From recycling hair to solving community issues, this Champion is making waves.
Every year we award a Small Business Champion at our National Small Business Summit to recognise and acknowledge small business influencers who are making a genuine difference to their industry or the sector.
This year’s winners, Paul Frasca and Ewelina Soroko, co-founders of Sustainable Salons were recognised for their impact on the hairdressing industry and setting a clear example of how small business can drive sustainability. Sustainable Salons have designed an above-ground mining business for the hairdressing industry, collecting up to 95% of salons' waste bins and re-purposing the material for environmental and community benefit.
This is a small business who are worthy winners of this prestigious award and their vision to make ‘salon waste’ history is truly inspiring. These are people who are innovative and open to change, stopping at no boundaries; they have done some amazing things, not only connecting the hairdressing community, but they have built a successful business, and they’ve done it sustainably.
Paul Frasca, managing director, hairdresser and self-confessed ‘above-ground miner’, attended our gala dinner and was thrilled with the win, saying it was their fantasy business plan that pushed them to make a difference. Here's what he had to say:
“It’s an honour to be awarded this as a small business. Ewelina and I started this business by really creating a fantasy business plan, while travelling around Australia, we wanted to create a business that we wanted to wake up to every day.
“This business plan captured more than just recycling, it was actually about solving community issues, and more importantly the profiting issues within that. Because every time someone thinks of a green idea, they say, ‘it’s not making any money’, but it can today. What we did in our business to make it successful was to solve the community issue, the recycling issue, and the profitability issue - that is truly ‘sustainability’."
“We’ve got more than 800 members of Sustainable Salons (and growing!) in the hairdressing, barbering, beauty and pet-grooming sectors across Australia and New Zealand.
“We are thrilled with everything we have achieved for our community as a business and with lots of exciting new research into uses of hair, we are committed and eager to see what the future of sustainability in above-ground mining looks like."
For more on Sustainable Salons visit: www.sustainablesalons.org