b'ENVIRONMENTJACK59Vanessa Marshall has always had an entre-preneurial spirit, and in 2015 she left her career as a dental assistant and started up Jack59, a sustainably made and ethi-cally sourced natural hair care company. Thecompanystartedoffslowbut exploded in popularity throughout the COVID-19 pandemic. I grew from my kitchen to a shop in my basement, and within six months, outgrew that and had to get a facility and a larger warehouse where were currently at full capacity. We have just signed a new lease on a 5,200-square-foot facility, so were excited to get in there. Its going to be a lot of work, but we grew about 530 per cent through COVID.TheEdmonton-basedcompanys shampoo and conditioner bars are INDIGENOUSLY INFUSED paraben-free, sulfate-free and vegan (they even have gluten-free options). In addition to sourcing sustainable ingre-on ensuring her business is as sustainableOne of the biggest challenges Pierson hasdients for the shampoo and conditioner as possible. There are various things thatencountered to date is making sure thatbars, the fact that the bars are not liquid Ive done to make it sustainable, she says.ingredients being sourced are sustain- removes the need for storing and ship-Soy wax is plant-based and its renewable,able. It takes extra care and extra time toping them in traditional plastic bottles. To biodegradable and water soluble, so itsmake sure of that, because the cheapestdate, the company estimates that it has sustainable. It doesnt release harmfuland the least Mother Earth friendly prod- prevented almost 700,000 plastic bottles chemicals into the air in your home. Theucts are the first things that pop up andfrom ending up in landfills.processing is a lot more eco-friendlyare the wrong things to get. You have to than paraffin candles, which are derivedjust be resourceful, she says. I think people are just starting to look from petroleum.more at the products theyre putting on Pierson adds that she hopes to set a goodtheir bodies. I think a lot of things just In addition to using sustainable ingre- example by showing how a small businessreally took a big shift through COVID. dients in their products, Indigenouslycan still operate sustainably: If a smallPeople [wanted] a change in their lives Infused focuses on using eco-friendlybusiness like mine is able to be sustain- and [they wanted to know] what they packaging for the companys shippingable, then the larger companies that arecould do to help minimize their own operations, opting for paper-based pack- putting out larger amounts of pollutioncarbon footprints, Marshall says.aging instead of plastic. Pierson alsowould [also] be able to make changes in re-purposes a great deal of the pack- order to be more sustainable and MotherMarshall adds that her company is on a aging she receives. Amazon will sendEarth friendly, in my opinion. mission to develop a line of products that you a huge box for a tiny little product and then there will be a whole bunch of other packaging in there. It makes me cringe, but Ill re-use it and Im hoping that the next customer does the same, she says.Indigenously Infused has also started collaborating with local businesses toJACK59help them make more sustainable choices. We needed a fence around our medicine garden, and a local arborist tree service business was taking down a bunch of cedar trees on one of their customers properties. We were able to have them brought here and made a beautiful fence with these cedar trees, Pierson says. 34A CCAB PUBLICATION2023'