Seeking Sustainability One Brand at a Time

During my second semester in college, my Earth Sustainability class had us track our waste for a week.  As does everyone, I knew I had room for improvement, but I thought I wasn’t that wasteful.  It turns out I was wrong.  Like nearly everyone else in my class, my waste numbers and carbon footprint were much higher than I would have ever liked to admit.  I was ashamed of my lack of awareness of my waste and it sparked a change in my lifestyle habits.

I was starting from scratch regarding sustainable living and that was evident in my drastic attempts to change my lifestyle.  I tried to instantly cut out plastic and fast fashion from my daily routine, but that was simply not realistic.  I had to approach the lifestyle change one step at a time and be kind to myself during the process.  These changes can’t happen in one day and that is something that is incredibly important to keep in mind if you’re also beginning your sustainability journey.

While I’ve done a lot of research on my own to figure out which brands I like and want to support, Instagram has been a crucial factor in discovering brands.  Personally, I enjoy seeing what other people recommend and am able to find smaller, potentially family-owned businesses that I can support.  I’ve started being more conscious about my plastic waste and Sustain Yourself has been one of my favorite brands in this journey so far.  Sustain Yourself is extremely transparent with their products and the functionality of their products.  Each product is crafted from organic ingredients and they explain the benefits of each ingredient, so you not only know what is in the products, but why.  While I haven’t been brave enough (yet) to try their natural deodorant, I love their products, mission statement, and dedication to reducing plastic waste.

Skincare has never been a priority in my life because I was fortunate enough to have semi-clear skin that never caused me much chaos (knock on wood).  I constantly wear makeup from the day prior and use $3 Walmart face wash.  However, when I did attempt to craft a skincare regimen, many products had ingredient lists that were miles long and full of chemicals I didn’t even want to attempt to pronounce.  It was frightening to consider what I had been putting on and in my body for so long, because if these things have such a horrible impact on our planet, I couldn’t imagine what they were doing to my body.  It’s so important to know what is in your products and the impact that it can have on you.  Luckily, brands are starting to be more transparent with their ingredients.

While continuing to search for sustainable brands, I discovered EO, another brand that has a mission that really resonated with me.  They use natural, non-GMO, and sustainably farmed ingredients, and are fully transparent about everything that goes into the bottle.  They’re also a family-owned business that practices suitable manufacturing.  They dream up, create, test, blend, package, brand and ship all products from their zero-waste factory.  They even donate personal care products that serve their community.

Skincare and beauty products are all part of our daily routine as women in college, but extending the same values of sustainability to clothing isn’t easy.  With a little research, it becomes simple to find sustainable brands that have incredible products that you’ll want to support.

While my day-to-day outfit regularly consists of an oversized thrifted t-shirt and leggings or bike shorts, I still love to channel my inner fashionista every so often.  As a college student, finding affordable clothes is already a struggle, but finding clothes that are affordable AND sustainable is an uphill battle.  The two never seem to go together because you pay more for sustainability and quality.  However, with a little research and dedication, I have found brands and companies that worked for me.

My initial response to sustainable clothing was to focus on primarily buying from secondhand stores.  In Austin, there are thrift stores on nearly every corner, so I never had a problem with finding places to shop.  One of my favorite places that also has locations across the nation is Buffalo Exchange.  Buffalo Exchange is incredible for multiple reasons: you can sell your own clothes, they don’t provide bags to help reduce plastic bag waste, and they donate a portion of their proceeds to various local charities.  A few more common secondhand stores are Plato’s Closet and Uptown Cheapskate.  You can sell your clothes to these shops, and they can then resell them.

When the pandemic put a halt on shopping in person, I turned to online shopping. Surprisingly, it’s still incredibly easy to shop secondhand online.  Depop, an app where people can buy and resell clothes, is dedicated to making the fashion world more diverse, inclusive, and less wasteful.  In addition to Depop, Goodfair is by far my favorite online shop. They sell preloved clothing in bundles for an extremely affordable price.  My personal favorites are their sweatshirt bundles (4 for $30) and their preloved t-shirt bundles at 5 for $20.  They even have variety bundles that include pants, shirts, jackets and hoodies that are still fairly cheap.

I understand that we can’t thrift for everything we wear.  However, even when you need to go out and shop, it’s important to still think sustainably.  Brushing up on a brand’s mission or doing a little background research can go a long way before you buy something you don’t 100% support.  Some of my favorite sustainable brands are Madewell, Goodsinners, Reformation and Levi’s.  Each of these brands has made a commitment to either using sustainable fabrics, reducing their water consumption, illuminating virgin plastic use or doing specialty orders to reduce waste.  These brands may not offer items for as little as something from Forever 21, but with environmentally friendly brands, we pay for the quality and impact our clothes are going to leave on the generations to come.

What we wear and what we put on our skin leaves an impact on us as it does on the world around us.  Choosing to go sustainable and reduce waste is a small step in protecting our planet in uncertain times.  It’s disheartening to think brands you have loved are sneaking in ingredients that you’ve never heard of or are dumping waste used to make your favorite shirts.  However, with a little research, you can find brands that match the issues you care about.  This will allow you to be sustainable in the clothes you wear and the products you purchase.  Again, this change doesn’t happen overnight.  The transition to sustainable brands can take months of progress, but the change is what matters.  Be kind to yourself during this transition.  Just remember that one change at a time is making a lifetime of difference.

By Emma Bittner

 Rom-Com fanatic and coffee connoisseur with a little bit of “I wanna save the world” in me.

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