What better time than Pride Month to make your acquaintance with some of the most exciting brands from LGBTQIA+ communities? Here you can uncover our top 10 zero-waste brands by and for the non-binary community and support them in the months and years ahead.
Sustainability and inclusion go hand in hand so it’s no surprise that some of the most adventurous and groundbreaking zero-waste brands are helmed by members of the LGBTQIA+ community. Whether it’s gender-neutral clothing doing away with the male/female binary in fashion, eco-friendly swimwear made from recycled plastic, or sustainably sourced cold-brew coffee, we’ve got you covered this Pride and beyond.
Source: notobotanics.com
1. Noto Botanics
Noto Botanics is the brainchild of founder Gloria Noto whose mission was to create an inclusive cosmetics brand for all those who never felt represented by the ‘clean beauty’ industry. Gloria’s dream was to make products that felt adaptable and inclusive for all gender expression, but which also drew their ingredients from the planet sustainably. All of Noto’s packaging is biodegradable, or made from recycled materials, and their shipping materials are composed of green cell foam and recycled paper. They are also committed to sourcing locally as much as possible and working with suppliers who employ ethical practices and regenerative farming methods.
Source: homoco.co
2. Homoco
Homoco is a swimwear brand with a bold and playful visual identity that celebrates all things non-binary while flaunting its killer apparel. Homoco is a proudly queer brand with a big focus on sustainable materials and minimizing waste; their mission is to create wardrobe highlights, not fast fashion disposables. They make jazzy swim trunks from majority post-consumer recycled plastic (90% recycled and 10% spandex) and work with sustainably farmed tencel to make their iconic ‘camp shirts’. Most importantly, Homoco are very up front about what they’re doing and how they’ve shaped their priorities as a balance between comfort, functionality and sustainability. Transparent, inclusive clothing at its finest.
Source: instagram.com
3. Brew Dr Kombucha
Brew Dr Kombucha is setting the bar high for brands everywhere by proving that social and environmental sustainability can be pursued with equal degrees of passion, all while building a successful commercial brand. Not only are they regular contributors to The Trevor Project, a non-profit helping those LGBTQIA+ people in crisis across the US, they have implemented zero waste thinking up and down their value chain. With nothing but organic ingredients making it into their natural kombucha, and a commitment to carbon neutrality alongside a B-Corp certification, a first for the kombucha industry, these guys look like the real deal.
Source: aldernewyork.com
4. Alder New York
Alder New York is a queer-owned cosmetics brand doing it simply and doing it right. Founders Nina Zilka and David Krause are career designers with a long held passion for wellness which has culminated in a clean, inclusive and high-performance range of skincare products. Plant extracts coupled with dermatologist approved ingredients mean that their range is suitable for any skin-type. Plus, they only use recycled materials in their packaging.
Source: instagram.com
5. Tonlé
The tagline for Tonlé clothes – zero waste, fair fashion – sets out the stall for this popular clothing brand committed to a circular economy. If some brands find themselves reluctantly compromising on their environmental goals for the sake of design or comfort, then Tonlé have succeeded where others have not. Their clothing is made entirely from reclaimed materials cast aside as useless waste by other manufacturers, and they strive to use every shred of fabric that enters their workshops. They also have an active engagement with their customers on the care of their garments, with a view to longevity and minimizing waste. Their own resale platform, Open Closet, takes the idea of reusing clothing in hand by giving customers the opportunity to trade in their used items.
Source: instagram.com
6. Brave GentleMan
Brave GentleMan takes the traditional menswear aesthetic and rethinks it through the lens of gender neutrality and sustainability. The result is something quite unique from the mind of designer and founder Joshua Katcher. The brand’s industry leading innovations in vegan footwear and organic, sustainably farmed clothing fibers come together into a remarkably versatile range of products for those seeking a zero waste evolution on the classic menswear look.
7. Automic Gold
Source: instagram.com
Queer-owned jewelry brand, Automic Gold, from founder AL Sandimirova, is loud and proud about its inclusive products and sustainability credentials, and so they should be. This made-in-NYC line is created from 100% reclaimed-gold, a claim happily certified by SCS. They also work with beautiful, ethically mined white opals from Australia and natural diamonds to punctuate gold jewelry. Significantly, Automic only works with solid gold and never alloys, ensuring their products are as long-lasting as possible, retain value, and can be easily recycled at end of life. On top of all this, the company are committed to hiring diverse, non-cis models to show off their products, striking a boldly inclusive tone throughout their marketing.
8. KINdom
Source: instagram.com
Clothing brand KINdom is a model fashion citizen. Aside from producing beautiful, size-inclusive and gender-inclusive clothing, their granular attention to detail for all things zero waste should make others sit up and take note. The garments themselves are made from organic cotton and renewable materials like bamboo, but the packaging and shipping materials adhere to the same principles of zero waste. All too aware of the single use plastic problem, KINdom enclose their garments in a vegetable-based bioplastic and ship them in containers made from recycled materials.
9. Explorer Cold Brew Coffee
Source: explorercoldbrew.com
Explorer Cold Brew Coffee proclaims the grandiose goal of becoming one of the most sustainable coffee brands out there. But where’s the sense in modesty when your founder was the first openly LGBT adventurer to scale Mount Everest? Cason Crane’s journey to build a sustainable cold brew coffee brand began with the finest fair trade coffee. Beyond that, Explorer are committed to shearing off chunks of their profits to fund environmental action, particularly clean water projects in Africa. They have also shown how willing they are to get their own house in order by concentrating their cold brew mix to the extent that their emissions from shipping are a quarter that of their competitors. All unavoidable emissions from shipping are then offset by the company. Furthermore, their glass bottles can be shipped back to them for recycling, for which you’ll get a tasty $10 off your next order. They currently have a scheme in the works to be able to reuse the bottles themselves. As if all this wasn’t impressive enough, during Pride Month, 10% of all Explorer profits are donated to The Trevor Project.
10. Otherwild
Source: otherwild.com
Differing from the rest of our list, Otherwild is a brick and mortar store and design studio in LA. The queer and women-owned store sells a range of zero waste and ethically sourced products. It’s also a refill station for a range of zero waste household essentials. Otherwild also produces and sells its own range of zero waste products, hosts events, houses local designers and actively supports its community in myriad other ways. Not least through an Otherwild, a fund offering financial backing to BIPOC and LGBTQ makers across apparel, ceramics and other sustainability related endeavors.
Pride Month is a great time to feel the buzz and boost awareness of all the amazing things coming out of our LGBTQIA+ communities. It’s also a chance to forge new relationships between customers and businesses that are built to last beyond the month of June. Every one of these brands is founded on the idea of longevity, sustainability and above all, inclusion. Championing one of them, or another brand known to you, is a simple way to show your support.
For more guides to zero waste shopping and discovering sustainable brands check out our blog and sign up to zerowaste.com.