This new partnership with Complexions Spa will specifically assist MatterofTrust.org in making oil spill hairmats out of salon hair clippings swept off the floor and previously discarded. Because hair is a natural absorbent fiber, the clippings are used to create oil spill hairmats and help contain disastrous petroleum spills. The hair is stuffed into tubes (booms) made from recycled nylons and used for emergency oil spills around the nation. The mats are also extremely efficient for oil drip pans, machinery, pipelines, and even as booms for storm drains. “There are more than 370,000 hair salons in the U.S. and each salon collects conservatively about one pound of hair a day. Right now, most of that goes into the waste stream. Imagine the positive environmental impact if more salons donated their hair clippings to this great effort,”
Being an Eco-Friendly spa I am constantly looking for ways to do good for our environment. Currently I pay my waste removal company for three different types of dumpsters. One for trash, one for paper and cardboard, and one for metal. It seems crazy that we have to pay extra to do the right thing. It’s kind of like trying to eat right but at a higher cost.
We’ve learned the value of our Facebook page first hand. Social marketing is a game-changing phenomenon that is here to stay. I see less and less print forms of advertising in the very near future for us. In fact, we have already cut way back and saved thousands of advertising dollars by doing so! Every dollar saved equals another dollar re-invested back into what we do best – help people look and feel their absolute best. What’s more, less print /direct mail also compliments our commitment to green, environmentally friendly business building practices.
On September 29, 2008 we hosted a ceremony at the spa to present those individuals who helped us with our “greening” efforts. The awards were presented by Mike Breslin from the City of Albany. The people who received a certificate for their collaborative efforts with our “greening” process included our architect Greg Sellman, Naomi Miller Lighting [...]
Reaching Gold LEED certification means more than you can imagine. When we first started out with this challenging process, we met people who thought we were crazy. We were discouraged by some who thought the task was far to difficult to accomplish for a small busines of my size and to expensive to [...]
Yesterday we received notification from the US Green Building Council that we have been approved for Gold LEED certification for New Construction. We are so pleased. We will be receiving a beautiful plaque from USGBC which we will display in our reception area. We did do a search and found that we [...]
Just checked the LEED on line web page and the status of our project looks really good. Right now we have enough points approved to reach Gold Level! We are in line to be certified for New Construction. I can’t tell you how happy I will be when this is officially awarded. [...]
I recieved an email a few days ago letting us know the status of our LEED certification. Some of the points we applied for we did recieve and some needed additional clarification. We had to send it over to the electrical engineer who is working on the project. Many of the points in question pertained to [...]
We have been in our new Complexions Spa location at 221 Wolf Road for eleven months now. Earlier this week, I decided to take a quick look at the actual energy savings – if any – we’ve enjoyed thus far. Here is the quick, back-of-the-napkin rundown:
In our previous location we had 4200 sf. In our [...]
We closed on the new Complexions building in November of 2007 and immediately began demolishing the existing building. Many – my sons especially – think of demolition as a super-fun activity. If only that were true with Green construction! Long story short – we had to be very very careful every step of the way.
First [...]
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While it did cost a bit more money on the front-end to make Complexions Spa an energy efficient facility, it appears more and more likely with each passing month that our year-over-year energy savings will take care of the initial investment far sooner than originally forecast. And that’s with oil being sold at [...]
From Suzie’s Spa Blog over at SpaFinder:
Eco-Embedded Spas: A Deeper Shade of Green: Back in 2005, SpaFinder identified the eco-spa boom, crystallizing the first industry definition, still widely used today. In our 2007 forecast..
I have to agree with Suzie regarding what it means to be a real Green Spa………I have recently completed a year long [...]
At one of our SAIC and NYSERDA meetings we learned about the NYSERDA LOAN FUND. It was an opportunity for us to reduce our mortgage rate by 4 interest percentage points. In order to move on this we had to fill out an application at the start of the project. We also had to have the bank preapproved [...]
I began the project of building Complexions Green after going to a business meeting with my sister in law in Florida in May of 2006. When I returned, I discussed my ideas with my brother Tony who is a structural engineer. He was interested with the concept and knew just who to contact. My father [...]
I had a meeting with NYSERDA last Wednesday to submit the application and supporting documentation for the Loan Fund. It was a tremendous amount of work. At the beginning of our project we submitted an introductory application along with our bank being approved and also filling out a section of the application. [...]
