by Cherie Birkner

Let’s be honest, not everyone has all day to go change the world, but most of us want to see improvements. Using our voices digitally, under Instagram posts has proven to be a successful strategy for putting pressure on fast fashion brands, even when they have millions of followers - see an example where we spotted H&M Greenwashing.

So how can we push for change with our busy schedules? Or let’s be honest here too: we are not always busy, sometimes we are just lazy, and that’s ok. But let’s remember: doing something to improve the lives of others is a proven supplement for happiness! So let’s do some activism for the sake of a better world, and ourselves as well.

CHECKLIST

SAMPLE PROCEDURE

SAMPLE POSTS

We love to get the conversation started on Instagram profiles of fast fashion companies in a way which is positive and invites others to engage in the conversation. So taking a little extra time to prepare an informative and also solution focused post can really be worth it. Remenber, once you have it you are good to just copy & past from there, we just recommend to check an make sure what you are writing is still up to date every now and then. Here are some example posts we are using, which you are also invited to take over <3

Due to recent events of H&M Greenwashing:

@hm can you please be transparent with your followers and tell them what the ranking in the transparency indes does and DOES NOT mean? Your post was misleading. It had well over 20,000 likes so likely a few hundred thousand saw it here alone. PLEASE CLARIFY here why it was taken down and show some respect, not only to the makers of your clothes, but also your customers. It’s never too late to say you are sorry and improve your ways

1. Dear _________, I have come to hear that you have not committed to paying in full for orders completed in the production. We have found this Information on https://www.workersrights.org/issues/covid-19/tracker/ . We are worried about the garment workers who are now without pay, healthcare, clean water or food. Thankfully there are NGO’s like @femnet where we can make donations - a donation of 20€ will feed a family of 5 for 2 weeks - but this is sadly not enough. Will you #PAYUP ?

2. Dear _________, I would love to purchase from you. Your products look so nice! Can you tell me if they are also produced ethically? How much do the people making the products earn per piece?

3. Dear __________, can you tell me #whomademyclothes ?