Sustainability

Conscious gifting just got chic. From refillable beauty buys and recycled gold jewellery, these sustainable gifts get our green thumbs up.

More than ever, we don't just want our values to be reflected in brands' messaging, we want to see them in practice, from the shop floor to HQ.

Shopping your values can be easier said than done, so we asked our team for their best advice on putting your money where your mouth is.

What does a MasterChef cook in their own home? We asked Alex Crisp for a look inside her kitchen. 

Feel good knowing your meal didn't come at a cost to the planet.

The only thing standing between you and your next-gen ride is a bunch of outdated misconceptions—so we're debunking them for you.

 Expert colour combinations, chronic illness and an ingrained love for anything vintage.

The west really is best and we want to keep it that way, so we asked local biz owners to share how they take care of the environment. 

Wine that’s good for the planet AND your palate? Now that’s something worth raising a glass to.

I didn't know what to write for International Women's Day, so I did what any full-grown adult woman would do: I called my mum for advice. While riding the bus home from work, tired, my mum simply said, "Tell the truth." So here it is.

This destination diner in the Southern Grampians is the very essence of local, Victorian dining. And it doesn't hurt that the surrounds are stunning.

Many of us start the year with ambitions to do better; it's the perfect opportunity for a reset. But this year, we're moving away from resolutions to realistic, sustainable, long-term changes. 

Sustainable living starts with small, impactful changes, so who better to inspire us than our fave eco-friendly cafes leading the charge? 

When searching for your next podcast binge, turn to Australia’s greatest storytellers—Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander voices—for a truly enriching listen.

Urban List Guest Editor Sianna Catullo, a Narungga woman, on amplifying First Nations voices and allyship ahead of 26 January, 2025.

Pantone has decreed 2025 will be the year of Mocha Mousse and it’s giving minimalist chic, lively earth-inspired florals, and tiles.

Lavish bouquet-filled tablescapes fill our feeds and online orders for bouquets are booming—the internet has transformed the floristry industry, and we’re lapping it up

James is a proud triathlete, model, actor, disability advocate, Wiradjuri man and lululemon’s newest Ambassador. He shares lived experiences to champion inclusion and representation in media and fashion. Here, in partnership with lululemon, he unpacks how to dismantle stereotypes this year and beyond. 

Keen to live life more sustainably without compromising on style and those experiences that make for a thrilling social life? Us too. 

Pride month 2021 is here and big brands are switching gear to monetise the rainbow. In the last decade alone it’s clear to see companies have caught onto the fact that LGBTQI+ folks, well... actually buy things. In fact, we buy quite a lot of things. Enough things, companies have realised that it might actually be worthwhile to try and appeal to us so we start buying their things as well. And thus, Rainbow Washing was born. 

Join the Urban List team as we commit to a week-long detox from single-use plastics

Offering a range of just-add-water home and body care products, Skipper is where social and environmental welfare meets innovation.

Ahead of World Mental Health Day on October 10, we want to hit you with a pretty cool initiative we’ve come across that’s definitely worth your attention.

If we want to keep enjoying this dreamy set-up for years to come, we need to get serious about enhancing it, and the City of Gold Coast wants your help to make it happen.

When you think of significant Australian dates to mark in your calendar, what comes to mind may be Christmas, Easter or Labour Day. Any holiday which gives you a day off is a day that one recalls when thinking about the calendar year—and how to leverage your annual leave to have the most days off in a row, while using the smallest amount of annual leave. 

No matter how many snags you throw on the barbie and games of beach-cricket you play, the resulting centuries of dispossession and dislocation cannot be denied.

The collective strength of Blackfullas across the country, united in our fight against Australia Day, offers solace and a sense of belonging amidst the chaos in Australia. 

It was never the date to celebrate.

“We need to dramatically pick up the pace and get global emissions plummeting this decade.”

VR tech to restore the feeling of lost limbs and exercise therapy that employs AI—we’re living in the future, baby—and the Lexus Design Award is here to showcase and bring to life this world-class tech.

How do the pair find time to inject subtle luxury into their jam-packed schedules as parents and sustainably conscious empire-starters?

With a variety of fabrications to choose from—from recycled plastic bottles to cactus leather—these vegan-friendly and fashion-forward finds are just as luxurious (and buttery) as their non-vegan counterparts. Scroll to shop our favourite vegan leather handbags. 

With the average Aussie generating a staggering 540 kgs of waste a year, it’s time to get savvy with sustainability around the home. Waste Sorted is fighting the battle against mindless landfill teaching West Aussies how to be a GREAT Sort and do better than the bin. 

Looking for the coolest cafes across Melbourne to fill up at? We’ve sussed the ultimate hit list for you below—happy sipping. 

