Sally Beauty Supply ups green initiatives

Aiming to reduce the company’s environmental impact, Denton, Texas-based Sally Beauty Holdings Inc. revealed a new plan called “SBH Going Green” that will reduce waste and energy use throughout its stores, supply chain and headquarters.

Beginning next year, as part of the initiative, all of the company’s stores will discontinue the use of plastic bags (offering alternatives like paper bags or reusable totes and bags made from recycled materials). That first step of the plan expects to eliminate more than 104 million plastic bags from landfills annually.

Earlier this week, Giant Eagle also announced it would eliminate plastic bags.

Also under the plan, Sally Beauty Holdings will begin a process to remove styrofoam from its operations and own brand products, and at the headquarters launched a cardboard recycling program that could see five to seven tons of cardboard recycled a year.

Sally Beauty Holdings also announced it will continue to make its own brands with cleaner product development and sourcing, such as the Ion store brand label of shampoos and conditioners that are “cruelty free.” Also, more than half of the own brands products are vegan, and the goal for the company is to have 80% of its own brand product be vegan by end of 2021.

Lastly, earlier in the year, Sally Beauty activated an energy management pilot program in 64 stores that saw a 34% reduction in energy per store. Part of SBH Going Green, this energy-reducing strategy will be added to more stores over the next three years, beginning with the stores that show the highest energy usage.

In all, Sally Beauty operates more than 5,000 stores throughout the U.S., Puerto Rico, Canada, Mexico, Chile, Peru, United Kingdom, Ireland, Belgium, France, the Netherlands, Spain and Germany.