AMANDA 0:02 Welcome to the purpose power brand, a podcast about leaders and brands transforming business into a force for good. I'm Amanda Stassen, business and brand strategist, social justice advocate and founder of BIZU Innovation Group. I'll be speaking with leaders who are proving that not only does purpose drive profit, but the future of our world depends on it. If you want to grow your business, increase your brand loyalty and not get left behind in the ever-changing marketplace, this podcast is for you.

Today we're talking with Shane Price Founder and CEO of Green Circle Salons, the beauty industries first salon solution dedicated to fighting beauty waste and climate change. Welcome Shane to the purpose power brand podcast. Thanks so much for joining us today.

SHANE 0:46 Thank you, Amanda. It's terrific to be here, and I am grateful.

AMANDA 0:51 So okay, before we start, I am a really big fan of origin stories, I love to get a glimpse on how things came to be because I'm convinced there's always a human lesson to learn. And maybe on the B side of this, we can share who our favorite Marvel comic origin story is. But with your background in biochemistry and molecular biology, tell me about the origin story, where the idea of Green Circle Salons came from. I have this little mini hypothesis in the back of my mind that there was like a light bulb moment while sitting in a salon chair that just came to you. Talk to me about it.

SHANE 1:32 Ya no, it's, you know, making the connection and the bridge between that my undergraduate degree and then how I came to find myself in that salon chair, because you're right, that's kind of where the spark went off. It's a long and windy road as probably you know, most of us who are building companies out there, that's how we find ourselves doing what we do. You know, I probably should have gotten a degree in business I didn’t. I went out and I you know what I just the things that come came more naturally to me were the sciences. And I excelled in those genres in school. Everything else I wasn't great at. And so you know what I kind of graduated from university, I needed a break between going on between my undergrad and going on to do my Masters took off to Japan. And I was planning on going for a year and spent eight years there building a small business a solopreneur.

And I had a lot of fun bringing groups over to Canada to do these outdoor experiential programs. And I realized, you know what this was probably after eight years of doing it, I needed, I needed to get back to Canada, I needed to be with my, my family, my parents, my siblings, and also my group of friends I grew up with. So, I made that decision, I came back. And you kind of fast forward into this moment where I was in a salon. And I didn't really grow up being a salon kid, I got my hair cut by my dad. He wasn't a barber or anything, but, but he's the guy who cut my hair. And then I would see, you know, I had a barber that I would go to. And then one day I walked into a salon and I was sitting in the chair. And that sort of lightbulb moment happened. I noticed all the waste that was being put into sort of these garbage bags. And in Toronto, when you put garbage at the curbside as a commercial as a business, you have to pay for that. Right? And there's, it's you know, it's $3 and change for every bag to curbside. And what I was curious about was why all of this what seemed to be recyclable or compostable? Or some sort of like, you know, you could you could extract value from this waste. Why was it going into landfill? Why was it being sent to garbage? Why were people paying for that to be sent to garbage? Because it you know, when it goes to landfill, there's all kinds of other complications, you know, and pollution and environmental issues related to that. So I just got curious about it really to start. And I began asking questions of salons here in Toronto. I tried to understand what what was going on at the city level, the municipality, you know, these different types of businesses, how are they managing these different streams? And so that was the lightbulb moment was sort of like, okay, no one is managing this in any kind of meaningful way. How do we flip this upside down and look at the waste from a radically different approach. And I remember being told at that time by salon owners, this is never going to fly. You're never going to get salons on board with such a program. And I tell you, it's it couldn't be further from the truth. The salon industry has fully embraced this program. And yeah, we're loving it and enjoying the work that we do.

AMANDA 4:40 Oh, that's, that's awesome. That's awesome. It's interesting. One of the things that you highlighted was the curiosity. I love that as a thing to really keep in mind for all of us is, is it's curiosity that sparks the next step. So you're on a mission, you're on a mission to help salons get green, build revenue, gain clients and save money. Let's get a little bit into the business model just a little bit. How is that greenification revenue building for the owner? And then the second part of that is how does it actually help them save money?

SHANE 5:18 Absolutely. Okay. So if we start with sort of the B green elements, which you've identified, so fantastic, being green building revenue, gaining clients and saving money. So if you think about the sort of the being green elements, it's, you know, we're a zero waste to landfill certified organization, which for us means that if we're going to deliver a service, we have to be really walking the talk. You know, we're all aware of, of greenwashing today. And we all know that recycling companies are being scrutinized for the amount of waste that they collect and the actual recycling of the material. And so we wanted to ensure that as we walked down this road, that actually 100% of the material that we collect, gets recycled. And it comes to be that 95% of the waste generated at the salon level is actually recoverable in some way.

