Wanting to grow our business and soften the world one jar at a time started from the first time we sold to customers. Wanting to keep our impact on the earth as small as possible was equally important to us, because it correlated to our mission of wellness and care. I recently came across a wonderful post about Cheap Green Living. There are some wonderful ideas on how to reduce your footprint as well.
We strive hard to maintain that philosophy even 12 years and thousands of jars later. Here are some of the ways we keep our footprint on the small size.
Small batch efficiency:
When we first started out, we were hand crafting everything in small batches, using little energy. We still are. Making 12-16 jar batches keeps everything fresh and turn around easy. Less muss, less fuss, less waste. We love not mass producing. It makes for a better product and a very small energy output.
Our jars are recyclable:
Our jars can be recycled or reused. We like reusing the best. Whether for a ScrubzBody scrub refill or a bunch of nails, our jars are sturdy and meant to live a long life. How about organizing your buttons or paper clips? Lots of ways to recycle and reuse. For the record, we seriously considered using glass jars when we first started, but the thought of glass around a wet shower and slippery hands was not very appealing so we quickly turned to recyclable plastic.
Every light in our store is LED and crazy efficient:
When we had our store in Bethpage, we swapped out all the lights in the shop for energy efficient LED’s. It made such a difference to our energy bill! When we moved to Farmingdale, the landlord already had them in place. Yay! It saves tons of money and massive amounts of energy!
We have a wonderful re-fill program:
When we started our refill program it was to save people money. But the more people brought back the same jars over and over again, we realized that we are also doing our small part to save Mother Earth, too. With every refill it is one new less jar needing to be used. Buy a re-filler card and save even more money with our ScrubzBody Refill Program. We have changed our labels over the years and hosted many parties, so it always gives me a kick when I see jars come back from the early days or from a party. Customers love not having to throw away the jars and love saving money.
Reusing packing materials:
When we ship a package retail, we like to make the “unboxing” experience a part of the sale, so we use new boxes stuffed with simple fill. However, when the order is wholesale or private label, all bets are off. I love reusing both the boxes I receive and the packing materials that come in the box. What came in, goes out. I always hope it will go out again on the other side of the sale!
We will always strive to care for our customers and offer them the best in natural skincare. But we will always strive to care for Mother Earth as much as possible. That’s one of the things I love about being a really small business!
What are some of the things you do to have a smaller imprint on the world?
I also reuse the boxes I receive my orders in to ship to my wholesale customers. And instead of throwing away ends, shavings and leftover batter, I make a soap from that I sell and donate the money to a local food pantry.