Packaged to Save the Planet
Sebastian International did more than sing the praises of its latest cuts and colors early this week at the Hairdressers’ Guild show in Long Beach.
Executives of the Woodland Hills hair-care and cosmetics company put employees in issue-oriented T-shirts (“Protect the Planet, Protect the Species”), introduced biodegradable packaging and sealed its commitment to the Rainforest Foundation with a $50,000 check and a promise of $200,000 more by the end of the year.
While Sebastian’s environmental statement was the most ambitious and elaborately staged, it wasn’t the only one issued during the two-day trade show.
Aveda Corp., Minneapolis-based makers of beauty products from flower and plant essences, announced (on recycled paper) that it was a member of the Coalition for Environmentally Responsible Economies and a sponsor of Earth Day 1990.
Steve Stefano, president of Joico, a Los-Angeles company specializing in products for damaged hair, reiterated his commitment “to a cleaner, more healthful environment” and let it be known that his firm had eliminated all aerosol cans--at a cost of $60,000 and a potentially significant revenue loss--because of dissatisfied customers.
After a demonstration of 1990 hair trends Sunday night at the New Otani Hotel, Stefano urged his 180 international distributors “to recycle everything you can” and presented a fashion show of clothing made from newspapers by Canadian designer Liza Deyrmenjian.
Sebastian’s mainstream approach to statement clothing--two Protect the Planet T-shirts--will be sold in affiliated salons across the country. A portion of each sale goes to the Rainforest Foundation, and a similar program applies to select Sebastian products in brown paper bags printed with such information as: “Tropical deforestation is comparable to nuclear war. . . . The continued destruction of the rain forests . . . at a rate of 60 acres per minute will lead to flooding, erosion . . . and . . . climate changes world-wide. . . .”
Along with its Rainforest Foundation program, which includes videos, posters and brochures, Sebastian is making packaging and formula changes that will turn everything the company sells “earth friendly,” according to company president John Sebastian.
Introducing biodegradable bottles, made from cornstarch and high-density polypropylene, Sebastian said they were chosen as “the first step forward to something positive,” despite controversy. (The environmentally involved, including a spokesperson for the California Integrated Waste Management Board, have expressed doubts that anything, including cornstarch and polypropylene packaging, can degrade in most landfill conditions.)
In addition, two of the company’s most popular products, Hi-Energy Hold and Hair Gloss, will no longer be manufactured because their formulas couldn’t be made “environmentally friendly.”
“The key to the future is being able to form a healthy alliance with a company like Sebastian” said Jean-Pierre Dutilleux, founder of the Rain Forest Foundation, noting this was the first alliance between his organization and an American firm. “I hope this could be the start of a grass-roots movement.”
