Gabbing with Amber Valletta — The Green Dream

S3E2:

Gabbing with

Amber Valletta

Dana Thomas: This is Dana Thomas, and you're listening to The Green Dream, a podcast about how to green up your life.

Climate change is bearing down on us like a mighty hurricane. And it's scary as hell, but it doesn't have to be. I'm Dana Thomas, a leading voice in the sustainable fashion movement. On The Green Dream, I welcome global experts, creators and change makers from politics, business, and the arts for dynamic conversations on how you can green up your life. The Green Dream is the podcast of hope.

This episode is sponsored by Another Tomorrow, a women's fashion brand that redefines luxury with a commitment to ethics, sustainability, and transparency from farm to fabric to atelier. Find Another Tomorrow on its website, anothertomorrow.co, at its flagship boutique, 384 Bleecker Street in New York City, and at select stores.

This episode is also sponsored by Chloé, luxury fashion's first B-Corp-certified brand, dedicated to bringing positive impact to people and planet in everything it does. Chloé is committed to improving social and environmental sustainability with greater transparency, accountability, and beyond, and with an aim to create a fairer and more sustainable future. Find out more on Chloé.com.

Dana Thomas: Most of you probably know Amber Valletta as a supermodel. She famously opened Tom Ford’s first Gucci show in 1995 wearing a chartreuse silk blouse and frock coat, and navy blue velvet hip huggers, her blonde hair tousled as if she’d just rolled out of bed after a wild night out on the town. And she's still working it today, walking the fashion week shows for Versace, Saint Laurent, and other major luxury brands.

Or maybe you know her from her role in that delightful 2010 kids’ comedy, “The Spy Next Door,” with Jackie Chan. We watched that movie a lot in our household.

What you may not know is that Amber is a climate activist. She works with several NGOs, serves as British Vogue’s Contributing Sustainability Editor, and does eco-consulting for brands such as Karl Lagerfeld. This spring, the third Karl Lagerfeld Amber Valletta collection will drop in stores around the world. It includes stylish, environmentally conscious ready-to-wear, such as biker jackets, little black dresses, and suits, as well as accessories. And she takes her activism seriously, participating in Jane Fonda’s Fire Drill Friday protests in Washington and Los Angeles, and even getting arrested for the cause. This activism is deeply embedded in Amber—her mother successfully protested against the construction of a nuclear power plant near their home in Tulsa, Oklahoma, when Amber was a child. Amber watched and learned.

I got to know Amber when I moderated a panel about sustainable wool at New York Fashion Week in 2019. Since then, we’ve become friends. I like how she is trying to push fashion towards more sustainable practices from the inside—as her friend Stella McCartney says, “Infiltrating from within.” As the Fall/Winter 23-24 fashion shows unfurl in Paris this week—with Amber walking in several of them, including such eco-conscious brands as Stella McCartney and Chloé—I thought it seemed like the perfect time to have her on the podcast.

Amber Valletta. Welcome to The Green Dream! So, you grew up in Tulsa, Oklahoma, where your mother was a grassroots activist, and she took you to protests as a kid, which I think is really cool. She was participating in this community fight against the construction of a power plant, and the protest was successful. What was it like to be out there with her? You were little, right? You were what, six, seven?

Amber Valletta: My first memories of that are actually a little scary. I remember being at my grandparents, at their farm, and I was aware of what my mom and her friends were doing. They had these bands they would tie on their arms that were yellow, that had like "No Nukes" because it was a nuclear power plant. And then they had shirts. And so I remember seeing all this stuff, and I heard about it, but I probably was maybe even five.

Dana Thomas: And this was the time when "The China Syndrome" movie came out and Three Mile Island had happened.

Amber Valletta: "Silkwood," with Cher and Meryl Streep. Great movie. I remember seeing on the news that these activists had gotten arrested, and I knew my Mom was a part of that group and I was so young that I didn't really understand what it all meant. So I was scared my mom wasn't going to come home, but my grandparents obviously explained to me she was fine. And it was actually a peaceful protest. It was planned with the police, and they knew once they crossed the property line that they were going to get arrested and it was peaceful. They booked them and all of that, but it was peaceful and she was out within 12 hours or something like that. That was the first thing I remember. And then her, and my aunt, and their friends took us to my first protest downtown. It's funny, it was the building where she went to high school.

It became the power company's headquarters. We were given picket signs and told to scream as loud as we could going around this block of this building. I remember being with my cousins and thinking how fun it was that we could scream at the top of our lungs, because we were always told to be quiet. But I knew that we were fighting for something and standing up to something–that also registered in me a really important value. I just saw her fight for a long time for this. They fought for like five years, six years. It wasn't like a year, six months. It was five, six years of them working tirelessly to stop this power plant from being built on Native American land, and also just outside of the city.

Dana Thomas: And they succeeded.

