This is not an article about greenwashing or about the different methods some businesses employ to convince prospective and current customers they and their products are "green" even when they aren't, or as PBA member and salon owner, Kitty Tierney, explains: "Greenwashing is the attempt to appear hip and politically correct only to gain media exposure with no real commitment to the environment." This article is about one salon owner's long journey towards becoming the most environmentally-conscious, small business she could manage. It isn't always easy being green, but it can be worth it.

Kitty opened Impressions Salon & Spa in 1986, and soon after she started thinking about what she could do to leave less of an imprint on the earth. A self-admitted hippie, Kitty says it all started gradually with trips to the Audubon Center with her kids (then 2 and 3 years old and now 22 and 23) that got her thinking about the environment. As she taught her children about landfills and learned about the large quantity of carpet that gets thrown away every year, she decided to start making different choices in her salon.

Calling it "a constant education," Kitty started learning about what options existed for small businesses looking to make a difference. In the beginning, there were not a lot of options available. When she first tried to change her 144 light fixtures to fluorescent bulbs, her experiment failed miserably. Her stylists noticed the fluorescent lights scattered across the salon and the difference in lighting right away. That was over a decade ago and it took her three more tries with three different bulbs, before she finally found a fluorescent bulb so good nobody even noticed the difference when she switched out every other light in the salon.

Before Kitty switched to fluorescent lights, the old 144 fixtures produced enough heat so she never had to turn on the heater in winter, but in spring and fall when nobody else ran their A/C, she had no choice unless she wanted her stylists and clients alike to start stripping down. Now, her lights don't produce any heat, her energy bills have decreased by 30-60% and she does not have to compromise the affect her lighting has on haircolor. As an added bonus, the male stylist who got stuck changing the old light bulbs every Monday, now has one less task to do because the new lights last so much longer. Kitty calls her light fixture experiment the most dramatic success of all the changes she has made.

Last year, Kitty remodeled her salon with the help of a green designer, Chris Sanger. This gave her the chance to make some serious changes. She says if she owned her own building she might rebuild it to meet Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) standards, but she doesn't so she settled for making the changes she could make as a tenant. She replaced her floors with a mix of sustainable materials and recycled maple flooring from a nearby bowling alley. Her designer found the mirrors for Kitty's salon in New York at Olde Good Things, a company that specializes in utilizing parts reclaimed from demolished buildings. The mirrors came from the roof of the Philadelphia Civic Center and didn't cost anymore than any other mirrors. She credits Chris with teaching her about the real green and the bogus green. "Certain companies say they're green but the amount of chemicals it takes to convert certain earthy products (bamboo, corn, etc.) makes them just as bad as their predecessors."

According to Kitty, "A lot of conservation techniques can actually be cheaper up front, and for those that aren't, the return on investment reaches 100% fairly quickly, just like any other smart business choice. Additionally, the monthly costs are much lower." It is possible to save money by going for the greener option, instead of just spending more to get more. Using recycled furniture and more energy efficient appliances, like the water heater she replaced during her remodel will definitely save her money in the long run. However, Kitty admits sometimes it just costs more to take the greener road, but it feels so good she has no regrets.

An additional benefit to making all these changes is even without a lot of marketing, clients and prospective clients search out the changes and really appreciate them. Kitty says college students especially get excited about what she is doing and talk a lot about her salon with all their friends.

"This is a lifestyle…Impressions has been making changes for over ten years. I am pleased to see so much publicity and understand the more people know, the more we can change things…but, I don't like salons that are just using the word 'green' and not really doing it." In fact, Kitty considers her salon only partially green, because even though she has made a lot of changes, she still has to dump chemicals down the drain. She feels her salon and the industry as a whole still have a long way to go. "I consider myself a concerned world citizen who has changed light bulbs, bought wind powered energy, tinted windows, purchased wisely, and made changes." It's a very good start.