Anne Veck Limited is an Oxford award winning hair salon championing sustainable and ethical business practice in the hairdressing industry. We have been net C02 neutral since 2019, we work hard to reduce energy use, waste, plastic, card and paper and we pay attention to our supply chain. Our main haircare product supplier is Davines, a B-Corp company and Benefit Corporation with a commitment to sustainability and biodiversity in its DNA. We sponsor BBOWT and Anne Veck Limited is a founder member of the UK Business & Biodiversity Forum, a B2B hub exchanging best practice and working with government to reinforce the role of business in reversing the catastrophic loss of nature.

I am particularly interested in how small and micro businesses can make sense of this huge issue and (to use an awful term!) "mainstream" biodiversity into their business operations.  My take on this, is that rather than (or as well as) searching for biodiversity specific actions, the best way forward is to tackle sustainability generally – in other words recognise the joined up, holistic challenge we face in saving the planet and act accordingly. Reduce energy consumption and CO₂ emissions, reduce water use, pollution and waste, reduce plastic use, paper and card and choose sustainable and ethical suppliers. By doing this, your small business will reduce its impact on forests, freshwater and oceans and the biodiversity within. Choose suppliers who only use ethically certified palm oil, source meat and fish for your restaurant only from 100% local and ethical producers (not easy I know!), buy only organic cotton and certainly not cotton produced by slave labour in China...these are some examples.

It can cost more to run your business in more sustainable and nature-friendly ways. (Although reducing energy use and CO₂ emissions is an example of how it reduces costs). On the other hand, the public now demands that the businesses they buy from are operating ethically, sustainably and in positive ways for nature. Your commitment to this can be an important part of your marketing mix. It works for us at Anne Veck Oxford. So many of our clients tell us they choose us to do their hair because we are trying to be sustainable and biodiversity positive. 

“I look forward to receiving updates from Wild Oxfordshire, not only the news, but also the comprehensive links to external information – the most useful I get in terms of breadth of coverage by a mile.”

For a user friendly guide to making your hair or beauty salon more sustainable which is also useful for most small business, Anne Veck Limited has created "Salon Re:Source", a sustainable salon toolkit. Get it here, its free! bit.ly/SalonReSourceUK

For more on the UKBBF,  https://www.linkedin.com/company/uk-business-biodiversity-forum

Keith Mellen, Managing Director, Anne Veck Limited – www.anneveckhair.com

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