And so we can get that the value of that waste back into our economy. And so when we look at, you know, to get granular like you asked, like, you look at hair clippings, and foils, and colored tubes, and paper and plastic and the residual chemicals, and you the aluminum foil, that's all that stuff that's created when we when we go to a salon to look beautiful. Well, we don't really think about where does it all go when we leave the salon? It’s kind of this human natural instinct to say, I don't want to have to think about waste. I never want to have to think about it. Humans are built that way. Most animals probably are built that way, we want to get away from our waste. But the reality is, is there's a downstream impact of that. So that's where it started was how do we address fundamentally the why the issue of the challenges created? And so you know, when you go to a salon to look beautiful well, isn't it great, if you could imagine that you can actually keep the planet beautiful in that process. And to us, it was very clear, like there's an opportunity here, because that's not what's happening today. But that message can resonate with any I don't want to say consumer, but any citizen or any sort of stakeholder in the health of our planet and in our communities, right?

So it works on all these different levels. And so that was fundamentally the critical pieces is, is there a need? There's a need? We've solved we understand that, how do we fund it? And here's the challenge of funding is the waste that's created at the salon level has like zero to no value. In fact, it's a cost center when you really look at the kind of hard to recycle stuff that salons create. Right? So these things, you know, the foils, you look at hair clippings, you look at the chemicals that are created these, there's there's no real sort of commodity or commercial value. So these are cost centers. So how do we actually fund this change.

And to do that, what we needed to do is create a model where everyone is involved, so everyone can win. So that means the salon guest who goes to a salon has a place and a part to play in this model, the salon owner, their staff have a place to play, us because we help collect the material and manage the waste itself, we play a part in this. So this value chain that we created, kind of has a place for everybody to be involved in making this change happen. When a salon guests goes to a green circle certified salon, the salon has embedded in their service fees, they've embedded a very small sort of stewardship fee, that helps to offset the cost of being able to manage this waste, because it has a cost if you're a business, you've got to be able to account for all of your costs. That's what that's what any business would do. Managing the waste stream is something that the salons had never really thought to embed in their operating costs. So we created this funding mechanism for salons to be able to do this and actually empower them with a bunch of tools and communications to help amplify the story and the messaging around this so that they can actually kind of become heroes, to their customers.

Right, so it's, you know, at the end of the day, if you're going to do this kind of work, you need to enroll everybody that's a part of your world. And it ultimately is it relies on a model where everybody's involved, like I said, and when everybody's working together, we can achieve really incredible things.

So that's kind of how that how that works on that. And as we built this so that's the B green in the building revenue as we built this, what we've come to realize is actually you can tap into this sort of citizen consumer salon guest mindset, because

there's a lot of people who are actually looking to channel their spending dollars into businesses that are helping not hurting the planet. So now you have this whole new, not competitive difference. But this differentiator review as a salon or spa in the marketplace, that attracts a new type of consumer that's looking for values aligned organizations to support.

AMANDA 10:16 I love that, I love the turning the business model on its head and thinking beyond what people typically think when they, when they go to buy a organic, or call it a green product, there's an understanding that there's a green premium to it. And I think we're all looking forward to the day where it's not perceived as a green premium. But rather, it's just, it's just the cost of living and taking care of the world that we live in taking care of one another and this world, and no one's ever thought of it before like that, it's, you know, we want to drive down the cost. We don't care how much it costs, anything to drive down that cost. And now we're waking up to the reality that it actually is costing us a lot more. And we all have a part and a role to play in it, which is exactly what you're saying. It's an awareness, and it's an opening of one's mind that it's not just about you and your small little circle, if you will.

SHANE 11:17 Yeah, I love that, Amanda, and you're absolutely right, you know, you can't solve the 21st century, you know, problems that we're faced with are the challenges of our time, with an you know, a 20th century way of thinking about business, we just can't do it. And so in order for us to tackle the real challenges, we have to have a, I would say a radically different approach. It's not radical, when you really think about sort of the responsibility of business, when did it become okay for business to say, I'm going to do X at the expense of Y, right at the expense of the health and well-being of our communities and our environment, our local environment, our global environments, it's never been okay. And so, you know, our belief is that is that as part of this radical new approach, when you can close the gap between how the earth actually lives, and how we carry out our commercial lives, this is when you're really solving our future challenges. And, you know, we really have a way of looking at it sort of saying, if we're thinking about our future generations, what is it that they expect of us? What is it that they hope that we will do on our watch, as, as business leaders and owners to protect the legacy that belongs to them, it doesn't belong to us. It's that sort of seven generations later thinking that is, it's critical today. And to your point, I think this is going to be the way that businesses really are built in the future. That's certainly the hope.

