Sustainability is arguably the most important issue today in fashion and beauty.
More than just a trend or fad, consumers — especially Generation Z and Millennials — now expect sustainability as a core element in the fashion and beauty brands they shop from, analyzing everything down to the ingredients, packaging and manufacturing process.
Brands have taken notice, launching company-wide initiatives to better their environmental impact and encourage their customers to do the same. Take Adidas, who recently launched its Futurecraft. Loop sneaker, which is made from sustainable materials and can be repurposed into a new pair of shoes after they’ve been worn down. On the beauty side, clean beauty brand, Youth to the People, is trying to encourage responsible beauty consumption by offering a larger size of its Kale + Green Tea Spinach Vitamins Cleanser, so that customers don’t have to go through multiple plastic bottles.
From campaigns pushing sustainability to brands giving back to environmentally focused charities, read on to see how 16 fashion and beauty brands are giving back for Earth Day 2019.
1. ThredUp
On April 16, fashion resale web site, ThredUp, launched its “Choose Used” campaign fronted by actress Olivia Wilde. With Wilde, the company redesigned thousands of used clothing displaying slogans like “I Wear Used Clothes” and “Used Goods” and will be donating 10 percent of net proceeds to the Circular Fashion Foundation, an organization that supports sustainable businesses and individuals in the fashion space. Prices for the collection range from $8 to $159.
2. Athleta
Athleta’s sustainable Gardenia Bikini. James Macari
Throughout April, Athleta is hosting beach and community clean-up events in New York, California, Arizona and other locations to give back for Earth Day. The brand has also completely redesigned its swimwear collection to make the pieces sustainable, using fabrics like H2Eco and AquaRib, which are recycled and regenerated nylon fabrics, respectively.
3. The North Face
The North Face wants to make Earth Day a national holiday. It will be closing all of its 113 stores in the U.S. and Canada, its headquarters and e-commerce site today in an effort to encourage customers to go outside. The brand has also launched its latest campaign, called “Explore Mode,” to coincide with the Earth Day initiative.
4. Nike
Nike is teaming with artist Steven Harrington for a capsule collection meant to inspire love for the planet. The collection includes styles like the Air Force 1, Blazer and Cortez, which all use Nike Flyleather, a proprietary sustainable material that contains 50 percent recycled leather. Prices range from $80 to $100.
5. Boy Meets Girl
The Boy x Meets Girl x Cool Effect Earth Day T-shirt, worn by Reza Cristian. Sophie Elgort
Contemporary ath-leisure brand, Boy Meets Girl, is creating an Earth Day campaign made in collaboration with Cool Effect, a nonprofit that funds carbon reducing projects around the world. The brand will be selling limited-edition T-shirts for $42 featuring the phrase “Thou Shalt Stay Cool” to promote Cool Effect’s cause. Fifteen percent of proceeds will be distributed among Cool Effect’s projects, which include grassland protection in the Great Plains and renewable wind turbine energy in Costa Rica.
6. The New York Times x Everlane
The New York Times is joining forces with Everlane in an effort to drive its digital subscriptions. The two are releasing a collection of T-shirts and sweatshirts with the newspaper’s slogan, “The Truth Is Worth It.” Some proceeds will go to funding student subscriptions for the paper.
7. Love Home and Planet
After launching plant-based beauty line, Love Beauty and Planet, Unilever has now introduced Love Home and Planet this month to offer home-care products that are made with eco-friendly ingredients and with recycled plastic. The line is meant to encourage using resources sustainably, like its Re-wear Dry Wash Spray, which cleans clothing without the use of water, and its Concentrated 4X Laundry Detergent, which is a larger size that uses less plastic waste.
8. Adidas
Willow Smith is part of the marketing effort for Adidas’s Futurecraft.Loop sneakers.
Adidas has recently launched the Futurecraft.Loop sneaker designed to have a circular life cycle. Once the shoes are ready to be thrown out, wearers can send them back to the brand, which will grind them down and repurpose them to create a new pair of sneakers.
9. The Body Shop
The Body Shop has entered a partnership with the National Parks Conservation Association to celebrate Earth Day. Customers part of the company’s loyalist program can earn points from their purchases and instead of receiving a gift, choose to donate to the organization, which works to protect and preserve parks around the country.
10. L’Occitane
Customers can receive a 10 percent discount toward one full-size product when they bring in a personal care or beauty product to recycle through L’Occitane’s recycling program in partnership with TerraCycle. The brand offers a number of its products in a refillable format, including shampoo, conditioner, shower oil, hand wash and more.
11. Sperry
Sperry Bionic Collection
For Earth Day, Sperry has launched its Bionic collection that features the brand’s classic styles, like the Classic Boat Shoe, the Captain’s CVO and the women’s Crest Vibe, made in collaboration with Bionic Yarn, a material engineering company that builds awareness around ocean plastic pollution, to offer eco-friendly packaging. The collection is part of the brand’s new sustainability initiative, “Look Good, Do Good,” which builds awareness around sustainable solutions. Princes range from $49.95 to $99.95.
12. Everything But Water
For Earth Day, all 100 storefronts will have their windows showcasing sustainable swimwear options from brands such as PilyQ, Vitamin A and Becca by Virtue. Proceeds from sales will benefit 5 Gyres, a nonprofit organization that works to reduce plastic pollution.
13. Credo
Clean beauty retailer, Credo is continuing its commitment to recycling beauty products in a sustainable way that reduces cosmetic waste. The retailer is letting customers earn double Credo rewards points for every full-size beauty product they bring in to be recycled. To date, Credo has recycled roughly 9,000 pounds of beauty waste.
14. Youth to the People
Youth to the People Earth Day cleanser.
Beauty brand, Youth to the People, is launching a limited-edition Earth Day Cleanser, which is a larger, 16-oz. bottle version of its Kale + Green Tea Spinach Vitamins Cleanser. The larger bottle is designed to last longer and reduce the number of bottles used by each customer. The brand will be donating $1 from each sale to environmental organizations. The cleanser retails for $54.
15. Aéropostale
The contemporary fashion brand has teamed up with Repreve for a collection of sustainable denim created from recycled plastic bottles. The jeans come in 21 different washes and 11 styles. The collection ranges in price from $18.60 to $22.60.
16. Allbirds
Shoe brand, Allbirds, is partnering with the Audubon Society to create a five-item collection of shoes that supports endangered birds with all proceeds being donated back to the nonprofit organization. The shoes take inspiration from the Mountain Bluebird, Painted Redstart, Pygmy Nuthatch, Allens Hummingbird and Scarlet Tanager. The sneakers retail for $95.