Amber Valletta: They succeeded. And you can find information on it. It was called Black Fox. There was an amazing woman that kind of led the movement movement and they were making quilts, and Jackson Brown came and played a concert. It was just a different time. I think they were still living some of their flower power days. It was also extremely important what they were doing, because they were fighting not only for environmental justice, but social justice. Because that would've really affected rural communities in some ways more than, it might've even affected the bigger city. I joke about some of it because it is fun and cute that we were kids and we were able to yell and scream. But it was so impactful in my life. It made a huge difference in that community.

Dana Thomas: And it embedded in you the power of the voice, the power of fighting for what you believe in, and the power of speaking out, didn't it?

Amber Valletta: Yes. It completely set that tone for me to speak out for what I believed in, and my values.

Dana Thomas: And to be active and not passive in civic duty and participation.

Amber Valletta: Absolutely. The importance of being active in your community. I think that's really key for me is that my Mom always said you have to give back to your community. You cannot stand on the sidelines, and not take care of your community, and be a part of your community and fight for your community. There's somebody who needs more than you do, so you got to go help, or give or fight for them. Fight for the world around you. So that was embedded very early...

Dana Thomas: And then it was reinforced by the time you spent on your grandparents' farm, right?

Amber Valletta: That too.

Dana Thomas: Being out there with nature.

Amber Valletta: Yeah, that was the love of nature, and that was a time where there was no digital anything, and so we were told to just go outside and play. Use your imagination.

Dana Thomas: What did your grandparents grow?

Amber Valletta: My grandparents didn't grow anything. They raised animals. They did a little horse trading and showing, but they were mostly just for fun and for free. They would maybe braid a dog and they weren't really doing anything with the farm except just enjoying it. They had a beautiful creek that ran through that was spring-fed, and it was really very idyllic to be able to grow up outside like that. It was so impactful to be able to walk up to a goat, or chase a peacock or go down and catch crawdads. It was really like Huckleberry Finn, living near the creek.

Dana Thomas: And then you made this turn into fashion and modeling – really was a left turn from this nature and protesting hippie childhood of Tulsa. But it was your mother who took you into modeling. It's funny because it was my father who took me. Was it your idea, or her idea? How did you get into modeling and what was the debut? You were young again, still? You're like this precocious kid, right?

Amber Valletta: Yeah, I was a really good kid, but I was also very animated. I don't know if I was precocious, but I was definitely animated, and if there was a camera. I would get out and be like, "Doo-doo-doo, doo-doo" – you know, the soft shoe dance and my mom had been told just by people over and over, she should model, she should act, put her in front of a camera. There was always this talk. And so she asked me and I really didn't even know what it meant and I was like fine, whatever. So I just followed her around to a couple agencies...

Dana Thomas: In Tulsa.

Amber Valletta: In Tulsa. Finally one said yes and, but we had to pay for me to be a model and learn how to model. I was, I think, 14 and athletic. I didn't even know what fashion was, I didn't look at fashion magazines. I just thought what they were doing was kind of funny. I would giggle and laugh when I'd see them walking down the runway. They also taught us something really funny called mannequin modeling, which even to this day makes me laugh.

Dana Thomas: What is that?

Amber Valletta: You pretend you're a mannequin at the mall and you would be in a store like JC Penney's, and we would be on a box, and they'd put you in an outfit and you'd strike a pose and then you would change the pose but you had to hop-and-lock-it like robotically, and then hold that pose and not blink and try not to look at anybody in the eye. And then five minutes later turn to another pose. It was definitely the foray into acting, I can't even believe I did that. I think about it now and I'm like, I wish somebody had a video of that because that is some funny stuff. But you can imagine, like, a 14-, 15-year-old girl looking at that, someone teaching you that and you cackle, you can't help it. It's just funny. My mom took me to this agency and that's how it started. And only a couple months after, there was a scout that came through from Italy and discovered me and asked me to come to Italy for the summer and model, and the rest is sort of history.

Dana Thomas: Which agency was it?

Amber Valletta: It was called Italy Models, and the owner's name was Guido. He laughed when he saw my ears. He asked me to pull my hair back and he said, "You have funny little dumbo ears." I went over there with no pictures, and did a couple tests, and then started working within like two weeks. It was crazy. And I did what every model used to do, which was built a book and you worked your way up. It wasn't like today where you go get one booking with one major photographer, and then suddenly you've got an exclusive for some major show. It wasn't that. You know. You know. There was certain stuff you sort of had to get your training in and I'm grateful for that because I learned a lot.

Dana Thomas: You had to hit the pavement with your book and go see people. And you had to do really basic little jobs for small magazines and then you got picked up by a bigger thing, and then maybe eventually got something huge but you had to work your way up. You had to do your catalog work. Which paid the bills actually.

Amber Valletta: All of those things. It teaches you, I think, a lot about all sorts of things. One, humility, and two also just how to get around a city, and how to understand different cultures. I mean there's so much to it. Whereas, when you just get launched into something, you don't really build a work ethic. It gives you, I think, somehow, a bit of a disadvantage than if you have to go through a process. At least that's my opinion.

Dana Thomas: Funny enough, modeling also is sort of the antithesis of what you were doing with your Mom when you were younger. Because it's sort of like a silent profession. The one thing you don't hear from a model is their voice, right? No opinions. You're just supposed to look good, make this product look good. And so you lost your voice for a little while. But you found it again, in the environmental movement, through a friend of yours, she was told not to get pregnant because she had high mercury in her blood. That's kind of crazy. That was a turning point, right?

