One of my favorite parts of SPC Advance was our tour of Aveda’s headquarters, which includes production facilities for almost all of their products.
Aveda is known for their plant based beauty products and vision to connect beauty, environment, and well-being. They have extensive social and environmental goals for products, packaging, production, and distribution. Aveda’s organizational beliefs include themes of leading by example, empowering employees, wellness, social responsibility, and treating the people and planet with respect. In my opinion, the headquarters’ operations reflected these values.
After a brief introduction, attendees broke into groups to tour the facility. We observed receiving, production, filling, packaging, research and development offices, a gym, and onsite daycare. After the tour, attendees participated in a Q&A session with an Aveda packaging professional and visited the on-site store.
Our tour reflected many of Aveda’s values, creating a consistent message from corporate goals through production and product. I observed:
- A place for employees to suggest improvements for themselves or co workers;
- Employee suggested safety improvements & their outcomes;
- Color coded reporting of “almost incidents” and incidents of all types;
- A recently hired professional devoted to ergonomics & worker health and safety;
- Recycling bins; and
- A very knowledgeable staff.
Why does this matter? Aveda’s values are evident in their focus on worker health and safety, empowerment, and sustainability. Integrating values from words to actions delivers on organizational goals and strengthens their brand. They are an example of focusing on many aspects of sustainability, which is at the heart of the SPC’s Definition of Sustainable Packaging.
Aveda shows that sustainability can work, it can work for you, and it can work for your employees. Ultimately, consumers are given a brand they can trust.
