Innovation

The innovation that Honor Yoga and the management team have built is the commitment to each other and the environment. Susan, the owner, described how she has built a strong culture of family within her yoga practice. Combined with Honor Yoga’s commitment to using energy-efficient and sustainable materials, they strive to create an ecological approach to the studio environment by offering different features and services within their space. In terms of waste reduction, they provide students with travel mugs and glass bottles instead of bottled water, while also reducing paper waste and using reusable shopping bags. Also, they use LED lighting to power their studios more efficiently. In terms of water conservation, the studio has one low flow water toilet that uses only one gallon per flush.

These efforts of eco-friendly practice show Honor Yoga’s commitment to the UN Sustainable Goals of Good-health and well-being and Responsible consumption. The Management team at Honor Yoga described the facility as a yoga practice for anyone and everyone, as community and friendliness are some of their main values. This shows how their approach extends beyond that of just being a yoga studio; they are actively committed to creating a positive and inclusive environment. Susan previously had two yoga studios from which she used to fund this Honor Yoga studio. Along with the environment inside the facility, Honor Yoga also focuses its efforts on the environment outside of the facility, showing how they are committed to responsible consumption. The founding partners of Honor Yoga instilled this culture and have strived to build upon it by franchising to those who uphold the same values as them.

Inspiration

The inspiration behind the innovation of making yoga an eco-friendly environment was driven by the owner's “drive to help people and the community”, which she stated in our initial interview. Susan said that ever since she was a kid she always wanted to bring the community together and give back to her people within the neighborhood. She stated that “we, as a company, are very community-driven and like to offer free sessions in an attempt to bring the community together”. This shows the dedication that Honor Yoga has regarding its community and different ways to bring everyone together. They don't just want to offer a service to people and have them pay for it. They want to create a comforting vibe that members of the community can engage in and feel a part of the movement of being more eco-friendly.

Another main goal of Honor Yoga is to incorporate different methods of being more eco-friendly into their service. This may be to have a specific type of flooring that may be recycled or reused. Additionally, replacing paper cups with glasses to offer customers water during their yoga session was a big innovation that was added to the culture of Honor Yoga. They had realized the amount of waste that comes from using lots of paper cups and throwing them all away, so the Management team decided to make a switch to glass cups that can be washed and reused, to eliminate the disposal of paper after every session.

Overall impact

The overall impact for Honor Yoga is delivered with friendliness, warmth, and in studios that are built and maintained with the health and respect of the environment as essential to all wellness. This statement shows Honor Yoga's commitment to the environment they are creating in the yoga studio itself, but also to the environment around them. The innovation for Honor yoga affects the environment in both the short term and long term. They strive to create an ecological approach to the environment by offering different features and services within the space. In terms of waste reduction, they provide students with travel mugs and glass bottles instead of bottled water, while also reducing paper waste and using reusable shopping bags. The benefits of using reusable water bottles include having more water in the bottles themselves, less waste for the company, and fewer costs. The tradeoff of using glass bottles is that they would use more water in the process of washing the bottle; however, the benefits outweigh the costs due to the amount of paper waste and trash reduced. Also, they use LED lighting to power their studios more efficiently.

In terms of water conservation, the studio has one low flow water toilet that uses only one gallon per flush and has designed each studio to use sustainable and eco-friendly materials, such as bamboo floors and eco-friendly cleaners. The main cause of this practice is to create a more sustainable business while offering exceptional service. The effect of the innovation is to benefit not only the consumer but society as a whole. In the short term, they save electricity, water, and money overall. In the long term, it is especially beneficial for society as Honor Yoga is setting a standard as one of the most popular and reputable yoga studios in the country, in an attempt to hopefully inspire other businesses alike to partake in similar sustainable practices.

Business benefit

Honor Yoga works on the smallest things for the environment. However, these small efforts are contributing greatly to environmental preservation, and it has also helped lower business costs. Eco-friendly innovation has contributed to the business benefits of Honor Yoga in many respects. First, by providing customers mugs and glass bottles, they could reduce the cost of buying water bottles and cups to help save the environment. They also don’t use papers to advertise their business or go over the material. They instead use online materials or have a whiteboard in the studio for ad space and teaching. Overall, by reducing their paper waste, they have managed to reduce 60 lbs of waste per year over the course of the 3 years Honor Yoga has been operating. Also, changing the light to LEDs helped to save their electricity cost and to maintain their mission. The manager mentioned, “the LED lighting saves 3931 kWh and 668 dollars in my business.” LED lights emit brighter light with low power consumption compared to conventional incandescent lamps and fluorescent lamps. The power consumption is considerably lower, but it emits much brighter light. For these reasons, changing the light helped a lot to save the cost and environment. Besides that, they try to conserve water by lowering the flow water toilet that uses only one gallon per flush. Low flush toilets use six liters of water per flush, compared to nine or more liters for other toilets. As Honor Yoga runs their business eco-friendly, they not only save the environment but also save their business cost.

Social and environmental benefit

The innovation of bringing an eco-friendly approach to the yoga community benefits more than just the yoga community. The yoga members are the ones that benefited the most from the efforts of the internal eco-friendly practices such as reusable cups and cork floors. As Susan said, “the LED lighting saves 3931 kWh and 668 dollars per year, while paper waste has been down 100%, which gives a great feeling to be helping the environment”. The addition of the one low flow water toilet that uses only one gallon per flush has greatly impacted the water conservation of Honor Yoga. The benefits of being energy efficient can be beneficial to the entire community and set a good example for other businesses to apply the same principles. In the long-run, eco-friendly practices benefit society and the environment as a whole.

As Susan described it, “there are many ways we connect with our members other than yoga to create a stronger bond with them”. For example, celebrating lost loved ones, donating to a family in need around the holidays, or even hosting certification events for their yoga instructors to reach a larger audience. The Honor Yoga code of values encapsulates a lifestyle that is based on spreading positivity and kindness through the practice of yoga. This lifestyle is intended to be carried out by the members to continue to spread positivity and a sense of community.

Interview

Susan Favale, Mrs. Favale