Updated - How can aesthetics businesses become more sustainable?
UK households throw away 100 billion pieces of plastic packaging a year, with the average person using 19,665 plastic skincare and cosmetic bottles in their lifetime, according to research by consumer toiletries brand Wild.
Many skincare and cosmetics brands are moving towards sustainability, with established companies offering ‘greener’ alternatives to their products, and new eco-friendly brands popping up regularly.
Ron Myers, aesthetic business coach and mentor, created a survey last year, to find out about the aesthetics industry’s interest in sustainability. According to this survey, 74% of aesthetic clinic owners agreed that sustainability and environmental concerns would be important in marketing their business in the next five years.
They’re probably right. Sustainability statistics site The Roundup reported in 2023 that products marketed as sustainable grew 2.7x faster than those that were not.
Of course, disposables used in aesthetics cause waste that can’t be avoided. Practitioners who participated in Myers’ survey instead expressed concerns about the amount of packaging that the disposables come in and excess plastic wrap.
So how can clinics get involved with this movement?
Campaigning
The appearance of retail products holds value, but perhaps a sustainable angle could hold just as much. Myers has called for clinic owners to share the survey results with suppliers, and advocate for more sustainable packaging, particularly in consumables.
Offsetting
Phorest, a software business that helps with management and marketing of aesthetics, beauty, and hair businesses, works with forestry partners to plant a real-life Phorest Forest, planting thousands of trees. This is proactively restoring native Irish woodland to improve biodiversity, provide habitat for native spaces, contribute to climate change migration and other various ecosystem services.
Reducing
Using Phorest can also help clinics go paperless. The technology can help with providing consultation forms and receipts digitally, whilst the PhorestGo app enables staff with all the information they need to hand.