When did you start thinking about the brands you buy from? Demand for sustainable Portuguese brands keeps rising, and that is the result of a shift in how we think about consumption.
For many people the turning point came in April 2013, with the collapse of a building in Bangladesh that housed a textile factory. That episode did a great deal to make people aware of the dangers of fast fashion, and of the environmental cost.
Either way, when you started thinking about it matters less than the fact that you are thinking about it, and that there are answers. There is no shortage of eco-friendly brands, and this article has some of them.
Why buy from eco-friendly brands?
More and more people are looking to adapt the way they live so as to take the planet’s sustainability into account. I have worked at adapting my own so that my ecological footprint gets smaller as time goes on.
In doing that, we become more conscious and more demanding of brands and companies. Which is why many of them, well established ones included, are shifting how they position themselves, while new companies arrive with that mindset already as their mission.
Concern for the environment is shared by consumers, and by companies too.
“Eco-friendly” thinking shows up across every part of a company: in what it does, in its services, in how it manufactures, right through to distribution and sale. Once you know about the whole production chain, the choice is yours, and mine, and ours.
The reason to choose conscious brands
The big reason to go for more conscious brands:
- Protecting the planet: changing your buying habits can contribute to that. Better still, you protect animal welfare too, since sustainable products tend also to be cruelty-free.
And is it easy to find eco-friendly brands? Companies increasingly want to show consumers that they are adapting, and one of the main ways they communicate it is through the sustainability labels and certifications they hold.
Sustainable Portuguese brands
More and more sustainable brands are appearing in Portugal. The ones that stand out most are in fashion, in what is also known as the slow fashion movement, the opposite mentality to the one that led to the tragedy in Bangladesh.
At these brands the products are designed around the principles of sustainability and social responsibility, and what comes out are products that do not damage the environment and that have a positive impact on the world.
In this article you will find brands of all sorts, from clothes through to sustainable cleaning products.
1. Baseville
Based in Vila Nova de Famalicão, Baseville is one of Portugal’s sustainable clothing brands. Its aims are to reduce the quantity of virgin resources in its products and to eliminate microplastics.
Baseville combines environmental awareness with elegance, and two things stand out:
- Collections built for different seasons and years;
- Recycling and resale of older pieces, keeping them from becoming waste.
I would add that the packaging on orders is recyclable.
2. Wayz
Among sustainable footwear brands, Wayz makes products ethically and with responsible materials, biodegradable and recycled.
Everything happens locally, in Portugal, from design through to production. The brand also keeps intermediaries to a minimum and runs a flexible cost structure, which means shoes that are good, durable and fairly priced.
It contributes to local communities too, giving 1% of sales to the NGO SAOM. It recently launched a 100% vegan, recycled model called The Grit.
3. Näz
Näz is one of the sustainable clothing brands in Portugal that stands out for the range of its products, and also for offering “SELL 1 BUY 1”, which lets customers find out what their used pieces are worth and trade them for new ones.
Manufacturing can take several routes, all of them ecological:
- Using surplus from Portuguese factories;
- Creating ecological fabrics from organic or sustainable fibres;
- Working with textile companies to create fabrics and knits from recycled yarn.
On the fashion itself: minimalist and modern.
4. Cuscuz
Stepping away from clothing for a moment, there is the eyewear brand Cuscuz. They make sunglasses and earrings, both timeless and genderless.
The most interesting part is where the materials come from: furniture, beds, benches and factory offcuts.
5. Alma de Alecrim
To keep varying things, Alma de Alecrim stands out for how versatile its catalogue is. An online shop from Aveiro, where you will find:
- Disinfectants;
- Backpacks;
- Travel bags;
- Insulated bottles;
- Cups;
- Toys;
- Raincoats;
- Bamboo toothbrushes;
- And plenty more.
6. Nãm
Nãm is a project that turns coffee grounds into remarkable mushrooms. It started with Natan, who believes waste should not exist, and who built a circular business model with a positive impact.
He set up an urban farm in Lisbon where the mushrooms grow. How does it work? Working with Delta, Nãm collects the coffee grounds, mixes them with straw and mushroom spawn, and voilà: excellent mushrooms.
7. Marita Moreno
Marita Moreno is a brand that rethought the way it produces. It was created in 2011, but only became an eco-friendly brand in 2018. To get there, it brought natural and innovative materials into production:
- Linen;
- Lace;
- Wood;
- Cork;
- Piñatex (made from cellulose fibres taken from pineapple leaves);
- Banana peel fibreboard.
And so as not to add to the excess, the collections are limited.
8. Bleebla
On to toys: Bleebla, a sustainable toy brand. You will find woodcut printing stamps, wood and cork puzzles, wooden figures and a good deal more.
Everything is made locally with raw materials certified as sustainable. And there is always a theme running through the products: the sea, the forest, the countryside or the jungle.
9. Boutik
Somewhere between a shop and a café, Boutik is a sustainable brand with a surfer’s vibe. It carries all sorts of handmade things (jewellery, accessories, beachwear, books and maps), all from well-known names.
On the food side there is sushi burrito, tatakis, desserts, toasties and, of course, brunch. So beyond being a sustainable brand, it is somewhere in Lisbon you have to visit.
10. EcoX
To finish, if you do not know it yet you need to: EcoX, a sustainable cleaning products brand. What makes it so interesting is a business model built on the circular economy:
- Used cooking oil is collected from homes and from institutions such as restaurants and hotels.
- The oil is then filtered, purified and turned into household cleaning products.
- Finally they are sold to the public, including to whoever supplied the oil.
Working that way, it cuts cooking oil waste and guarantees a positive impact on the world.
Psst… always thinking about how to help you out, I have a 10% discount code for you: JOANAM10. Feel free to use it in the shop 😉
Positive, conscious consumption
To have a positive impact on the world, you have to adapt the way you live, so that what you buy starts to count as positive consumption.
As you change how you consume, the more conscious your behaviour becomes. And if, as a customer, you demand more of companies and brands, the more they will want to meet that demand, which puts us in a virtuous circle. With more eco-friendly companies, more people want something sustainable.
This is what I call a chain of good. So start buying from sustainable Portuguese brands for the things you use every day.
