Green Salon and Green Clinic are a voluntary organisation for salons that would like to prove they can avoid harmful chemistry, take care of their customers and employees and that they work on improving their environmental impact in terms energy, waste, consumption and strain on nature.
In order to become a certified Green Salon or Green Clinic, the salon must live up to the 12 criteria stated below, which also includes the products in the salon. In the criteria, you will find the formal criteria of a certified Green Salon and Green Clinic, and additionally a number of suggestions to improve environmentally. The 12 mandatory criteria are:
Chemicals and health:
- No harmful substances from the Green Salon List of Banned Chemicals
The owner, employees and apprentices are not allowed to use products containing these substances in the salon.
Products for resale, makeup and dyeing of eyebrows and eyelashes may not contain substances from the Green Salon List of Banned Chemicals. Products with substances on the Green Salon List of Banned Chemicals (appendix A), must be phased out before the salon can become a certified Green Salon - The Salon is particularly attentive to allergy and hypersensitivity
Before a treatment the client is asked if he/she is allergic to certain substances.
By allergic reactions the customers are advised to contact their doctor. - Bleaching of hair with persulfates may not come into contact with the scalp
Operations of certified Green Salons and Green Clinics: - The daily manager has knowledge of chemistry and health
The salon manager has participated in the Green Salon course in chemistry, occupational safety, and health in hairdressing - The salons’ owner and staff has obtained a nationally recognized hairdresser training
Apprentices must be engaged in recognized education programme - Every two years the owner/leader must participate in a Green Salon Brush-up Course
- The owner/leader must instruct staff in the principles of Green Salon as described in the Green Salon course (see www.groensalon.com)
- All cleaning is done using eco-labeled cleaners
- If the salon offers refreshments to customers, these must be organically produced
- Plastic bags for consumer purchases are not allowed (in countries where plastic bags for purchases are not prohibited by law)
- Electricity should be purchased as certified green electricity from sustainable sources.
- Preferably, waste should be separated to make recycling possible according to local requirements.
If not possible the salon must ask the housing association or the local authorities to provide improved waste sorting facilities.