Sunday, September 20, 2009
Life, Health + Fitness, In this Issue..., Atlanta

A natural passion

Natural Body Spa’s green-minded practices make it a sustainable force in the spa industry

By Alison Abbey

When Cici Coffee opened the doors to Natural Body in the Morningside community of Atlanta 20 years ago, the idea of a neighborhood day spa was a completely foreign concept. Factor in her focus on organic products and sustainable living, and it was beyond foreign—it was alien. But Coffee’s passion to sharpen that focus is what keeps Natural Body alive—and thriving—all these years later.

“Local community, environmental initiative, quality of services, exceptional products,” she says. “None of those words have changed in 20 years. I think those core values created longevity.”

From her beginnings as a sales rep for a health-food company, Coffee saw the need to make organic and eco-conscious cosmetics accessible to the masses. Working in the health-food stores, Coffee saw that the products were often behind glass where they couldn’t be tested. She knew that no one would buy the products if they couldn’t test them. She calls it her “Ah-ha!” moment.

“The idea came out of a retail store that focused on natural cosmetics,” explains Coffee. “It was a chance for us to sample the products that we believed in. We had this tiny little sampling room in the back [of the first location], and that’s what grew into the spa concept.”

From there, Natural Body was born. Both a retail store carrying the best in natural products, including Jurlique, Naturopathica, Bumble and Bumble, and Aveda, and a spa featuring a number of luxurious services to rival the best destination spas, the Natural Body concept took off with help from adoring clients.

“The concept has grown through listening to our customer base,” says Coffee, who credits her customers with keeping Natural Body current in the early days. “We got word of new products from our well-traveled customer base. Way back when, we were carrying products that are trendy now [but were hard to find at the time], so people would drive for miles to get something they’d heard about.”

It was more than client word of mouth that helped launch the business. Natural Body’s Buckhead location was funded entirely by loyal customers who believed in the original location and in Natural Body’s commitment to sustainable living.

That commitment carries over into every aspect of the spas and shops. In fact, Coffee is a founding member of the Green Spa Network, an organization that works to bring sustainable operating practices to the spa industry. And to say she’s practicing what she preaches would be an understatement.

Natural Body’s recently opened Brookhaven location is the first spa in the United States to reach Platinum LEED certification by the U.S. Green Building Council. The location’s full-service Natural Body spa and shop (and the attached nail concept 10TEN Nail Bar) are completely eco-friendly spaces.

“It’s quite an honor to embrace what we’ve been doing for 20 years,” says Coffee. “We thought if we’re going to continue to be leaders in the spa industry, then we need to continue to focus on our roots and stay dedicated to bringing wellness into our services in a heightened kind of way, and at the same time, be sensitive to our footprint and our impact on the environment.”

Not just eco-friendly, but eco-chic, Natural Body’s green building elements look just as sleek as any spa’s décor. From a client’s first step onto the space’s recycled-school-bus-tire floors, to their pedicure in water-saving basins nestled in front of smooth stacked stones (which eliminate the burden traditional water walls create), to a relaxing Naturopathica Bamboo Lemongrass Body Scrub in one of Natural Body’s temperature-balancing treatment rooms (which provide thermal comfort to clients, but use far less energy than a typical air conditioning system) on blankets made from recycled wood products (which are surprisingly and invitingly soft, but wick away moisture faster than cotton), every inch of their relaxing experience has a sustainable flipside. (A number of the same eco-friendly practices are utilized at Natural Body’s Forsyth location.)

Coffee’s long-standing passion for sustainable living is mirrored in her staff, many of whom have been with her for years. And that in itself is the secret to Natural Body’s own sustainability. “Having that longevity of staff, they’re coming to us with appreciation for the concept and our core values,” she says. “We’ve been doing it for 20 years, but we continue to be even more committed and dedicated.” SP

Natural Body Brookhaven is located at 1432 Dresden Drive, 404-816-8801. For other Natural Body locations in and around Atlanta and nationally, visit www.naturalbody.com.