In 2025, brands must back up sustainability claims with actions that have a verifiable impact to impress responsible consumers – mere virtue signalling is not enough. By directly supporting conservation while pleading the case for human-wildlife coexistence, resort wear label LOVE BRAND & Co., the official retail partner for The Great Elephant Migration travelling art show, is doing just that. It’s another green effort in the company’s impressive sustainability credentials.
There’s no sugarcoating it: those of us who recognize our role in safeguarding the health of our planet have a moral imperative to examine our habits as consumers. As travellers, of course, one of our main responsibilities is to consider the ways in which we get from point A to point B, but beyond that, we must also realise that each purchase we make, travel-related or not, has a ripple effect.
This is particularly true when it comes to fashion. Second only to aviation, the clothing industry is one of the world’s greatest polluters. Figures show that fashion accounts for about 10% of global emissions each year, a staggering fact that alone should prompt some serious reflection on our shopping habits. Fast fashion is the main culprit, contributing more microplastics to the world and making more clothing than can possibly be purchased, leading to enormous amounts of waste.
As important as it is to feel responsible for making informed shopping choices, just plain consumer guilt does little good for anyone. After all, it’s the brands themselves doing the actual polluting. The burden that rests on our shoulders, then, is holding businesses accountable by calling on them to do their part and being selective about where we spend our money.
In creating backlash against companies’ irresponsible practices, a pitfall that might arise is the potential for greenwashing, as brands step over one another to appear ethical or sustainable. This often takes shape in the form of fashion labels eluding transparency about their supply chains while bragging about practices that should be the bare minimum, such as carbon offsetting or sourcing “eco-friendly” materials. That’s why it’s particularly important to pay close attention to actions rather than strategically chosen words – what steps is a company taking to follow through on the values it touts?
One interesting take on incorporating sustainability into fashion is LOVE BRAND & Co., a luxury swim and resort wear label geared toward discerning travellers. The B Corp-certified brand was started by husband-and-wife duo Rose and Oliver Tomalin, whose mission was to create a company with a greater purpose. LOVE BRAND & Co. goes beyond the perfunctory sustainability claims many brands now make, remaining accountable by publishing an impact report and acting out their mission to raise awareness about endangered wildlife and vulnerable habitats.
In addition to working toward carbon neutrality and being a member of the 1% for the Planet initiative (in which businesses commit to donating at least 1% of their sales to organisations that support the environment), LOVE BRAND & Co. has also returned as the official retail partner of the travelling art installation The Great Elephant Migration.
The installation is put on by Elephant Family USA, an organisation dedicated to saving the endangered Asian elephant, and displays life-sized sculptures of elephants in an exhibit that highlights Indigenous strategies for coexisting with wildlife. These sculptures are available for purchase, and accompanied by a tent where visitors can also browse LOVE BRAND & Co.’s capsule collection, which further supports Elephant Family USA by donating 50% of proceeds to the organisation. The exhibit is now open in Houston, Texas, where it will be until the end of April before making stops in Wyoming, Montana, and California.
Other fashion brands should take note – using sustainable materials and ethical labour practices are laudable actions, but there’s an opportunity to go a step further and actively give back rather than just reducing harm. This is especially true when it comes to conservation, an initiative near and dear to our hearts because of its reciprocal relationship with travel: tourism helps give people a visceral reason to care about conservation, and conservation of the natural environment, in turn, gives people a reason to travel.
By choosing to direct our money toward destinations and companies that are making a tangible difference, we can make an impact as ethically minded consumers, contributing to a movement that has the potential to preserve natural wonders for generations of travellers to come.
www.lovebrand.com | www.thegreatelephantmigration.org
Photography courtesy of LOVE BRAND & Co. and Elephant Family USA
