Every day across the globe, people wake up, stumble into the shower and wash their hair. Hundreds of thousands of hairdressers lead their clients to shampoo basins and massage grateful scalps with pampering lather. Millions of gallons of detergent-based shampoo – laced with various toxins – snakes its way into treatment plants, and unfortunately, our waterways.
In fact, 80 percent of the world’s wastewater is dumped – largely untreated – back into the rivers, lakes, and oceans. Nearly half of our rivers and streamsand more than one-third of our lakes are polluted and unfit for swimming, fishing, and drinking.
As a company that makes hair care products to satisfy both hairdressers and consumers, water is our lifeblood. Not only is it a primary product ingredient, but it also makes hairdressers’ work possible and allows our hero product, New Wash, to do its job.
So as a part of our environmental initiative, and a desire to engage our customers in charitable giving, we joined 1% For The Planet, contributing 1% of our New Wash sales to organizations helping to solve the water-related issues that threaten vast oceans to tiny creeks.
Did you know?
Over 97% of all water on Earth is salty. Most of the remaining 3% is frozen in the poles – or was. The less than 1% remaining is stored in the atmosphere, rivers, lakes, and underground, and this tiny fraction provides all the freshwater needed to support the Earth’s entire population. In other words, what we’ve got is all we’ve got – until technology provides an alternative.
In 2002, Yvon Chouinard, founder of Patagonia, and Craig Mathews, founder of Blue Ribbon Flies, created 1% for the Planet to “bring dollars and doers together to accelerate smart environmental giving.”
What is 1% For The Planet?
What began as a shared love for the outdoors has bloomed into donations of nearly $300 million to environmental nonprofits.
“The intent of 1% for the Planet is to help fund these diverse environmental organizations so that collectively they can be a more powerful source in solving the world’s problems,” writes Chouinard in his book “Let My People Go Surfing.”
1% for the Planet connects member companies – such as Hairstory – with high-impact nonprofit partners whose values are aligned. More than 2,000 members in over 45 countries now direct essential funds to people who are solving the world’s ecological puzzle in six core areas: climate, food, land, pollution, water, and wildlife.
Hairstory CEO Eli Halliwell, a long time admirer of Mr. Choinard and lover of mountain sports, committed to join 1% for the Planet. Historically, we’ve invited our customers to decide how the money they collectively contribute should be awarded. Since joining in January 2018, we have directed over $103,000 to those working on our behalf from Malibu to Niger. Along with funding, these organizations also enjoy a heightened awareness of their efforts within the Hairstory community.
This initiative serves to remind our customers and their hairdressers about our commitment to sustainability – and as we all step into our showers and turn on the taps it helps us all be mindful that a cleansing method such as New Wash can have major benefits for our bodies, which are inseparable from our miraculous planet.
With biodiversity shrinking, ecosystems collapsing, and oceans warming, it reminds us to put our money where our mouths are. Companies exploit resources and create waste by virtue of their very existence, and our job is to continuously reduce our impact and adopt new technology as it emerges. Phasing out traditional plastic bottles and introducing flexible pouches, offering reusable and refillable packaging options, and formulating with responsibly-sourced, high-quality, low-toxicity ingredients are all ways we do our part.
Every 1% counts.