Deadly tees, statement earrings and spicy pantry fillers.

evee and July Luggage have joined forces to hook you up with the chance to score a mega prize pack worth a cool $1,000

Who would have thought that one would need to source native Australian produce from an international market?    

The crew at Kathmandu have a heap of new high-quality gear to help you do whatever you want this summer—whether that’s sweating it up on the beach, boogying at festivals, hitting the park for a picnic, or going bush. 

Your quick guide to the very best.

As we face a future beset by environmental, economical and cultural challenges, decisions that used to be simple aren’t so simple anymore. Just grabbing a coffee in the morning has become a minefield of potential issues—are those beans ethically sourced? Is that takeaway cup compostable? Is the cafe locally-owned? Can we really afford our daily caffeine habit? 

As much as we love to travel, we all need to do our bit to help reduce our footprint, be it here at home or on the beaches of Croatia. While it’s easy to get swept up in the excitement of planning your next sojourn, we all need to be conscious that the jet fuel, the plethora of packaging we take with us, the disruption to nature and the over-use of energy all add up. To help you become a more sustainable traveller, here are eight environmentally-friendly travel tips you should implement on your next holiday. 

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This year, the theme is Be Brave. Make Change — a challenge for non-Indigenous Australians to really tackle the unfinished business of reconciliation across Australia. 

Unless you’ve been living under a rock, the artificial intelligence and chatbot boom we’ve experienced this year should come as no surprise.

This year’s International Women's Day theme is ‘Cracking the Code, focusing on innovation for a gender equal future and closing the digital divide’. 

Whether you’re a baby feminist or a seasoned equality fighter, this list covers the freshest feminist reads from Australian and international authors alike. From mind-blowing factual works to eye opening fiction and even a few timeless classics, put your reading glasses on and add these prime publications to your to-read list.

Well, whānau, what a time. As we finally come up for air following the unprecedented floods in Tāmaki Makaurau and with potentially more coming on the horizon, it’s time for us to come through for each other. 

While the rainbow celebrations, glitter-fuelled performances and drag icons and legends that are set to fill your world are no doubt the highlight, we love that this time is also a chance to really champion, get behind and amplify LGBTQIA+ voices and stories even more. 

For artists like Isaac who are drawn to creating, music is undeniably in their blood, so we've teamed up with Australian Red Cross Lifeblood to dive a little deeper and uncover the passion for collaboration, live performance and a drive to contribute to the world around him that pump an unmistakable rhythm through his veins. 

We’ve linked up with Australian Red Cross Lifeblood to take you on a deep dive into Australian artists with music in their blood, and there’s no better place to start than with LK (her dad is Paul Kelly, and if that doesn’t suggest she was born with music flowing through her veins, we don’t know what does.)

As part of The Run Up, we chatted to Michael about his journey—what keeps him coming back to running time and again despite the challenges, what it’s like to represent your country on the global stage, and what it is that makes him run happy. 

As part of The Run Up, a project to unearth the stories of some of Australia's most passionate runners to get you motivated to lace up, we chatted to Green about why he values running so highly and the role it has played in his past as well as shaping his future. 

As part of The Run Up, a project to unearth the stories of some of Australia's most passionate runners to get you motivated to lace up, we chatted to Bell about what sparked a passion for this extreme sport, what motivated her to tackle a world-first challenge, and how the physical act of running ties in crucial to her mental and overall wellbeing.   

From community and structure, to how life has changed in the whirlwind eighteen months since that first run, we chat with Wintle about his run up into a new passion. 

Essential reading.

The stuff is best described as an eco-friendly super-soap for more reasons than one—here’s why you should be adding a little castile soap to your life.

Going green doesn't mean your investments will be lean. 

It's time you watched Seaspiracy.

We’ve found a bunch of absolutely stunning companies that value both the environmental impact and human rights of sourcing the stones and materials to help get you started on your exciting journey ahead.

The people of Zenadh Kes are on the front line of climate change with rising sea levels, increasing extreme weather events and coastal erosion affecting the 18 inhabited islands in the region, threatening many communities’ way of life and culture.  

Just add water.

Style shouldn’t cost the Earth, so now’s the time to adopt a new mantra: buy less and choose well.

Welcome to 30 Faces, a celebration of 30 individuals changing the world by 2030. A destination to unearth how they got here, what fuels their passion, and to educate and inspire your own journey towards a future made better. 

As much as we're all conscious of living a more sustainable life, some things are, simply, hard to do greener. Unfortunately, the old bathroom cabinet is one such space, packed with bottles, tubs, single-use wrappers and more plastic than a five-year-old's toy box.

Here are just some of the ways we can all help those affected.

