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  • Home Blog Eco-Friendly Tips to Help You Live More Sustainably

    Now, more than ever, it’s important to keep sustainability top of mind to care for our planet. In honour of Earth Month in April, we’re highlighting brands making a conscious effort to produce sustainable and eco-friendly products.

    While browsing these products, be sure to make use of our search engine tool, StyList, to keep track of your favourite sustainable and eco-friendly brands. With StyList, you can search multiple stores at Upper Canada Mall and save any items you love to a singular wishlist.

    Read on for some tips on making more conscious choices while shopping, along with some of our favourite sustainable and eco-friendly brands to shop.

    Shop our sustainability edit

    Clean Beauty

    If you’re looking to make some conscious changes to your beauty routine, look for clean skincare and makeup products. Not only are they free of harmful chemicals and toxins that can have negative effects on both our health and the environment, but oftentimes they prioritize using ethically sourced ingredients and sustainable packaging. Tatcha, Fenty Skin and Milk Makeup are all Certified Clean at Sephora, meaning they are formulated without potentially toxic ingredients, and they are all committed to sustainability through the use of recyclable materials, the elimination of excess packaging, and the implementation of refill systems.

    Meanwhile, cult fave skincare brand Paula’s Choice has pledged to have net zero emissions in its operations by 2030 through greenhouse gas reduction, recyclable packaging and recycling programs, and a partnership with Tree-Nation to plant trees to offset emissions from all employee air travel, while OG natural beauty brand Burt’s Bees is Carbon Neutral Certified, uses responsibility sourced, natural ingredients and has committed to Net Zero Plastic to Nature by 2025.

    Shop clean beauty

    angled image of colourful Milk Makeup products lined up in a row.

    Milk Makeup

    Tatcha

    Tatcha

    Brightly lit flat lay of jeans stacked on top of each other. On the left are blue and white jeans and on the right are two other blue jeans. A ray of shadows accents the photo.

    American Eagle

    Image of a woman in a studio space doing a Low Lunge Twist Pose on a yoga mat and with a block. She is wearing a burgundy lululemon yoga set featuring a sports bra and matching leggings and her hair is slicked back into a low ponytail. A wooden beam is behind her, as are two windows.

    lululemon

    Sustainable Fashion

    Consider shopping from brands that use eco-friendly materials, such as organic cotton, recycled polyester and hemp, and who are committed to reducing waste and emissions. Patagonia and Matt & Nat both use recycled and sustainable materials, with the latter using 100% recycled plastic bottles for their linings. Additionally, Patagonia offers a “Worn Wear” program for customers to trade in their old Patagonia clothing for store credit.

    lululemon is also committing to sustainability by aiming to achieve at least 75% sustainable materials for their products by 2025, while American Eagle’s Real Good collection not only uses sustainably produced and sourced materials, but also has reduced the amount of water used per pair of jeans by 14%.

    And fashion girlies will be happy to know that Aritzia offers “lower impact styles” (styles made with at least 60% certified recycled materials, organic materials or responsibly sourced wood fibres) while using responsible packaging. Their offices, stores and distribution centres are also carbon neutral.

    Shop sustainable fashion

    Image of nine resusable Stasher bags in various colours and sizes against a white background. On the left are three bags stacked from tallest at the back to shortest at the front. The back and middle bags are blue and the front bag is green with some mint inside of it. On the right are six bags: The two in the back are on a white block for added levels, with purple in the back and blue in the front. In the foreground are (from back to front) blue, purple, and two orange bags. The second orange bag seems to grapes inside.

    Stasher

    Image of four staggered S'well bottles in various colours: (From left to right): Pink with a silver lid and yellow band around the bottle neck, Wooden-style print with a silver lid and a blue band around the water neck, Pink gemstone-style print with purple, white and gold accents with a silver lid and a purple band around the bottle neck, and blue gemstone with white accents with a silver lid and a red band around the bottle neck.

    S'well

    Eco-Friendly Living

    Another great way to reduce your environmental impact is by incorporating eco-friendly homeware and lifestyle products into your lifestyle. From reusable grocery and storage bags like the ones from Stasher and Linen Chest, to multiuse water bottles and tumblers like the ones from Hydroflask (available at Hudson’s Bay), YETI (available at Sportchek) and S’well (available at Hudson’s Bay), there are many sustainable (and stylish!) alternatives available.

    Shop eco-friendly lifestyle products

    An exterior image of Upper Canada Mall on a slightly overcast day. A sign for the store Dynamite is visible.

    Our Commitment to Sustainability

    Upper Canada Mall is committed to sustainability and was proudly certified Gold in sustainable buildings certification in the most recent BOMBA Best awards. To ensure this certification, we fully renovated our interior lighting to retrofit LED and our washrooms to include energy-efficient lighting, installed EV charging stations, increased our annual waste diversion, improved waste sorting facilities and introduced Green Matters, an annual tenant green recognition program.

     

    LEARN MORE

    Sustainability is a journey and small changes can go a long way in creating a positive impact on the environment. By adopting eco-friendly practices and supporting sustainable brands, we can do our part in creating a better future for the planet.

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