People For The Planet Archive

Rachel Breen

Artist + Fashion Activist

Rachel Breen

Rachel Breen @rbbreen, is a visual artist and activist who uses used textiles as a medium to dismantle entrenched ways of seeing and believing, while also scrutinizing overconsumption, careless waste-making, and disregard for the labor conditions under which our clothes are made. She champions organizations like Awaj Foundation, Bangladesh Garment Workers Solidarity, Cividep, and The Or Foundation that work towards labor rights, solidarity, and collective power.

IRK: Tell us your “Why”

My interest in the relationship between climate change, overconsumption and labor rights stems from histories of Jewish activism in the garment industry, my family history as immigrants and the role of the sewing machine in these stories. A strong sense of social responsibility and deep desire to connect my work to this political moment is inextricably connected to my Jewish identity. I think expansively and ambitiously about the role artists (and my work) can play in creating change. My aim is to contribute to larger social movements addressing climate change and garment workers’ rights.

IRK: What are you most passionate about with respect to taking care of people and the planet?

I passionately believe that the climate crisis and the labor rights of garment workers are intertwined. I think that if we can pressure brands to pay workers fairly and provide safe working conditions, we will begin to slow overproduction down and contribute to lessening the extreme impacts of the garment industry on the planet. We cannot address one without the other. If we hold brands accountable to paying both the real cost of labor and the real costs of environmental degradation of their production processes, we will begin to see some key changes that we hope for.

I also passionately believe that the way to make this happen is through collective action. Individual actions are absolutely essential, but collective action is also needed to make the shifts that we hope for in regard to the climate crisis and workers’ rights. We can do this by financially supporting organizations that work to organize and unionize garment workers, by becoming educated about policy, such as the Fabric Act in the US and by joining organizations working on these issues.

IRK: What are some conscious actions you implement in your daily life?

I seek out opportunities to share my artwork as a way of expressing my ideas, concerns and beliefs about social responsibility, the need for collective action, love for people and the planet and hope for change.

IRK: What’s your hope for the future of the planet?

Resistance, Resilience and Regeneration

What Sustainable Development Goal do you align with the most? https://sdgs.un.org/goals

This is an impossible question! #1 #12, #13, #17, #10 and all of them!!!!

Donny Lewis

Model + Activist + Writer + Dad + Editor IRK Magazine

Donny Lewis

Donny Lewis @donny7lewis, is a circular fashion advocate and founder of Wetrybetter.com, a 501c3 charity that encourages people to donate to charitable organizations by uploading proof of their sustainable efforts such as clothing swaps, composting, and recycling. He also partners with fashion brands to develop sustainable and circular production methods, including a collaboration with Mykke Hofmann to create the Donny Lewis X Mykke Hofmann men’s label and a partnership with Metropolis World for the release of a first-of-its-kind fashion NFT through the Persona Parlor.

IRK: Tell us your “Why”

The “why” of it all can really be summed up in the moto of the 4-h club. “Leave things better than you found them.” It does not matter what one believes about climate change, we can all agree that land, air and ocean pollution are huge people created problems. We as people have not done a good job of leaving things better. That is why we try better now to make a better world for tomorrow.

IRK: What are you most passionate about with respect to taking care of people and the planet?

Regenerative Finance solutions to our current ecological problems. This is a big far reaching goal requiring the change in the business as usual financial system. The principles of Circular Fashion and a circular economy play a role but they are not far reaching enough. We must change the entire financial landscape to one that rewards positive actions for people and the planet. We need these metrics to be both verified and transparent. The implementation of a Regenerative Financial system through the use of Blockchain technology is a way to equitably redistribute wealth and heal our people and our planet.

IRK: What are some conscious actions you implement in your daily life?

Personally, I recycle all that I can. I use the existing. I swap for clothes or buy second-hand. I still need to fly quite often but I plant 100 mangrove trees through https://www.fortrees.club, one of the Wetrybetter.com partner organizations, for each flight. I compost and use bikes for transportation as much as possible.

