Sustainable Buying Guide
Guest post by Joyce Hu
This is our work in progress ethical shopping guide, and just a start. We encourage you to do your own research and seek out other brands. Follow sustainable fashion hastags and brands on Instagram and other social channels.
These below brands use sustainable materials, and ethical and transparent supply chains. These are not brands that just donate a percentage of profits to charity. We will continue to add to this guide as we find more.
Our culture of over consumption for all goods has trained consumers to want things cheaper and faster, all at the expense of health and safety in factories and in the product manufacturing supply chain.
Consumer goods now have shorter lifespans and longer waste-spans. Consider also the amount of plastic packaging that comes with everything we consume. It turns out that throwing them in the recycling bin does little to divert landfill waste. Recycling centers have been closing rapidly due to lower demand for recycled materials and higher costs to recycle them.
We believe that brands and producers should take full responsibility for their products’ end of life - and not just assume that their waste will be recycled somehow, somewhere, by someone else. Until producers and brands institute a take-back program (see Preserve's program), or make more sustainable packaging, we should pressure them to do so and think twice about buying their products.
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We encourage you to buy more natural materials, avoid plastic, borrow, trade and make it yourself. Add the word "sustainable" to your google shopping searches. But most of all: buy less, buy used, buy slower, buy more consciously and buy more sustainably.
Before consciously buying new, consider this hierarchy of fashion consumption illustrated by Sarah Lazarovic. |
One-time use plastic alternatives
Blue Avocado – Reusable zip lock bags
Super Bee – Reusable wax wrap
Etee – Reclaimed leather wrap
Chico Bags – Reusable shopping bags
Eco Bag – Reusable produce bags
Preserve - Compostable straws
Good Holdings Company - bulk products jar system
Naty - Biodegradable baby wipes and diapers
Sustainable cleaning products
Grove Collaborative
No or little plastic bath and beauty products
Stoked - lip and face balm
Dental Lace - silk dental floss
Mabel Toothbrush and Udo Toothbush
Surf Products
Sustainable Surf Ecoboard Certified Surf Boards
Mafia Bags
The Greenwave
Finisterre
Revolwe - surf leash
Ecofin
Patagonia Surf - filtered for sustainable materials
Patagonia Natural Rubber Wetsuits
Purakai
Salt Gypsy
Wave Tribe
Suga Yoga - yoga mats made from recycled wetsuits
Be The Rad's List
Clothing
Organic and fair-trade clothing is just as important to our health as organic and fair-trade food. Our skin is the largest organ in our body, and healthy clothing minimizes toxic exposure for workers, consumers, and the environment.
Raven & Lily - women
People Tree - women and baby
Deadwood - recycled leather jackets
Tonle - fashion for textile scraps
Amour Vert - women
Patagonia Worn Wear - men and women
Kaight NYC - women and accessories
Pact - men and women basics
Prana - men and women
Slum Love - men and women knitted sweaters
Zero Waste Daniel - men and women
Groceries Apparel - men and women
Nudie Jeans - men and women
Indigenous - women
Stella McCartney - men and women
Elieen Fisher - women
Eileen Fisher Renew - women
Outerknown - men and women
Ecoalf - men and women
Tres Nomad - women
Rachel Craven - women
Wildlife Works - women, men, kids
Second hand:
The Real Real
Thred Up
Many more...
Accessories and home goods:
Globein
Indigo Handloom
Love is Project
Brave Collective
Soko
Coyuchi
Krochet Kids
Ubuntu Made
Seeko
West Elm Artisan collections
Swedish Stockings
Apolis
Sustainable sun glasses
Parker Clay leather goods
Shoes:
Indosole
All Birds
Rothy's
Veja
Nisolo
Oliberte
Adelante
All categories:
Fair Trade USA products
Accompany
Kids:
Green Toys
Organic baby clothes
Apply Baby
Mightly
Kidizen
Thredup
Mercari
Naty - Biodegradable baby wipes and diapers
For a more comprehensive list, check out:
EcoCult’s Guide
Shop for Good
Sustainably Chic
The Good Trade
Further discovery:
Conscious Chatter
Sustainable Fashion Alliance
Pay Up Fashion
Remake
Ethical Shopping Collective Facebook Group
Fashion Revolution