Jewelle Lloyd in Salon Elite

When her grannie taught her how to look after honey bees, hairdressing tutor Jewelle Lloyd also learnt about the importance of caring for their environment.

“If the world isn’t in good shape the bees don’t survive,” says Jewelle, who is now a hobbyist beekeeper herself.

So, as programme coordinator for EIT’s two hairdressing certificates, she’s proud of the sustainability practices progressively introduced at Salon Elite, the hairdressing training salon on the Hawke’s Bay campus.

“We’ve got something pretty cool things going on here,” Jewelle points out. “We separate all our waste materials for recycling – the cardboard packaging, plastic and foils used in colouring hair.

“And with hair, we go a step further. The clippings are bagged up and the gardeners add them to their compost mix. Once the worms have done their job, the enriched compost helps maintain EIT’s wonderful grounds.”

A recent revamp of the training salon encompassed sustainability values, with custom-designed drawers built into the dispensary area to store recyclable materials.

Paper use is minimised with textbooks and videos available to students online.

Jewelle hopes EIT’s lead might encourage other salons and schools to phase in sustainability practices as part of their own training programmes.