A TWOOBS post popped up on our feed this morning (yes, still trying to kick the habit of phone time in bed). The caption, written by our social media coordinator and unofficial pop culture expert, Bianca, read: “Steps we took to make our brand carbon neutral: Step 1: Contact Eco Cart and download to your Shopify store. There are no more steps.”

It lit a fire inside us reading it. We felt our whole bodies pulsing with anger, and tears welling up inside our eyes. We found ourselves writing a comment on the post that ended with the words: Come on brands, we can do better. We MUST do better.

You see, of course we already knew that this was how we took TWOOBS carbon neutral, we were there when it happened. But seeing it laid out in black and white like that, it was so… simple. And if it is indeed as simple to go carbon neutral as it is to bake a loaf of banana bread, how is any brand NOT carbon neutral?

Putting our consumer hats on for a moment (which right now are totally pastel-coloured terry towelling buckets), we feel like it’s pretty safe to say that we’re at a place where most of us want to buy better. But we assume that “going sustainable” is a pretty hard task, so we forgive our fave brands for not quite being there yet.

Here’s the secret that no brand is going to tell you: it ISN’T a hard task. Not harder than coming up with creative designs and sourcing materials each season and spending time on logistics and creating social media posts which they already do. 

But if we keep buying from these brands and we don’t make our voices heard, then they have no reason to change up what they’re doing because it’s working. It’s like if Carrie just took Big back straight after he didn’t show up for their wedding… we need to hold people accountable, we need them to acknowledge that we’re in this relationship too and what we want matters.

So the next time you go to buy from a brand and you notice they don’t have a sustainability tab on their website, write to them and ask where it is. If you have a favourite brand you used to buy from but you’re now buying from their more eco-friendly competitor, let them know why you’ve made the switch. And if a brand you like isn’t carbon neutral right now, send them this post and ask when they plan to make the switch.

Let’s demand more, for ourselves, and for our planet. Demand with your voice, demand with your dollars, and demand like your future depends on it. Because it does.

Jess & Stef, TWOOBS Founders