Anne Veck Sustainability report 24/25

We wrote our first company CO2 emissions and nature positive plans in 2023 and reviewed them last year. This time round we have combined the two into one sustainability report with an updated set of targets for 25/26. Read on to find out why. This blog puts the plan in context and gives you the link to the full document. Our hope is that others will take the time to write a plan and take action. Feel free to copy ours!

To support you in your sustainability journey we list some other useful links at the end of this piece.

INTRODUCTION

Anne Veck Limited

Anne Veck Limited is a micro SME based in Oxford, U.K. The company was founded in 1991 and until 2022 operated hairdressing salons. By March 2022 these had been sold and since then the business has focused on hairdressing training, photo shoots, shows and session work, as well as championing sustainability in the hair and beauty sector.

Until 2022 turnover was c.£960,000 p.a. with c.20 employees. Today turnover is c.£70,000 with 2 employees (2 company directors). The business operates from a hair salon (Kelly’s Hair Oxford), a home office and studio and at customers’ premises in the U.K., Europe and occasionally elsewhere.

Since investing in major “green” salon refits from 2013 onwards, Anne Veck Limited has been recognised as a leading champion of sustainable hairdressing in the U.K. with several industry awards and accreditations and an active programme of advocacy. Research shows that most people are concerned about climate change and nature loss but don’t often talk about it. We hope that our advocacy work which extends from chatting in the salon to on line media influencing, will encourage more conversations which will, in a very small way, impact this societal norm of silence so as to influence political and business action.

Anne Veck Limited is a founder member and sponsor of the U.K. Business and Biodiversity Forum (UKBBF) and a member of the British Beauty Council’s Sustainable Beauty Coalition (SBC). Director Keith Mellen is a director at UKBBF and a member of SBC’s professional services task force. Director Anne Veck is a brand ambassador for B Corp brands Easydry and Olivia Garden, Sustainability Champion for the Hairstyling Tools Collective and Global Ambassador for the Slow Fashion Movement.

This report

Anne Veck Limited (AV) published its Carbon Emissions Reduction Plan 2023-30 and Nature Positive Business Plan 2023-30 separately in May 2023, with annual reviews in June and July 2024 respectively. Unless otherwise stated, 24/25 = 1/5/24 to 31/4/25 and 25/26 = 1/5/25 to 31/4/26.

With this 2nd annual review, we report on progress in an integrated Sustainability Report and have rewritten the two plans as a Sustainability Plan. We have done this to reflect the reality that the climate and nature emergencies are inextricably linked, in fact part of a “polycrisis” across climate change, nature loss and inequality.

As a micro business, AV’s impact on nature is insignificant. However, we hope that by sharing our plan we might encourage other small businesses to transition towards Net Zero and Nature Positive, especially those in the hairdressing sector.

AV has signed up to the U.N.’s SME Race to Zero and is the only SME globally to have its nature strategy endorsed by Business For Nature’s Its Now for Nature programme. (At time of writing.We hope this situation changes soon.) AV has also taken the U.K.’s Nature Positive Business Pledge.

A note about reporting on our value chain (Scope 3): small businesses usually lack the financial and reputational influence to enforce ethical and sustainable improvements by their suppliers and customers. In fact our experience is that our major suppliers and some of our customers which are all larger businesses than AV, will not or can not supply us with data on CO2 emissions, never mind impacts on nature (which at the moment, most don’t consider). Because of this our choice of suppliers is directed by researching their sustainability /ESG reports and/or their accreditations or lack of them. For example, whenever possible, we choose suppliers (e.g. for hair care products, towels, energy, waste management and recycling) which are B Corp and/or are FSC, RoSPA, Fairtrade, Leaping Bunny, etc. certified. We also consult Ethical Consumer’s “Ethiscore”.

Finally, we have set new targets for 2025/26, followed by a brief list of links to AV sustainability assets.

Here is the link to the full report and new plan.