AMANDA 12:50 Yeah, absolutely. Absolutely. And I think it's, it's changing the way CEOs and leaders are thinking about their role. I really do believe that gone are the days where the term of a CEO is like two to three years, and then I'm rolling over to the next role. There is there's a shifting in our minds as humans that says, listen, it's not just about my two to three year window, where I'm going to go in and do this big splash. It's actually about exactly what you said, seven generations, the legacy that I'm leaving in this place, the impact that I could have in this place, is so much greater than my two to three year shareholder window and return. So I think your language is exactly it, you're not just creating a language or you're not just creating a model, rather, you're creating a new language for us to communicate with. So gone are the days of the consumer who just consumes, and we're upon a new day where we are all citizens working together, I love that transformation, even in the language that you're offering

SHANE 13:58 Totally, totally in, I mean, that I'm inspired by what you're saying. Because when you think about it, you know, as a leader in an organization, or as a CEO, you have to just sort of wonder or question or be curious about what you can do inside of your, you know, inside the organization. Even from a legal standpoint, if you can look at your shareholder agreements, or what the board can sign you up for or B Corp certification, or all these different sort of levels of transformation that are not there. They're built for long term, not short term thinking. Right? You know, and in for the case, the case that needs to be made for a CEO. It's as simple as looking at a forest right? If you look at a forest, it's performing colossal life-giving services free of charge to our planet every day. We know that right? Forests clean our water, they purify our air, they decontaminate our soil. There's all these things that are they're priceless in value. And humans, right businesses, CEOs of companies, leaders have no technology to do this at scale today. We can't do what nature can do. But the nerds, of course, they've calculated the worth of all that stuff. And if we had to do it as businesses, you know, we the technology, the cost would be it's, I think, you know, the cost of the global economy of what nature and force do for free is like two to five trillion a year. So how can we, how can we embed the cost, that mindset of the cost benefit of taking care of nature, into our P&L? Right, into our longer term vision for building revenue and building value for a company with this line of thinking? And that is going to be the future of business. And it's just we're just dragging our heels? That's all it is? It's kind of, as far as I'm concerned. I think that's all it is, right? It's hard work sometimes tied to boards and shareholders. But CEOs and executives have a responsibility. And it goes way beyond that that bottom line.

AMANDA 15:59 Yeah, it's going to require a very new way of looking at what a return on investment is. Because to incorporate this idea of the true worth of something, and to incorporate the cost of utilizing the true worth of something that isn't something that we figured out yet. So it's going to be a journey, as you've said, one of the things that I’m just fascinated by, you're not just in the business of recycling and recovering, you guys have actually done some really innovative work using hair to help clean up oil spills. And specifically in 2010. In the oil drilling rig, Deepwater Horizon, that whole explosion off the Gulf of Mexico killed 11 workers, largest oil spill in the history of marine oil drilling. Tell me a little bit about how you guys got involved? And what was the idea?

SHANE 16:56 I love that you just go right to that, like the hard line of what happened? Because, right, like, it is painting done. And you do that so well. So you know, what we actually had just launched, it was 2009, that we got to Green Circle Salons, sort of off the ground and going and in 2010, you know, is still very much two feet in a heartbeat, you know, knocking on doors, talking to salon owners, you know, telling us to get the heck out that they weren't they didn't want any solicitors in the door. But as soon as we would say no, we're here to collect your hair. And we want to do some great things with it. We're not selling you anything. You know, they would say, you know, shut the front door, sit down, and let's talk because it was like the industry was on fire with this sort of like how do we, how can we be a part of greater change. We are tapping into a beautiful industry of waste warriors who are the ones who really make all this magic happen. But at the time, you know, we were still very small, we were just in Toronto and so at that time, we had a nice collection of salons on board, we had about 1000 pounds of hair.

