8 Incredible Women Driving Sustainability Forward In Their Fields

“Fashion was a huge entry point [into sustainability] for me: [I grew] up in Oakland, home of the Black Panther Party, and loved the political messaging of their uniform symbolizing radical community sustainability. So, subconsciously, I understood fashion to innately be a form of political and cultural communication, and a language of community care, love and power. Additionally, I simply loved nature. And I think my true love for the environment – coupled with my excitement for fashion – encouraged me to ask myself very intentional and poignant questions about my ancestry, fashion history, fashion systems and the power of adornment. This was my sustainable-fashion foundation.

“As a non-traditional educator and creative storyteller, I have the agency to share and ultimately redefine sustainability from my experiences and knowledge. I’ve articulated sustainability from a uniquely cultural and political lens – very different from the mainstream sector. I’ve been honing in on dismantling colonialism within sustainability discourse, while connecting with and promoting Black and POC vanguards in sustainability. My work, independently and collectively, with Sustainable Brooklyn and The Root is about liberation, and that’s the ultimate goal. Helping to substantiate localized ecosystems with liberation at the epicenter.

“As a systems researcher and thinker, it has become very clear that the root of the intersections of this unsustainable colonial system is anti-Black racism, and this becomes the blueprint for all race, class and social detriments. My hope is that we get to a place where 1) this is understood and acknowledged, 2) systemic eco-reparations (land, compensation, prison industrial-complex abolition, etc) are legally enforced, and 3) Black and Brown Indigenous communities become the infrastructural and strategic leaders within all ecosystems. This is how we urgently mitigate the climate crisis and the environmental and social effects it has across community and industry.” @dominiquedrakeford

“A commitment I am making is to organize and connect other people to [positive] movements. One of the most effective ways that we can achieve climate justice is through mass movements putting pressure on governments and other powerful institutions to take action. Climate justice is more than making individual changes to our lifestyles.

“In 2020, the conversation around climate shifted. Finally, people who had previously been resistant to ideas of climate justice, and just wanted to focus on the climate science, were waking up to the fact that the climate crisis is a justice issue; that climate justice is racial justice and indigenous justice and migrant justice and gender justice and so much more. This shift in understanding is hugely meaningful. I hope that we will take all these learnings and ‘unlearnings’ and put them into action. Because that’s what hope is. It’s action. As Rebecca Solnit says in Hope In The Dark: ‘Hope is not a lottery ticket you can sit on the sofa and clutch, feeling lucky. It is an axe you break down doors with in an emergency. Hope should shove you out the door, because it will take everything you have to steer the future away from endless war, from the annihilation of the earth’s treasures and the grinding down of the poor and marginal… To hope is to give yourself to the future – and that commitment to the future is what makes the present inhabitable.’” @mikaelaloach

“Making our world healthier, happier and more prosperous has always been the core of the Tata Harper brand values. While we live those values through our work each day, Earth Month [April] is a special time for us to focus on education and giving back – and to set new, ambitious goals as a brand. We are deepening our commitment to Trees for the Future, an organization that shares our values and understands the critical connection between people, prosperity and the health of our planet. For more than 30 years, its Forest Garden Approach has been transforming communities in sub-Saharan Africa and replenishing our environment. It helps farmers to plant thousands of trees that protect and bring nutrients back to the soil. It also helps farmers grow a variety of fruits and vegetables. Trees for the Future farmers gain increases in income and access to nutrition, even in the first year, all while improving the environment.

“Sustainability is a work in progress. So many things are changing and there are new developments all the time. One has to keep an open mind to all innovation and see what one can incorporate successfully. The next frontier [for us] is refills – we need to be able to reuse packaging. It’s sad to recycle bottles that are still fully functional, with working pumps and caps, when they still have so much life left, and recycling is not foolproof.”