TellUs: Lush Rallies For Climate Protests

Lush is shutting up shop to protest climate change with Greta Thunberg

The cruelty-free, bath cosmetics company Lush has decided to stand with 16-year-old, vegan environmentalist Greta Thunberg to rally for climate change action. 

Sign printed outside of a Lush shop

The largest ever youth strikes are scheduled to be taking place all over the globe between September 20, continuing for a week until September 27. So to commemorate this, Lush stores in both the US and Canada are planning to close a total of 250 of their stores during the protests. They will also shut down their headquarters, manufacturing facilities and e-commerce to join in with the climate strikes, as a brand and to allow individual workers to partake. 

Greta Thunberg protesting

Thunberg founded #FridaysForFuture in August 2018. The movement entailed 15-year-old Thunberg sitting outside the Swedish parliament every Friday - boycotting school to protest for climate action by the Swedish government. Since then thousands of school children around the world strike off of school on Fridays to join the climate protests. Thunberg has vowed to do this until Swedish policies update to include actions on lowering emissions, adhering to the Paris Agreement. 

Lush has always been known as a more-so climate-friendly company. Therefore they are encouraging their thousands of employees and millions of followers to join in the week long protests. Lush are said to be using their shops and social media to spread climate messages directly from the youth climate strikers, in a bid to educate the masses about the cause. The brand alone has donated $12 million to 715 grassroots organisations that are fighting for climate justice and have been for over a decade. 

What’s important to remember is how much a week long strike will actually impact a company. The company even explained how this is one of their busiest times of the year, however the CEO of Lush North America, Mark Wolverton believes it is imperative for Lush employees to have their voices heard for such an important cause. 

“As business with deep roots in environmental activism, giving our thousands of staff the time to get out there and demand bold action is a no brainer,” Wolverton said. “We all share this planet, so we need to band together to sound the alarm and show our politicians that ‘business as usual’ is no longer and option. The climate crisis won’t wait, and neither will we.”

So what else are Lush doing? Considering they are a global, mass-produced company - how are they doing their bit for the planet? Lush have made it vital to reduce their negative climate impact, despite being such a huge company. They grow their ingredients on four Lush-owned regenerative farms. Moreover these ingredients are typically plant-based, having ditched eggs last year. The two ingredients to look out for if you’re vegan and looking for vegan products is honey and lanolin (wool wax). 52 percent of Lush core products are packaging-free. In 2018 alone the shampoo bars were estimated to have saving more than 1,145 million recycled plastic bottles from being produced!

Moreover they use solar power to offset 100 percent of their retail energy consumption. It’s on the cards to create technology that captures the carbon dioxide produced via their bath bomb productions into a safe, usable by-product. 

So if you’re interested in these climate strikes then check out the nearest ones to you and come along, everyone and anyone is welcome! Check out websites like the UK Student Climate Network (if you’re in the UK) and WWF to find your local strike. 

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Check out my previous blog: https://www.tellusabouttheenvironment.com/2019/09/tellus-all-ways-to-reuse-jars-bottles.html