And in 2010, as you stated the oil spill happened. And we were sort of acutely aware of different organizations that were looking at how to use hair clippings to absorb oil spills as they were happening, particularly in the US. And so when this happened, I reached out to somebody that I knew in the US. And they were organizing a volunteer group in the Gulf of Mexico, and asking for hair donations. And so we got involved, we didn't have a whole lot of capacity at the time in terms of resources like money, because we were still very much in the startup. And so I reached out to some partners that we had in Canada, the L'Oreal group with Redkin and this group. And and we asked, could you help us get the hair clippings down to the Gulf where the oil spill happened? Because we need that support. And again, we just collaborated with various partners to bring that to life and the hair is yeah, I mean, it's one of the best absorbents in the world. We've since done research with Sir Sanford, Fleming, college and other groups to really understand, you know, hair is a fiber has incredible capabilities, right? It's grown locally, it's a naturally recurring resource was lots of great things about hair that that make it such a great resource for us to use and get back into our economy and create value out of it. Because you know, other than that, it goes into landfill and creates methane and, and methane is you know, is a very strong greenhouse gas and has about 80 times the impact of carbon dioxide as it relates to greenhouse gas emissions. So as much as we can we want to keep that from happening and using hair fiber in that capacity was the beginning of something really big and looking at a number of different types of opportunities with hair.

AMANDA 19:53 That's phenomenal. And when I think, when we think of innovation, we don't necessarily think about the everyday things that we can do we think of these sort of massive technology type of innovations. But the reality is, as you've just described it, hair doesn't - I would think that hair doesn't biodegrade naturally. And what you're describing is, while it does, there's a, there's something else that's added something else that happens to it, when it's doing that. It doesn't happen quickly. And so who would have thought about that differently? I think that that's just an amazing way into innovation.

SHANE 20:35 Yeah, you know, it was I believe it was in the 80s that in Toronto in Ontario, they did I think it was Kitchener Waterloo, I believe, actually, that they did this study, and they, they kind of drilled into the side of a landfill, and they pulled out a core sample, right? And they kind of look at this core, and they say, okay, so let's, let's date everything. And they actually found Iceberg lettuce from the 1970s that has not decomposed. Because, yeah, because when you when you put all this when you you know, landfill this when you landfill all this waste, when it's organic, it kind of you kind of you keep burying it in it. And so it only, this waste only breaks down and and it's sort of breaking down through anaerobic right conditions, where if it's aerobic, it breaks down and creates water and carbon dioxide. But when it's breaking down anaerobically it's creating methane. And so you've got this methane that's building up in our landfills as a result of putting all this organic waste into it. And so we've learned, I mean, landfills are being built better. They're figuring it out and working towards it. But this is the reality. And so when you put a fiber like hair, it just doesn't break down when you put it in landfill. That's why you see mummies that are ancient, that still the hair is still kind of, you know, it's still the thing that's intact, that and the bones. So and so yeah, so we've just figured that look at this is a fiber that has so much potential and value. And the more we've looked at that, the more we realize, Oh, my goodness, we're there's something incredible here. And the beauty industry has, you know, really obviously rallied around this this concept.

AMANDA 22:10 That's phenomenal. And potentially, in terms of being a innovation in helping of oil spills. But are there avenues where it could even be a revenue stream? Is that, is that even something that's an exploration potentially?

SHANE 22:25 Yeah, that's definitely our hope, you know, right now, so you know, the work that we've been doing worked with Virginia Tech, and we developed a new type of bio composite material. And so we use recycled hair and recycled plastics. And we have this formulation to make a type of new bio composite plastic mixed between these two materials. And so today, for example, we manufacture the recycling bins that we send to salons as part of the program we manufacture from this bio composite material. And our goal there is to really create a circular sort of situation or close the loop on this waste stream. So if you're taking hair from a salon, how do you get it back into the salon in some sort of valuable product that actually locks in the carbon. And so you're not, you're not allowing it to break down, but you're creating a way for that carbon to be locked in. And so this is where we see the value in areas like this, there's a number of other projects on the way. You know, keratin is really it's a protein, it's a polypeptide chain, which can be broken down into amino acids, and amino acids today, or when you think about biostimulants and fertilizers, amino acids are a hot opportunity. And so could we could we be using these amino acids from human hair to fertilize or bio stimulate plants, and sort of bring down the amount of fertilizers being used today because fertilizers really create a lot of nitrous oxide. And that is, you know, again, another contributor to climate change. So, we're looking at these opportunities, and all of these are today, just major cost centers for us. But we believe that, you know, again, working alongside stakeholders that we can solve some of these other challenges by bringing together stakeholders and people and researchers and conversations that never existed in the past. The future is also all about that, right? It's all about collaboration, not being afraid to collaborate, reaching across the table to who knows who opening up all kinds of opportunities.

