Olivia Wilde Embodies CSR: Celebrity Social Responsibility
One of the things I like to write about are the CSR business efforts of companies and brands and an extension of that are the celebrities that support and raise awareness of causes they value. Celebrities are their own brand in a way so it makes sense. One of the celebrities I have previously written about in TIFF 2013 Celebrities and the Causes They Support and the 12 Remarkable Global Citizens Honoured by Condé Nast Traveler is Olivia Wilde – actress, screenwriter, producer, director, politico, news junkie, philanthropist, activist and proud new mom to Otis Alexander. Her other accomplishments include being on the board of Artists for Peace and Justice and the Advisory Board for RYOT, “a highly progressive interactive news site that allows readers to become the news as well as donate to causes and organizations that are working to make a difference in the world.” Today I am going to focus on her involvement with Comeback Clothes and Conscious Commerce.
Comeback Clothes
Olivia has teamed up with retail magnet H&M and nonprofit DoSomething.org to help bring awareness to the fact that fabric can be recycled through an initiative called Comeback Clothes. It is staggering that “85% of all textiles end up in landfills each year–that’s 11.1 million tons, the equivalent of over 70 billion t-shirts,” when they could have been recycled. Comeback Clothes aims to help change those stats with garment recycling bins in H&M stores – this is to encourage young people to gather their used clothing (it can be in any condition) and drop them in these bins from April 17th to June 20th, 2014. Those that contribute clothes can take a picture of themselves putting their donation in the bin and send it to DoSomething.org to be “entered to win a $10,000 scholarship, and receive a 15% discount off their entire next purchase [At H&M].” Wilde’ did a PSA (video below) for the campaign as “Princess Layers” a superhero-type character who’s “power” is recycling clothing.
About her involvement with the program, Wilde said “I’m excited to work with DoSomething.org and H&M to encourage our generation to recycle old clothing with Comeback Clothes [.]Their message is very much in line with the philosophy behind my company, Conscious Commerce, which encourages young people to live an overall more conscious lifestyle and leave our world in a better state than how we found it. Recycling old clothes is a wonderful and deliberate choice that positively affects our world, and I’m proud to help that cause!” Speaking of Conscious Commerce…
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MGWJCzhW1hk[/youtube]
Conscious Commerce (CC) was founded three years ago by Olivia and her best friend Barbara “Babs” Burchfiel after many trips to Haiti. Through CC they are setting out “to create a guide for conscious living by promoting the causes, brands, people and lifestyles that are forging a new paragon of living.” Conscious Commerce represents a unique spin on philanthropy. “Instead of asking people to donate to a good cause out of guilt or even a sense of obligation, Conscious Commerce asks people to donate to charity simply by buying products they want anyway” (Forbes). In short, combine retail shopping items with vetted, charitable causes and turn shopping into nonprofit fundraising.
Conscious Commerce has partnered with American Apparel to raise funds for Oscar-winning director Paul Haggis’ organization Artists for Peace and Justice. The inaugural collaboration’s messenger bag was featured in both Forbes and Vogue.com. They also collaborated with designer Baraschi to benefit the nonprofit New Light India, which helps give an alternative to girls who would be in danger of entering into the sex trade. The popular dress was available for sale at Anthropologie. “I’d love to work with Stella McCartney and have a Conscious Commerce collaboration that benefits animals,” Wilde told elle.com.
“I think a voice is a terrible thing to waste. The larger the audience, the bigger the responsibility.” Olivia Wilde
Wilde has said her goal is to be a “useful human” and do her part and it seems she is doing more than that. She is a modern day renaissance woman and an inspiration to both other celebrities and her fans and the world could use more female role models like her.
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