Green Investments in the Future

From the Spring & Summer 2007 issue of Green Living, pages 31-33, here is an article about three businessmen investing in a green future. What follows is an excerpt from page 33, on one of the three, Ray Civello.

INVESTING IN THE FUTURE

These successful, strong-minded individuals prove that green is the way to go

by Meredith Dault

Ray Civello

After establishing his first salon 23 years ago (there are now four Civello salons in the Greater Toronto area), Ray Civello found his business was taking a toll on his life. "I was completely overloaded with work, but I didn't have any balance," he says. It was an important wake-up call. Soon after that realization, he met Horst Rechelbacher, founder of the Aveda line of hair and beauty products, and in 1994, formed Collega Inc. and became Aveda's Canadian distributor.

Civello says Aveda's environmental position was in line with his own renewed values: Aveda has funded a number of green initiatives, including Alphabet Soup, a documentary by Canadian Ian Connacher about plastics found floating in the ocean, which is now used by Aveda to inspire better packaging initiatives. In fact, over the past four years, Aveda has increased its use of post-consumer recycled content in its shampoo bottles to 80 percent from 45 percent; some packaging is as high as 100 percent. Its products are made form plant-based, natural ingredients from sustainable resources and it's committed to fair-trade business practices.

Civello is currently working towards making his company's ecological footprint carbon neutral. From keeping the lights off during the hot summer months to banning paper cups, plastic and Styrofoam in the cafeteria, he says making a difference is about the "small steps" that can be implemented daily.

He recently founded another company, Melacor, to design, buy and retrofit commercial and residential buildings with sustainable and recycled components. The Aveda Institute Toronto was the first project, and is elegantly outfitted with bamboo floors and agriboard countertops (made from composite crop waste such as wheat, straw and sunflower husks). He plans to incorporate geothermal heating into his next project.

Collega and all the Aveda salons promote a green life, often fundraising for environmental organizations such as Environmental Defence and Evergreen. "If people think hairdressers can't change the way things are done, they're wrong," says Civello. "They can. Outside the stereotypes is where the magic lives."