How To Run an Eco-Friendly Influencer Campaign
Learn how brands are partnering with amazing influencers to promote sustainability and environmentalism.
Table of Contents
- 10 Sustainable Influencers to Follow
- 3 Sustainability Collaboration Examples
- How to Discover Sustainability Influencers
It can be hard to keep track of all the important celebrations around the world. But one day we should all remember is Earth Day, an annual celebration in support of environmental protection and a reminder that the need to protect our world is a global initiative. And who better to help your brand celebrate than a few key sustainability influencers who know how to drive real change?
Earth Day is deeply rooted in environmentalism; concerns for environmental protection have become a corporate social responsibility movement. If there is one thing influencer marketing is especially important for, it’s the ability to align brands with social movements.
A value-based influencer marketing strategy is one where brands collaborate with influencers who align with and support brand values in order to connect with like-minded customers in a meaningful and authentic dialogue. So, in honor of Earth Day, we are featuring 10 awesome sustainability influencers who support the values of sustainability and environmentalism and the brands that collaborate with them, along with campaign examples and tips to run an effective eco-friendly campaign.
10 Sustainable Influencers to Follow
Leveraging influencers to improve your image as a sustainable brand starts with making the right connections. Let’s meet the top sustainability influencers and learn what they’re passionate about.
1. Aditi Mayer
Aditi Mayer is one of the top sustainable fashion influencers and an advocate for labor rights and social justice. Her journey began in 2014 after learning of the Rana Plaza factory collapse that killed over 1100 people and injured countless others. For Mayer, this tragedy served as an awakening to the poor labor conditions and dirty secrets of the fashion industry. She now advocates for sustainability in the fashion supply chain and has become a leading voice on the topic, thanks to her services on the councils of Intersectional Environmentalist and State of Fashion.
2. Bea Johnson
Bea Johnson is the author of the bestselling book Zero Waste Home, having turned her ideas from a blog into a movement. She has brought awareness to hundreds of thousands of homes on how they can reduce consumption and waste. She has boldly stated that her family’s annual household trash amounts to a single jar. Bea offers tons of resources to inspire and lead others, including a tool to find places to make bulk purchases, tips for getting started with waste-free living, and sustainably purchased items that naturally result in less waste.
3. Immy Lucas
Vegan influencer Immy Lucas is a UK-based YouTuber and sustainability influencer. As a full-time content creator, Immy started the Low Impact Movement to share how she approaches a low-waste and low-impact lifestyle. Her channel, Sustainably Vegan, also shares insights on veganism and how it’s helping to combat climate change.
4. Rob Greenfield
Also known as the Trash Man, Rob Greenfield proves that one man’s junk truly is another man’s treasure. He’s gone to the extreme in living a sustainable, waste-free life, including scrounging in the trash for food and clothing and cycling across the United States on a bamboo bicycle.
5. Kathryn Kellogg
A staunch advocate for plastic-free living, Kathryn Kellogg is among the top sustainability influencers with a following of more than 379K. She runs the website Going Zero Waste and serves as the Chief Sustainability Officer of One Movement. Her content focuses on helping others go plastic-free and find more sustainable alternatives to traditional products.
6. Isaias Hernandez
Isaias Hernandez has built his platform on veganism and environmental justice. With more than 112K followers on Instagram, he is heavily invested on creating a sustainable future. Combating climate change, improving the food chain with veganism, and fostering a safe community for environmentalists are among his core values.
7. Lauren Singer
With 379K Instagram followers, Lauren Singer is a firm advocate for the zero-waste lifestyle. She’s been living her sustainable lifestyle since 2012, when she first started collecting all of the waste she created in a single mason jar. She now shares tips for others to do the same on her blog, Trash is for Tossers.
8. Jessica Clifton
Owner of the website Impact for Good, Jessica Clifton is one of the top sustainability influencers in 2023. She shares product reviews, tips on living a waste-free lifestyle, and other advice on her channel. She started her venture by going plastic-free, which grew into choosing more eco-friendly products and eventually sharing her ventures through social media.
9. Tara McKenna
Founder of the Zero Waste Collective, Tara McKenna is a Canadian influencer with one of the largest sustainability influencer followings on Instagram. She recognized a need for change at the global level after having traveled to various countries to witness the significant trash problem firsthand. She now offers coaching on living sustainably as well as tips and advice on social media.
10. Cherie Tu
Asian influencer Cherie Tu is a blogger and vegan chef from Sydney, Australia. She’s a two-time published author who shares her love of plants and veganism with her followers. She has been featured on a number of podcasts and is eager to share plant-based recipes via Instagram, TikTok, and her own cookbook.
3 Sustainability Collaboration Examples
Need some inspiration to fuel your environment-friendly collaborations? Let’s look at three sustainability influencers who have partnered with brands on eco-conscious topics.
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1. Jessica Clifton x Grove Collaborative
Jessica Clifton is a sustainability influencer with a wide following of over 200K followers across Instagram and TikTok. She provides useful tips to her followers on sustainable living by partnering with brands that support her values. With an average of 32K engagements per post, Jessica is an ideal partner for brands looking to promote their products and values to a highly engaged and passionate network.
Grove Collaborative, her eco-friendly household and beauty brand, provides conscientious consumers with ethical alternatives to everyday products. Currently, the brand’s social media following is 90% female with an average age of 30, which means they are connecting more with millennials than Gen Z. Perhaps in a bid to engage a younger demographic, the brand is running creative life-hack ads on TikTok, as seen with Jessica Clifton.
2. Cherie Tu x Alpro
A study from Oxford University discovered that eating a vegan diet could reduce an individual’s carbon footprint by 73%. I know, crazy! But it is safe to say that those promoting vegan diets are environmental activists in their own right. Cherie Tu, profiled above, promotes delicious recipes under the mantra that not only is veganism good for the planet but it’s also better for you. Of her 372K Instagram followers, 89% are female and a majority (39%) are actually based in the US.
Alpro is a Belgian plant-based food and beverage brand, offering dairy alternatives with soya, almonds, rice, oats & coconut. 91% of their Instagram followers are females, 77% are based in the UK and only 5% are from the US. The partnership with Cherie Tu is a perfect match, as both Alpro and Cherie advocate environmentally conscious, plant-based eating, and Cherie is able to connect the brand with her vegan-oriented US audience.
3. Rob Greenfield x VIVOBAREFOOT
Rob Greenfield is a unique influencer because his activism is at the heart of all that he does. It might be more accurate to call him an influactivist or an actifluencer . . . we’re still working on the name, but you get the gist. For example, a recent post presented a three-course gourmet meal made entirely of wasted food. His content is powerful and mission-oriented, something his 173K followers certainly subscribe to.
Rob had a very interesting collaboration with VIVOBAREFOOT, a shoe brand that vows to reclaim all worn shoes and resell them rather than tossing them in landfills. Why is this partnership so important? As part of Rob’s environmental activism, he has largely gone barefoot for 10 years as a boycott of the industrial fashion and clothing industry.
However, when he learned about Vivo’s mission to reclaim old shoes and stop the cycle of fast fashion, he realized that he finally found a shoe brand he could support. This collaboration produced an extremely strong and effective value-based campaign, presenting VIVOBAREFOOT as the only responsible alternative to boycotting fast fashion.
How to Discover Sustainability Influencers
Looking to run a value-based influencer campaign around sustainability or another important brand principle? Schedule a call with one of our influencer marketing experts, and learn how to identify influencers that authentically support your brand.