It’s pretty remarkable to think an entire movement can be born from a powerful Instagram post. But that’s exactly what happened when Sydneysider Chanel Contos created an Instagram poll in 2021 asking her followers if they or someone close to them had been sexually assaulted when they were at school. Within 24 hours, over 200 people replied ‘yes’. 

Drawing from incredible native ingredients, there's a wealth of beauty and wellness brands on the market from First Nations owners, with plenty directing profits back to First Nations communities.

When we think of a model, we conjure a standard vision in our minds. You know the one. For decades, model status has remained tall, thin, white, able-bodied and cis-gendered. Not always, but most of the time. 

Let's talk the "P-word".

Good for your tush, good for the planet.

Have you ever wondered how someone landed that dream job? What about the jobs you never knew existed? 

If you, like us, dread the Sunday night pilgrimage to the supermarket to get your week’s worth of groceries then rejoice because you no longer have to leave the couch. Bulk food stores, as well as being incredibly good for the environment, are also super handy and even better, many have gone digital. Yep, that means you can shop sustainability whilst vegging out in your trackies at home. 

Held annually since 1974, the day acts as a reminder to individuals and businesses who are well on their sustainability journey or those at the very start, that we can all be making little changes in our day to day to protect the planet in a big way.

Do your part for the planet by checking out these eco-friendly beauty products, so you can look good and feel great doing it. 

Lined with the latest collections from hard-to-find labels to the bigger international houses, these are Australia’s best online fashion rental sites—so you can own-it without owning it.

Today, Monday 17 May, is International Day Against Homophobia, Biphobia, Interphobia and Transphobia (IDAHOBIT), a day which has been celebrated every year since 17 May 1990 when the World Health Organization declassified homosexuality as being a mental disorder.

Welcome to 30 Faces, a celebration of 30 individuals changing the world by 2030. A destination to unearth how they got here, what fuels their passion, and to educate and inspire your own journey towards a future made better. 

More than one billion people in 192 countries participate in Earth Day activities each  year, making it the largest civic observance in the world. 

We sat down with Western Sydney artist Bianca Beers to chat about growing up in a Paris Hilton-inspired style era (we’re talking over-glossed lips, huge hoops and quilted handbags) and how her art has led her to embrace her colourful and confident style today. 

To put it simply, the theory behind the CE is about transforming our current linear consumption model (Take-Make-Waste) into a circular one that keeps products and services in use for longer (well, forever) to reduce environmental impact and protect precious natural resources. 

We’re shining the spotlight on climate activists, First Nations rights advocates, eco innovators, sustainable fashion designers, disability rights champions, body positivity campaigners—anyone who is taking the leap to be the change they want to see. And now we want you to be part of the search to find our 30th face shaping the next decade. 

Check out our favourite sustainable bedding from Sheridan. 

Bless your ears with these incredible LGBTQI+ podcasts that will make you laugh and cry with their raw, honest and hilarious storytelling. From celebrity hosts and guest stars to award-winning journalists and activists, these queers podcasts are seriously binge-worthy.

If there’s one thing we love about summer, it’s the stacked social cal. And after this year, throwing on your party threads never felt so good. Whether it’s balmy beachside picnics, classy evening soirées or just a good old festive dinner—summer is where the socialising is at.   

If there’s one thing we all need, no matter the time of the year, it’s a fully stocked drinks cabinet. Instead of opting for your usual booze delivery, why not do the planet (and potentially your liver) a solid and try sustainable, organic tipples instead? 

The term zero waste has been on the upward trend for a while now, but it’s one that we hope will stick around for the long haul. When you consider that one million plastic bottles are purchased around the world each minuteand that 91% of plastic is never recycled, well it’s enough to make your head hurt. Most people are aware by now of what you need to do to reduce your waste at home, and it’s not all that different when you’re travelling, but we’re going to break it down for you so there are no excuses.

With summer now on the horizon, it’s never too early to get stocked up on your SPF and all things skincare. Today we are bringing you the feel-good news that our favourite NZ skincare brand, Emma Lewisham has officially become the world’s first beauty brand to go completely carbon-positive, and the world’s first 100% circular-designed product range. *Adds to cart*.

While Australia has been making positive strides to support LGBTQI+ communities in recent years, there is still a significant amount of work to be done to achieve true diversity and inclusion, especially in workplaces across the country.           

When people talk about the next generation of game-changers creating a better future for all, they’re talking about people like Bianca Hunt. At just 25 years-old the Kamilaroi, Barkindji, Ballardong and Wadjak woman has just launched AGNT BLAK, the first talent agency of its kind that is owned, operated and exclusively represents First Nations people.

When it comes to the beauty industry, sustainable and eco-conscious aren’t often the first words that come to mind, which is why we’re just a little bit obsessed with Anna Ross, the boss babe behind vegan and cruelty-free beauty brand Kester Black.