February 07, 2021 · By Isobel Hush

Sustainable Influencers You Should Be Following

If you are intersted in being more sustainable but aren't sure where to start there are a lot of simple changes you can make in your every day life. For these influencers sustainability is at the heart of what they do. From creating their own sustainable brands to giving their followers tips on swaps they can make and encouraging change. Take a look at what they have to say over on their social media profiles!

1. Steph Elswood

Steph Elswood is a Health and Fitness advocate, Professional Dancer, Director of Body Confidence Work Shops 'Stay Sassy’, Author of 'Plant to Plate' and founder of ‘Sasstainable’. Her refreshing approach to healthy eating and a wellness lifestyle has been featured in numerous health and fitness magazines, including ‘Women's Fitness’, Hello! Magazine, Grazia and Women's Health.

2017 saw the formation of 'Stay Sassy' a Dance and Body Confidence Workshop. The class is all about female empowerment and body positivity with profits being donated to different charities each event. Steph has also released a very successful Merchandise range with Stay Sassy and hosted her first wellness retreat in September 2019.

She has since released 2 vegan recipe cookbooks demonstrating how easy it can be to make small changes in your day to day life that can positively benefit the planet.

Her environmentalist passions and efforts have lead her to start her own brand - ’Sasstainable’. Her goal is to educate her audience by releasing ethically made products from sustainable materials that can be easy swaps for their single use alternatives.

Image via @stephelswood on Instagram

Check out Steph's Instagram here!

2. Zanna Van Dijk

In short Zanna is a business owner, personal trainer, ocean lover and online content creator but lets expand on that a bit more! She studied Speech Science (BMedSci) at the University of Sheffield for four years whilst also pursuing fitness as a hobby alongside her degree. Throughout the course my passion for wellness grew. She built up and launched her blog and discussed topics related to fitness, food and travel. Later in 2016 she released her first book titled 'Strong', it focused on educating women about lifting weights and empowering them through fitness.

Since then Zanna's passions and content have diversified to include travel, hiking, finances, productivity, plant based eating and conscious living. She has worked with tourism boards across the globe from Visit California and Discover Greece through to Pure New Zealand and Tourism Australia. She aims to use her platform responsibly, whether that’s by leading beach cleans across the globe, hosting a mini recycling series with BBC Earth Unplugged or creating the Living Consciously Crew Facebook group, a 14,000+ strong community. Most recently she became an ambassador for Rainforest Alliance and Sea Shepherd. And has spoken at the United Nations about using social media for positive change.

Zanna has also co-founded the brand Stay Wild Swim. Sustainable, ethical and beautiful swimwear crafted from ocean plastic and made locally in London. Stay Wild Swim is stocked in Selfridges and highlighted as one of their Bright New Things – a curated collection of slow fashion brands with a planet-friendly purpose. They have also exhibited at London Fashion Week multiple times, been featured in Vogue and were highlighted by Instagram as a brand using social media innovatively.

Image via @zannavandijk on Instagram

Click here to see Zanna's Instagram!

3. Zeena Shah

In late 2009, after working for both fashion and interior design companies, Zeena decided to quit her day job and create her own brand of hand printed textiles, determined to make a living doing what she loves.

Having graduated with a BA in printed textile design from Chelsea School of Art and inspired by her love of Scandinavian textiles, fabric, screen printing and her growing pattern collections, ‘Zeena’ was launched in June 2010. A collection of hand silk screen printed and hand made home accessories, all her products are crafted in her East London studio making each item truly unique. Zeena carefully sources all her materials from the UK her sticky tape is made in Lancashire, her cards printed in West Sussex and she is currently working with a Scottish mill to weave her limited edition blanket collection.

Zeena creates home accessories that bring colour and fun to your home. Her goods can be found in stockists both in the UK and internationally and she can often be found at boutique markets and lifestyle events around London. Zeena also runs a programme of craft workshops with museums and from her East London studio, inspiring people to get making. She always manages to unearth the greater vintage finds, as well as spotlighting the brands doing good in the retail world.

Image via @heartzeena on Instagram

See more of Zeena's content here!

4. Grace Beverley

London’s Young Entrepreneur of the Year (Natwest GBEA) and founder of two brands that are paving the way in sustainability and ethics, Grace Beverley is a successful female entrepreneur shaking up the business world, with a global reach of over 1.5 million. Grace was named first in Forbes 30 Under 30’s Retail and E-commerce List at age 23, highlighting her work to accelerate the slow-fashion space and convince consumers they have the power to vote with their money.

Grace is active in political discussions across all of her digital platforms. You’ll often find her speaking on panels about entrepreneurship and sustainable fashion and she has also appeared on BBC Politics Live to discuss abortion rights, veganism and Brexit. Grace’s inspiring narrative has led to her being ranked as the 26th 'Most Influential Online Creator' by the Sunday Times and featured in Glamour, alongside Emma Watson and Rihanna as one of the ‘The 10 Amazing Multi-Hyphenates To be Inspired By’.

Recognised by the BBC as ‘The 22-year-old Taking On The Gym Wear World’, Grace’s business success speaks for itself; in under 1 year TALA amassed a following of over 200,000 and total sales of over £4.5m. Within 24 hours of launch, Shreddy - the ultimate preference-based fitness app - reached the number one spot in the health and fitness app store charts and within the first 6 months amassed over 110,000 downloads.