https://www.modernsalon.com/616012/green-circle-salons-joins-the-ever-growing-b-corp-movement

Written by Modern Salon’s Stacey Soble, this article features Green Circle Salons recently becoming certified as a B Corp. A Benefit Corporation certification is granted by B Lab Company which ensures for-profit businesses “meet rigorous standards of social and environmental performance, accountability, and transparency” (Soble). Patagonia and Tom’s being the most famous B Corps, these companies make it a mission to do more good for this planet than harm. The company’s policy’s and practices are evaluated to determine the level of environmental and social responsibility the company is taking.

Green Circle Salons has realized the impact of non-recyclable waste salons generate and have vowed to reduce the amount of waste the beauty industry produces. The company spent it’s first ten years “focusing on innovating, recycling, repurposing and reusing beauty waste” (Soble). Basically, they send garbage and recycling receptacles to salons so the salons can send it back to Green Circle to properly disposed of so waste can be reduced.

What stood out to me about this article is that it a taking about a company in the beauty industry becoming a B Corp. The beauty industry talks a lot about how they want to see a better planet, but I honestly rarely see where these companies are actually doing that on a social or environmental level beyond making their clients feel beautiful then charging them way too much for beauty services. Honestly though, I don’t feel like this article was written with much attention to detail. It is a professional publication in a widely acclaimed magazine; however, the article doesn’t even say specifically what or how Green Circle Salons enacts their mission. I had to go to their website to understand that they have salons send their garbage back to them. The article mainly just mentioned how the founders realized the beauty industry creates so many pounds of garbage a year and they’re trying to reduce that number. Then the quotes from the CEO and other employees are block quotes that have no integration into the piece. They are merely marked with, “Team members at Green Circle Salons have a lot to say on the matter:”

I would say the content of the article was very good and the writing was mostly good. I appreciate how B Corps was explained because not many people know what that is. Also, the article uses colorful and expressive language to discuss the company and its mission. It’s somewhat conversational in tone, making it very easy to ready. My biggest complaint would be that the article felt like it was rushed when it was written so the interviews or quotes were not properly integrated into the piece to help the flow.