Over the last decade, we have seen a rise in companies and brands taking the plunge to learn more about sustainability and lowering their carbon footprint. We all understand why it’s important to be kinder to the planet and, here at Glitterbels, it’s no different. One of our main targets for this year was to take an in-depth look at what we could do as a team to increase our business's sustainability.
The Glitterbels brand has always been aware of the beauty industry's impact on the planet. With constant changes in trends and so many different products available on the market, it’s safe to say that waste is created. This takes a toll on our environment and its fury, feathered, or scaled residents. Creative Director and animal lover, Annabel Maginnis, has worked with the Glitterbels team to raise money for great causes that have helped protect different conservation projects worldwide. However, we wondered what we could do from home to lessen our impact on the planet.
Starting with our packaging: opting for sturdy and recyclable packing paper means we don’t have to fill out the empty spaces with lots of packing peanuts. Instead, we use a couple of sheets of our paper in our parcels to ensure the product reaches customers safely, when en-route from our HQ to your doorstep. Swapping out our plastic packing peanuts for paper means less waste and a great step towards a greener Glitterbels. There is a whole multitude of steps that ensue before a parcel arrives with a customer and one of those steps is receiving the order and picking it, ready to be packed. Each of our parcels are hand-picked by our team and this means we do rely on electric-operated machines to do the job.
Moving on from packaging to the fabulous products inside: all our gel bottles are made from recycled glass and can be recycled again once empty. Our gel bottles are not the only thing made from recycled products. The Glitterbels Monomer bottles are made from recycled aluminium. We also wanted to look into making our plastic products eco-friendlier and made sure that all our glitter is biodegradable.
To lower our carbon footprint, some of our staff carpool on the way to work! This helps lower emissions and comes with a ton of other benefits like fewer cars on the roads, it’s better for the environment and our staff get to make friends in other departments. We also have a charging point at our HQ for staff who drive electric vehicles. Speaking of our amazing team… At the Glitterbels HQ, we make sure all our staff are well taken care of and hydrated throughout the working day. We supplied our team with their own personalised Glitterbels water bottles, to help lower our use of single-use plastic water bottles.
When we picked out a uniform for our staff, we ensured that each staff member had multiple pieces of clothing, so they weren’t doing multiple clothes washes throughout the week. Supplying our staff with enough uniforms to last the week means they can save on washes by doing a single wash at the weekend, and this helps conserve water.
The Glitterbels offices are fitted with energy-saving lights, which are activated by movement and will turn off automatically if nobody is working in that area of the building. This is a great way to cut our energy usage and save on electricity.
We have come a long way in the 4 years since Glitterbels was first created, but we also know we have a way to go. We would like to continue our steps to decrease our company's carbon footprint. We have some big plans to make our packaging completely recyclable and change out our plastic tape for a strong paper version, making our parcels 100% eco-friendly.
We would like to invest in a block-making machine to help us reuse off-cuts of wood from our salon furniture department, reducing the waste significantly. We are also looking to invest in solar panelling for the HQ roof, so we can use solar energy to help us lower our energy usage.
Check out our latest YouTube video for more information on what we’re doing as a brand to be a little greener.
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