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 event’s 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.
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.
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.
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
Artist Guest. Carolyn Newman
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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