Colour World 2023 sustainability campaign

Colour World returned for a weekend of live fiesta fun at a new venue in Shoreditch, London, this May. Alongside promoting the business of colour, this year’s edition of the gathering came with exceptional effort and excitement regarding the even sustainability campaign, a focus for the event organisers and brands alike.

Working in collaboration with the team from the Green Salon Collective, and Karine Jackson as CW Sustainability Curator, Colour World organisers put a huge focus on engaging with the brands to be more mindful and less wasteful. From the moment a brand signed up they received a checklist compiled by GSC and Karine, which encouraged the brand sponsors to adopt more sustainable practices, including the use of less wasteful materials, re-useable items and packaging. Discussion of how best to achieve this was invited as this helps promote understanding and learning.

CW23 Sustainability Checklist

What did we do to combat waste?

Ticket-buyers had been urged to bring reusable drinking bottles and their own cloth bags. As well as water re-fill stations, the event bars used compostable drinking glasses, and avoided single-use plastic bottles. As did the food vans. Helpers wore Colour World T-shirts from previous years, avoiding the need to print new ones, and the use of printed banners and posters was substantially lessened. Water at the backwashes was set to a lower than usual temperature, and the environmental ambience was augmented by hiring in trees and plants.

CW23 backwashes

Over the two-days of the Colour World weekend, compared with previous years the GSC team had worked on their sustainable offerings, too. As well as being on hand to provide advice, they worked with a greater number of bins scattered throughout the venue, gathering and dealing with every iota of waste. The message was clear for brands and visitors alike; reduce landfill waste and adopt recycling.

GSC sustainability

Fry Taylor explains:

“Our joint campaign focused on encouraging brands to adopt sustainable practices, including the use of less wasteful materials and thoughtful consideration of their selections. I’m pleased to note that we observed a remarkable decrease in unnecessary samples and excessive packaging, indicating a strong adherence to these guidelines by the majority of brands.”

Brilliantly, the entire Colour World 2023 event achieved a zero-to-landfill status, with a total waste volume of approximately 150 kg. Considering the scale of an industry event, this is a significantly low number, and most of the items were recyclable, adhering to the event’s sustainable waste management objectives.

Moreover, the colour waste generated during the event also showed how serious colourists and brands were taking our sustainable guidance. The event generated around 4-5 litres of colour waste compared to previous years, where we saw 9-10 litres of colour waste. A substantial improvement.

Nicky Pope, owner of Colour World says:

“I’m proud of our journey … we have a way to go in hairdressing overall, but there is willingness, and even small steps count! Thank you to Green Salon Collective and Karine Jackson – planning an event can be overwhelming, but having them with my team made a massive difference. I can’t wait to see what we can achieve at the next Colour World.”

To ramp up the incentive, Colour World invited Karine and Green Salon Collective to help with the first sustainability awards in collaboration with Colour World, to reward a number of brands for their efforts and co-operation over the weekend. In assessing the winners, the GSC team took into account the brands’ spaces and materials used to decorate their area, their waste management, and each brand’s general attitude towards sustainability.

Winners

Large stand yuv Beauty

Small stand Easydry

Food Van Melt

Guest Artist Carolyn Newman

Let’s hear some more about the brands from Nicky Pope, owner of Colour World:

Carolyn newman – “Its brilliant to use your voice to help share the messages about sustainability and make positive action a norm. Not only did Carolyn enthusiastically promote sustainability at colour world before the event and in her personal actions, but she hosted our sustainability discussion panels with a degree of knowledge and understanding which I know is very powerful. A worthy winner.”

yuv Beauty –The innovation that yup beauty is bringing to the market is striking for being so forward-thinking and supportive of the way hairdressers work. Importantly, the concept of the yuv Beauty colour lab is born from desire to be more efficient and more sustainable in the way colourists work. The attention to matters of how to limit waste and recycle products and packaging is what will help hairdressing survive and thrive as a creative industry. Bravo to the winners of the Colour World sustainability awards 2023.”

Easydry – “I’m thrilled to see Easydry being so proactive in finding ways to support hairdressing and colourists to be more sustainable. A well-established brand, Easydry doesn’t rest in the search for innovative ways to make a change. I’m particularly impressed they won B-cop accreditation – the first disposable towel company to do this. Bravo for this win of the Colour World sustainable smaller space 2023” Nicky Pope, owner of Colour World.”

A huge congratulations to all the winners, who excelled within their sustainable efforts at this years event. It was incredible to see so many of our fantastic brands put so much effort into being part of our sustainable journey and actively help promote this within the wider hairdressing industry. It is our honour to collaborate with the Green Salon Collective and introduce this award.

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At Colour World UK we believe in colourists being equally important as hairdressers to the success of a salon business! Clients deserve excellent colour services, embracing the importance of a great colour consultation through to end result. We salute manufacturers and brands offering great product innovation which enables colour technicians to explore their creativity and offer a bespoke colour to every client. We offer colourconversation and inspiration for you to browse, and respect colour-focused education and events from what’s on and where to our own Colour World UK event which supports our industry and promises to do our best to bring you news and information to help you succeed.

Looking for some more colour inspiration? Here you go: INSPIRATION