Orange is the new face of sustainability

Located in the charming New South Wales, Australia country town of Orange – known for its beautiful autumn colours and bitter winters is superstar hair salon, Shaun Downey Hair. Owning his own hair salon, Shaun Downey has been turning heads way before he burst onto the sustainability scene in Orange.

For Downey, being truly sustainable begins with an accurate definition of “sustainability”. Sustainability, by definition, means meeting our own needs without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs. Downey describes their direct approach to being sustainable by simply contemplating whether or not something was sustainable at its core. “If it’s not sustainable, we shouldn’t really be doing it,” says Downey.

This isn’t to say that we should not be doing things that are not sustainable, however we should be more mindful, limit their use and really ask ourselves whether there are alternatives.

Sustainable Salons’ goal to keep materials such as plastics, foils and hair in closed-loop recycling processes and programs like Eat.Chop.Shop are only some of the reasons Shaun Downey Hair Salon decided to join the Green Team and become a Sustainable Salons member.

Shaun Downey had been following along the Sustainable Salons journey since its origination in 2015, unfortunately unable to service rural areas – until now! The salon’s passion for sustainability was evident in their epic reel created to champion our new Sustainable Salons members and get people talking.

With this reel, Shaun Downey Hair was the winner of our new members t-shirt competition. Downey can be seen jumping out of our Sustainable Salons Linnk Bag, full of excitement and keen to share the salon’s new venture.

Thanks to Sustainable Salons expansion into rural Australia and New Zealand, salons like Shaun Downey Hair are able to walk the sustainability walk.

Before becoming part of the green team, Downey was heartbroken by the amount of waste the salon was sending to landfill, always being at the forefront of sustainability in the salon space, implementing strategies such as only purchasing product with sustainable packaging, minimising the frequency of stock ordering and using alternatives to single use plastics, Downey still found the salon waste piling up.

Now armed with the right tools and education through the Sustainable Salons program, 95% of salon waste can be diverted from landfill and sent for repurposing!

Before rural areas were on the Salon Locator, one of the ways Downey was able to give back to planet earth was by practising sustainability at home. Like many Aussies and Kiwis alike, Downey is not a fan of the single use plastic bags at supermarkets. Keeping mindful of this while shopping – avoiding placing your fruit and vegetables into these single use plastics is one small way you can make a difference.

Jumping straight into the kitchen, at home Downey loves to compost raw ingredients; which includes benefits such as, reducing waste, conserving water, combating climate change and preventing soil erosion.

Another hot tip from the Downey household is to keep business local, reducing your environmental impact.

Sustainable Salons values all members, no matter where you’re located, city or rural. We believe that as a collective, small ripples make big waves; and as a Sustainable Salons member, Shaun Downey Hair is passionate about people, planet and profit.

Through the Linnk service, Sustainable Salons has enabled salons just like Shaun Downey Hair; praying to make a difference, join the program and help make sustainability a reality.

For your chance to win our Sustainable Salons t-shirts for your team – which by the way are 100% Fairtrade Certified Cotton, and meet the Global Organic Textile Standard, be sure to post those epic reels and photos on social media.