IRK: What’s your hope for the future of the planet?

My hope is that we as a species can agree that we are better working together and with nature than against each other and the planet.

What Sustainable Development Goal do you align with the most? https://sdgs.un.org/goals

Wow, you have to pick one? I align with them all as they are all needed in conjunction as a coordinated effort if any are to succeed and they must succeed!

Martin Ryback

Editor in Chief Copypaste! Magazine + Contributing Editor IRK Magazine

Martin Ryback

Meet Martin @martinmanuelry, a multi-talented creative who started off writing for various fashion magazines, but soon found his calling in editorial photo shoots and creative direction. With his work published in numerous magazines, including IRK, Fucking Young, Schön!, and Kaltblut, Martin is now managing his own online magazine and hopes to launch a print issue one day.

IRK: Tell us your “Why”

All my work gave me a way to express my creative ideas but at the same time learn about creativity, especially in the fashion industry. I could then use this new knowledge for my projects such as photoshoots, the launch of my own magazine and especially for writing articles. When I learned more about how fashion “works” and about the different concepts in fashion, the aspect of ecology in fashion (upcycling etc) it became much easier to review collections and write articles about it. So basically expressing ideas, being able to be creative and to learn always new things is what inspired me to get started in this field.

IRK: What are you most passionate about with respect to taking care of people and the planet?

In the beginning some years ago, ecology was not such a big topic in fashion as it is now. I was also less aware of this aspect. Over the years, sustainability became an inherent part of fashion and not only the brands, press agencies and designers have to take sustainability in consideration but also me when writing articles. When receiving the press kits for writing articles about brands or a fashion show, there is almost always an explanation of how the brand made this collection more sustainable than the season before. For me it is, therefore, important to communicate about this aspect in my articles when writing about the brands. Some brands become really creative when it comes to sustainability and for some collections, sustainability is even the main focus and therefore, I am more than happy if I can express this part in my articles and to show the brands at the same time that we appreciate their effort.

IRK: What are some conscious actions you implement in your daily life?

Since many years I am not eating meat anymore but only later I learned about the impact that meat consumption and production has on the planet. I think that a lot of people can change one aspect in their live even right now, to live more sustainable for yourself, for the planet and for future generations and very often it doesn’t take a lot of effort or a drastic change in your life. My work in the fashion industry made me of course more aware of the impact of garment productions on the planet. It was more an unconscious decision but over time, I drastically reduced my buying habits for clothing. I realized that with the same budget, I prefer to buy much less but timeless pieces that will last longer and not only once season and of course it is no secret that you can find fashionable pieces on the flea market or in vintage shops.

IRK: What’s your hope for the future of the planet?

I hope that the planet will be able to recover from us living recklessly and that a society we will learn to care for the planet including the animals.

What Sustainable Development Goal do you align with the most? (https://sdgs.un.org/goals)

I think that all of them are of importance and that they are all linked. Each of those goals goes hand in hand with the other goals and we always need to work on the ecological aspect AND the societal aspect at the same time we cannot take one part away from the equation.

Bel Jacobs

Journalist + Activist + Catalyst

Bel Jacobs

Bel Jacobs @beljacobs_com is a writer and speaker on climate justice, animal rights, and cultural degrowth in fashion. She is the co-founder of Fashion Act Now, the Empathy Project, and the Islington Climate Centre in the UK, all of which aim to promote ethical and sustainable ways of living.

IRK: Tell us your “Why”

We are in a climate, nature, social, health and animal emergency – because of the permission one half of the world gives itself to plunder and destroy the other half. This is a crisis of spirituality and of justice. What keeps me going? The knowledge that every ton of carbon we pull back from the atmosphere will save lives. The urgent need to gain some semblance of a stable world for my daughter. The grief of knowing that we are, almost intentionally, losing all the beauty of Earth, the only inhabitable planet in our universe. If we die, and take everything with us, the silence will be absolute.

IRK: What are you most passionate about with respect to taking care of people and the planet?

