09.20.21
It’s code red for climate change, and more than 100 beauty brands are wearing their support.
As a show of solidarity with Versed Skincare founding president Melanie Bender, beauty brands from Milk Makeup to Prose and Ipsy will temporarily change their icons to red and halt social media posts beginning Sept. 21 – Zero Emissions Day. On Tuesday, the brands will alert its more than 40 million collective followers of their push to call upon their congress men and women to advocate for climate change reform under a program called CodeRed4Climate.
The initiative, developed by Versed in partnership with Youth To The People and Call4Climate, a project of nonprofit media lab, Fossil Free Media, creating a simple way for Americans to call their representatives in support of climate action.
CodeRed4Climate was formalized in the 45 days since the release of the latest UN Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change report, which calls the climate crisis a “code red for humanity.”
In addition to halting their social media posts, Versed, along with Youth To the People and Tower 28 Beauty, will shut down their e-commerce sites for the day. An open letter will be sent to Congress indicating these business leaders’ support for legislative action on climate change, in addition to a pledge of continued climate action signed by many of the brands.
“Humankind must act—and to avoid disastrous consequences for generations to come, we must act together,” said Bender. “Beauty is an industry of trendmakers. We want to use that influence to kickstart a movement of climate responsibility and action—before it’s too late.”
The CodeRed4Climate platform urges lawmakers to support climate policy by supporting the passage of the Clean Electricity Payment Program. The provision is part of a $3.5 billion budget that involves the usage of payments and penalties to encourage utilities to increase the share of electricity they sell from carbon-free sources each year. This legislation would ensure that the power sector generators 80% of its electricity from sources like wind, solar and nuclear plants by 2030. This would result in the slashing of more than one billion tons of greenhouse gas emissions a year.
The Clean Electricity Payment Program is said to be one of the most important climate policies in U.S. history. Introduced by President Biden, the ambitious climate plan aims to place the nation on track to eliminate climate pollution from electricity generation by 2035 and achieve a net-zero emissions across the economy by 2050.
CodeRed4Climate also aims to direct 40% of funding to frontline communities, end subsidies for fossil fuel corporations and the formation of a Civilian Climate Corps that puts people to work.
The 100-plus CodeRed4Climate participants range from small and medium-sized independent brands to publicly listed companies and represent all sectors of the $500 billion beauty industry including skincare, makeup, hair, personal care, supplements, retail and fragrance. Other participating brands include Act+Acre, Alpyn Beauty, Axiology, Beauty Bakerie Cosmetics, Ciaté London, Fekkai, Ilia, and many more.