AMANDA 24:38 Yeah, it's phenomenal. You've touched on so many different aspects of the circular economy and, developing a mindset of end-to-end life stage management of a business or a brand. It's not just coming up with the idea and having a need, but it's actually thinking through purposefully all the stages that your business or brand or whatever you produce or manufacture, all the stages that goes through, and then having a value creation aspect to it. What do we do with this waste? What do we do with these clippings? What do we what can we do to create value and bring good into the world? No, it's really fantastic.

SHANE 25:20 And as you say that, all of that, right this is you think about the why, right? All of that is being done. So that we can protect our air, our water and our soil. That's it. Like, that's the driver. And when the driver is that, you know, it's this incredible situation where the universe rises up to meet you, the world rises up to meet you, stakeholders rise up to meet you. Because, you know, there are a lot of other stakeholders in the world that want the same thing that we want. It's, you know, I mean, it's natural that we all want air, water and soil, because we're made of air, water and soil, and sun. So it's quite easy. When you lead with purpose in that way. Because you'll find I mean, you know, around you, and you know, this with, with your podcast, and the different entrepreneurs and leaders that you speak to, that they're all on a very similar mission, right when they're leading with purpose.

AMANDA 26:13 Yeah, yeah. absolutely, absolutely. So listen, in every episode, we want to leave our listeners with some purpose power tips they can apply today to level up their business and brand, what would you say are your top two practical power tips for how to activate and harness purpose to drive growth?

SHANE 26:35 So yeah, I think the first is always going to be you know, and I learned this inside of, I'm part of a coaching group called Strategic Coach and Dan Sullivan will say this, and I think it's one of the most powerful things that I've ever heard. As a CEO, ultimately, your job, or my job is to bring purpose, and passion, to other people's great capabilities and talents. So that is it, this is a big one. And when CEOs can sort of get out from either behind their desk, or hiding behind some sort of false narrative of what they think their responsibilities are, really, it gets down to empowering your people, driving a healthy, healthy organization that's rich in in thinking about your core values, and aligning your team on your core values and your vision for the company. But really bringing in the talent that is super capable, because there's lots of that out there, right? That's one.

And second, and to do number one, you know, you got to lead with courage, you got to have the courage to do it, you got to have the courage to think about your business in a very different way. Because if you're not, you're not a leader, the whole point of being a leader is that you're, you're leading on the edge of something new, and not doing the same thing that's been done in the past over and over and expecting great results. You know, it's just, you know, 52% of the Fortune 500 companies that were, you know, 15 years ago in business, they're gone. They're extinct. Businesses are changing radically today, and that for an owner, an entrepreneur, a CEO of a large company, it really means having the courage to challenge the status quo, and bring passion and purpose to your people.

AMANDA 28:28 I love it. I love it. Shane has been fantastic chatting with you. Thank you for all you're doing in and through Green Circle Salons to make people's lives and the world better. Any final thoughts you want to share?

SHANE 28:43 No I love this. I'm just I'm on fire inside this conversation, because you make me think about the business in such a more holistic way. I love your questions. I love your podcast, and I just yeah, keep up the great work. And this stuff is really important. And people just you know, I'm excited for people to listen to this and to take steps towards becoming the leader that they that they can be it this stuff excites me.

AMANDA 29:11 Awesome. Me too. So last thing, where can people find you and learn more? Maybe do a call out to your website?

SHANE 29:18 Absolutely. So it's people can find us at greencirclesalons.com or.ca .CA we founded ourselves here in Canada so .ca. Our social media channels, green circle salons we're on, you know, obviously on Facebook on Instagram, tick tock these things. And really just find us there and strike up a conversation, call us fill out a form and we'll get in touch with you and we'll help you however we can or address any questions or issues that people might have.

Thank you. Thank you, Shane. Yeah, thank you, Amanda. This has been this has been terrific. Thank you.

AMANDA 29:53 Thanks for listening to the purpose power brand Podcast. I'm Amanda Stassen. If you liked what you heard, be sure to share and subscribe on your favorite podcast player. We'd also love to hear what resonated with you or if you have a guest suggestion, drop us a line at info@bizu.co. Special thanks to Mark Salam for original music and lead podcasting for production. Lastly, if you're ready to purpose power your brand to grow, win and impact at scale. Let's talk visit www.bizu.co. Bye for now