Ending suffering, both human and animal. Ending cruelty, both intentional and unintentional.

IRK: What are some conscious actions you implement in your daily life?

I’m vegan, the single most impactful thing a person can do to address the climate and ecological emergency. By being vegan, you confront an industry that is driven by multinational conglomerates; steals land from indigenous people; contributes significantly to the climate emergency; decimates land and pollutes water; fails to feed the world adequately (1 billion people and rising are still starving) and subjects over 100 billion land mammals to wretched lives and brutal, terrifying deaths. Veganism is about justice. It’s about how much we as individuals are truly ready to embrace compassionate lifestyles for the good of other people, other animals, and the planet itself.

IRK: What’s your hope for the future of the planet?

That the mycellium network of awareness and empathy that exists now will rise up to replace the brtual, extractivist, exploitative regimes currently taking us to extinction.

What Sustainable Development Goal do you align with the most? https://sdgs.un.org/goals

It’s tricky because they are all fundamentally interlinked, but probably Goal 15: Life on Land. It will take new ways of thinking to restore ecosystems, new philosophies of justice and equity. And it will enable all the other goals.

Adam Baruchowitz

CEO of Wearable Collections

Mark Haver

Advocate for Ocean & Climate + Sustainable Fashion Activist

Mark Haver

Meet Mark Haver @oceanswarrior, a passionate advocate for ocean conservation, climate action, and sustainable fashion. As a digital nomad and consultant with his own firm, he has been at the forefront of movements to protect our planet, using policy, partnerships, and his unique voice to drive change through clients such as Sustainable Ocean Alliance, Deep Rising, Negotiation Hub, and Global Fashion Exchange.

IRK: Tell us your “Why”?

Beauty inspires, and hope motivates. Nature’s beauty inspires me, and her resilience brings me hope. Yet human ego threatens the ecosystems that we a part of, not apart from. We, especially as young people of the 21st century, have a unique opportunity to forge a future in symbiosis with nature. Unlike the juxtaposition where humans or nature thrive only in the removal of one another, we can break this paradigm and become a sustainable generation. When humans can realize their function in supporting ecology— not just the economy— we can create something beautiful. I see the vision and work young people lead to make this future a reality, and that gives me more than hope: it gives me faith in tomorrow.

IRK: What are you most passionate about with respect to taking care of people and the planet?

As Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said in his synthesis of the recent IPCC Climate Report, we need a “quantum leap in climate action.” The status quo with our carbon emissions and warming trajectory endangers the livability of the future that my generation will stand to inherit and pass down to generations to come. My passion for activating young people to act to protect our planet is ritually renewed by the pride I have when I see the bold and serious actions that young people are taking. Young people are taking quantum leaps to dedicate themselves to this cause. I believe in the power of young people to rise up and claim the power we should have in being party to the decisions that will decide our future, and I am motivated to provide the support and resources that young people need to activate the hero in themselves— a hero we need, and a hero the planet needs.

IRK: What are some conscious actions you implement in your daily life?

I have not bought any clothes other than secondhand for several years now, and I am a practicing pescatarian as I travel the world. We can all take steps to protect the planet, and celebrating the contribution that each person makes, at whatever level, is something that can help us integrate sustainability into how we live every day.

IRK: What’s your hope for the future of the planet?

I hope that we can all recognize the urgency that is this moment. We are enduring a climate crisis and the sixth mass extinction event: both have been caused by human activity. Our success as a species does not have to be dependent on the destruction of the environment where we live or the species that cohabitate with us. It doesn’t have to be this way, and now, as we leverage this big green transition that we need, we get the chance to rewrite the script for our own generation. I hope that we can all step up and claim a role in writing the script for how we choose to live on this big blue planet.

What Sustainable Development Goal do you align with the most? (https://sdgs.un.org/goals)

SDG 12: Responsible Consumption and Production, SDG 13: Climate Action, SDG 14: Life Below Water.

Ali Cabanzo

Editor IRK Magazine

María Díaz Guasp

Contributor IRK Magazine