casual persuasion. Minimising our paper use.

-Feb 2021 PALOMA launched gender neutral pricing. The shift in pricing was about equality, yes, but it was also about the value as a hairdresser. I have always been proud to be a hairdresser, I know some that feel otherwise post 2021 lockdown and the fact that we were deemed an essential service really cemented our influence on society and mental health.

-March 2021 Communication launch for PALOMA TEAM. Paloma and communication specialist Kimberley Lee presented to the team a new progressive communication document and educated the team on up-to-date communication styles and language for the team to adopt whilst communicating with guests. Which included correct pronoun use, how to communicate our environmental/social work/economic initiatives we are involved with. How to hold space for challenging conversations with guests on topics such as: gender preference, race, grief and loss, domestic and family violence, mental health. We paid huge focus to moving away from the norm ‘hairdresser conversation’ and avoid asking questions such as: ‘Where are you from? What do you do for work? Where do you live? Do you have kids?’ etc and focus on “How do you like to spend your time? ‘What are you looking forward to this week?’

-April 2021 Holly Ryan x PALOMA collaboration. Paloma collaborated with friend, jeweler, and climate activist to create a PALOMA pendent necklace. The necklace was the ‘Paloma Dove’ Picasso drew for his daughter. It was always a symbol of peace. All profits donated directly to Groundswell Giving climate organisation funding strategic high impact advocacy + action.

-July 2021 ran 7-day NAIDOC week campaign in salon with ambassador Lille Madden (indigenous climate change storyteller + activist). Naidoc week celebrates the history, culture and achievement of the Aboriginal ad Torres Strait islander people and this year the theme was Heal Country. We educated our guests + community on understanding country and what they could do outside through local councils to give back.

-July 2021 Paloma + Groundswell giving host Climate change IGTV for Rogue Beauty + community. In reaction to the latest IPCC report, Paloma with Groundswell Giving hosting a one hour extremely educational live IGTV in collaboration with Rogue Beauty on the current state of the climate, and most importantly empowered everyone with changes they can make to reduce their footprint.