Category: Environment
Fuchs Hair
Rebecca Fuchs
Shop 1/222 Botany Road
Alexandria 2015 Australia
02 8399 1008
mail@fuchshair.com.au
Story
My name is Rebecca Fuchs, I am one of the directors here at Fuchs Hair in Sydney.
One of my roles within the business is researching and implementing sustainability practices. We are focused on reducing our salon waste and running our business in a way that is environmentally sound.
Sustainability was a key focus for us when we designed and open our salon in Sydney, Australia in 2018. We have been able to put in daily practices and procedures which have reduced up to 95% of our salon waste that would otherwise go to a landfill.
Seeing what an impact a small business like us can have on reducing waste led us to successfully implement these practices in our 5 salons in Switzerland.
The story of our family business began in 1955 when my grandfather Hans Fuchs founded the family business in Switzerland. My father Thomas and his siblings soon followed their father’s path into hairdressing and expanded the family business to five luxury hair and beauty salons across Switzerland.
In 2008 my brother Alexander moved to Sydney and quickly became immersed in the Australian hairdressing industry. In 2013 I joined him and together we set our sights on starting our own business. In 2018, together with our father we opened our first Australian Salon in Sydney.
In designing the salon, we wanted to create a space that balances warmth and understated luxury. Using natural materials, the archways, natural light, and rounded edges throughout the salon create an atmosphere that is inviting and relaxing. Our commitment to sustainability plays a role in the salon design, in our daily practices and in each step of our guests’ service.
RUNNING A SUSTAINABLE BUSINESS
Being in the hairdressing industry now for over 10 years, I have seen how much waste a salon produces every day, and it has always bothered me. Looking at the left-over chemicals going down the drain, filling our rubbish bins every day with a huge amount of aluminium foil, cut hair, plastic product and drink bottles always has always made me think that there has to better way to run a business and reduce our impact on the Earth.
I grew up in Switzerland where the waste management system is one of the most efficient in the world. No rubbish is buried in landfills, whatever is not recycled is incinerated to generate energy. In Australia, unfortunately, a lot of our waste ends up in a landfill.
With this in mind, when we opened our own salon, sustainability and reducing our impact on the environment were our top priorities when it came to our salon fit out, and most importantly, our everyday practices.
SUSTAINABLE SALONS AUSTRALIA
As we planned our business, we were thrilled to come across a company called Sustainable Salons Australia who established a network of collectors, recyclers, manufacturers, and distributors to make sure up to 95% of materials from our salon are diverted from landfill. We follow their system every day; we collect and separate our waste, Sustainable Salons pick up our waste weekly and dispose of it responsibly.
We have 5 recycling bins in our salon:
Hair
– For all our cut hair from the salon floor
– Reused in hair booms that one-day help clean up oil spills in our oceans
– Can be composted
Aluminium
– For our hair foils or spray cans
– Are sold for recycling with the proceeds donated to OzHarvest which is a program that saves surplus food from landfills
Plastic
– For all our types of plastics like peroxide bottles, lids, and packaging
– They are collected, cleaned, and upcycled into new products
Paper
– For our paper and cardboard waste
– Are sold for recycling with the proceeds donated to OzHarvest
Chemical
– For our left-over colour or any other salon chemicals
– They are collected, pooled, and sent to chemical recycling plant where they’re neutralised and turned in to recycled water.
SALON RECYCLING PROJEKT SWITZERLAND
Inspired by how we are dealing with our salon waste in Australia we decided to set up a similar organisation in Switzerland which we founded in 2020 called Salon Recycling Projekt. Currently we have 10 salons as a part of the project with 5 of them being our own salons
We follow the same steps with individual recycling bins and the salon waste being correctly recycled and re-used. The Salon Recycling Projekt has gotten much attention in the Swiss hairdressing industry in the last year and we are confident many more salons will join us soon in working more sustainably every day.
EVERY LITTLE THING MAKES A DIFFERENCE
There are many more things we do every day to be as sustainable as we can, some of the key things are:
– Ecoheads basin attachments which reduce water usage by 65%
– Bio-degrable hair towels which dissolve within 12 weeks after usage and are more environmentally friendly than washing & drying regular towels all day
– Our main product partner Kevin.Murphy is one of the most progressive Beauty brands when it comes to sustainable packaging and caring for our planet. All of our retail products supplied by Kevin.Murphy are made from repurposed ocean waste plastic.
– On-tap chilled sparking & still water to eliminate single use plastic bottles
– Refillable eco-friendly handwash
– Toilet paper made out of 100% recycled paper
– Kevin Murphy sugarcane bowls for our at-home colour kits during Covid-19 lockdowns
– Bio-degradable paper cups for drinks served during Covid-19
– Bio-degradable gloves for all our colour work
– Refreshing Bamboo handtowels as a part of the clients welcoming ritual
– Organic & Fairtrade certified coffee & teas served to our guest
– iPads have replaced magazines to reduce paper waste
ECO-FRIENDLY SALON FIT OUT
In 2019, we moved our salon to a new location, and it gave us the opportunity to fit out the salon with as many natural and environmentally friendly material as possible.
Our main surfaces are all made out of a Moroccan plaster, it’s a type of venetian plaster which is 100% natural and eco-friendly, its rock hand molded around the structures we built and waxed by hand finished with a natural pigment. The material is a living stone absorbing negative Ions in the space promoting wellbeing
All the wood uses in the space is reclaimed timber from an old house and we only used LED lighting in the whole salon space.
Timing
We started implementing our sustainable practices in 2018 when we opened our Sydney salon Fuchs Hair. This is an ongoing initiative for us where we constantly look at new ways of making our business more environmentally friendly, reducing our waste and pass on our practices to other salons with the hope to make the hairdressing industry a progressive community in looking after our planet.
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152.115.110.166 | 10/08/2021