Styling the environment: John Sebastian mixes environmental concerns and hair care products in everyday business.

Sebastian International Inc.'s 100,000-square-foot headquarters in Woodland Hills is an embodiment of environmental awareness. The converted warehouse's floor is made of recycled wood chips, lights automatically turn off when employees leave their offices, and there are recycling bins in the building that hold everything from paper to glass.

Lining the walls of the headquarters' halls are children's drawings and paintings depicting their environmental concerns, such as a drawing of the Earth with the caption "Stop! You're destroying my precious ozone."

All this reflects the focus Chief Executive and President John Sebastian has taken in blending pervasive environmental awareness with everyday business in running his company, which manufactures and distributes hair care products, skin care products and cosmetics to 140,000 salons worldwide.

The company distributes its products to salons only. One hundred distributors worldwide distribute to 140,000 salons.

Through a program called Club U.N.I.T.E. (Unity Now Is a Tomorrow for Everyone), conducted in salons that carry Sebastian products. The program was formed in September 1991, but didn't really get off the ground until the beginning of this year. Sebastian said he expects to raise $2 million this year for a group of nonprofit organizations.

Also, the company is in its second year of sponsoring "Little Green," a project that invites children worldwide to draw, paint or write about their environmental concerns. The renderings on the headquarter's walls are this year's contest entries.

And in 1989, Sebastian asked all of the 140,000 salons that sell his products to pledge to practice environmentally safe business, such as being conscious of water usage at shampoo bowls and bringing coffee mugs to the salons instead of using Styrofoam or plastic cups.

But Sebastian, who is 54, 6-feet 2-inches tall and sports a full greying beard, doesn't call himself a philanthropist. Instead, he says, promoting charitable causes indirectly bolsters company profits because consumers develop a more positive view of the company and buy more of its products.

"We do what Washington and Sacramento can't do, take care of the community through good sound business," Sebastian says.

Since 1991 for instance, patrons of salons carrying Sebastian products have been making $10 donations to Club U.N.I.T.E., which funnels the money to seven non-profit organizations. These include the Design Industries Foundation for AIDS and the Humane Society of the United States.