Green Salon

monitor was necessary and luckily my internship host was very flexible and allowed me to do

this.

Lasting Impressions

I really enjoyed the internship. I don't think I gained much in terms of new skills because my

projects were not very challenging, but I enjoyed them regardless.

Kirsten Fletcher, Hertford College, BA Geography, Second Year Undergraduate, in-

person working

Work Projects

I completed the Summer Internship Programme at Green Salon

Sustainable Lifestyle Consultancy. Green Salon researches and

analyses the policies and practices of clothing and lifestyle brands

according to its own sustainability criteria, and those who fit the

criteria are promoted on the Green Salon shopping directory and

social media. It also offers a coaching service to those who want to transform their home and

lifestyle consumption to become more sustainable. For the first half of my three-week

internship, my job was to analyse as many companies as possible and reach out to those who

passed the criteria for affiliation.

The criteria I was researching involved carbon and offsetting, raw materials, agricultural

policies, labour rights, circular practices, investments and more. I was given a list of companies

to look at, which had been seen in advertising by my colleagues or heard about through social media/word of mouth, but I was also invited to find my own or analyse companies I knew

myself as long as they fit the Green Salon ethos and branding. I then wrote a couple of posts for

Green Salon's blog about some of the companies I had approved.

I spent my last week with the Social Media Assistant creating content for Green Salon's

Instagram and TikTok. I was working with two colleagues - the founder and Social Media

Assistant, and my first two days also overlapped with another intern. They were both incredibly

welcoming and supportive. The work was mostly independent, so the three of us would sit

together but each working on something separate, but could call on each other for suggestions,

help and discussion. Lucy was incredibly flexible with my dates and hours, and with any days I

had to work remotely, which I really appreciated.

Daily Life

I was staying in Notting Hill for the duration and working in

Parsons Green, so I took a short tube to the Green Salon

'office' for 9am (which was the kitchen table in the founder's

home, but works very nicely for a small team!). The tube

was always nice and quiet because I was going in the

opposite direction to most commuters. My colleague

Charlotte would always offer to make me a coffee and let

me know what she wanted me to start with on that day. I'd

usually spend the morning analysing a couple of companies

and sending their PR team an email if they were approved (which usually didn't happen, as the

criteria is rigorous). The work was mostly independent, so the three of us would sit together

but each working on something separate, but could call on each other for suggestions, help and

discussion.

The founder, Lucy, would always make lunch for the three of us and we'd eat together. (For the

second half of my internship, her children were home for the summer holidays and would eat

with us, I loved having them around). I'd continue working from around 1-4pm and then take

the tube back. I'd spend the evenings either socialising with other friends who were in the city

(mostly also for internships) or working on my dissertation.