Amber Valletta: I was already starting environmental work but that definitely was very influential in some more specific work.

Dana Thomas: But how did you get then into the environment–what caught your attention and pulled you into it and gave you your voice back? Sort of bit like Ariel getting her voice back in the "Little Mermaid."

Amber Valletta: One thing I want to say before I go backwards is, today people are encouraged to have a voice. And I think that's one of the positive things about social media is that a lot of the younger generation, especially if we're talking about fashion, they've been encouraged–the people that are really successful are people who have an outside value system and opinion and maybe stand for something than just being a pretty face and being able to sell something. There's usually more stuff behind them and I think that...

Dana Thomas: Activations, and agency.

Amber Valletta: Yeah. And I think that's one of the greatest things that we've seen change in fashion. But to go back to the beginning, for me, I think most people who know me in the industry quite well know that I never actually was completely quiet. I was always one of those people who ... like Edward Enninful will tell you, "Bobo always had something to say." I was always worried or sensitive about different things and would say stuff, a little bit of a truthsayer and probably annoying people because of that. But no one was really aware of the effects of what fashion was doing on the environment nor were we really clued in yet about the supply chain and the labor issues until a few years later. But what happened for me is when President Clinton was in office, and Vice President Gore was in office, he started talking about the ozone, and the environment, and language, and that conversation kind of started. People were starting to talk about the Earth was heating up and the ozone.

Dana Thomas: It was really important. I remember when I was at the Washington Post and I was party reporter, it was a bit like modeling. You had to start at that ground level and work your way up. So I was covering events and parties in Washington, which is actually like state dinners and things, right. It's not just like going to parties. And one of the things I covered was a premiere at the Air and Space Museum of a documentary that Al Gore made back when he was still senator, and it was called "The Blue Planet," and it was beautiful and we saw it on this gigantic IMAX screen and he got up and spoke and then I went to the event afterwards and spoke to him and went and ran back to the newsroom and wrote the story. And that's when it sort of sunk in my brain. Being a seventies kid, of course, environmentalism, ecology was important, and that Al Gore event, at the Washington Post, it hit me too. And suddenly something triggered.

Amber Valletta: Well he deserves a lot more credit I think, than he gets in general. He's so humble about it all. When years to come we'll give him a lot more praise for his work that he did for humanity.

Dana Thomas: And courage.

Amber Valletta: And courage.

Dana Thomas: So that was the trigger for you, too?

Amber Valletta: That was the trigger. And I was living in New York, and I was in my early twenties and Christy Turlington went to college, and I'd seen that and I was like, "Wow. If she can go to school, why can't I?" I signed up for the same program at NYU that she had already went through, and I started doing environmental studies. That was one of the first classes I took. It was Politics of the Environment. That just ignited something in me. You know, when you feel like you're home somewhere that opened the door and then slowly but surely more information came out. And then I moved to California and had my son a few years later. By then California was so far ahead of everybody. Mercury poisoning. and they were talking about chemicals, you know, household chemicals. They were talking about so many things and working on so many things, and I started getting involved with NGOs here, more grassroots. And that's kind of what opened the whole thing for me.

Dana Thomas: So you became the spokesperson for the Stop Seafood Contamination campaign by Oceana. How did that come together? How did that come about?

Amber Valletta: It's so long ago now. I don't even fully remember how it came about, but, yes, one of my dear friends was diagnosed with really high levels of mercury and had to clean all of that out before she could get pregnant. I was sort of shocked. It never even occurred to me that that was something that was even possible. And when they asked me to do this campaign, I had a direct correlation, because I knew about my dear friend. We were living here and the ocean is right here, it's your backyard. So it felt pertinent to be a part of that campaign. And also because I had a young child, and mercury contamination is equally as dangerous, maybe more so, for young children. Everybody thinks "Oh, it's healthy, I'll give my children a tuna," or whatever. And actually knowing those certain fishes were really dangerous was a big step for me. It was connecting these dots, the connection to my own life. Other people. You take it bigger. And you know it's coal plants, and we need to close down these coal plants.

Dana Thomas: Because they were dumping mercury into the seas?

Amber Valletta: It emits mercury when they're refining it.

Dana Thomas: And then that winds up in the seas.

Amber Valletta: And it winds up in the seas, it settles into the rivers, the seas.

Dana Thomas: It's all a piece.

Amber Valletta: It's all part of it. You look back at things, and it's pieces of a puzzle, and it all makes sense for any of us, right? You think, the good and the bad and you're like, "Oh, that's why it was meant to be that way." It led me to the next thing.

Dana Thomas: Exactly. And then you joined the Natural Resources Defense Council, which works to cut carbon emissions and expand clean energy. How did you get into that and what were you doing with them?

Amber Valletta: I was living here and my son was quite young. I got invited to some event, I think, by the NRDC and I really liked what I heard because they're science-based, but they're also lawyers, and so they're fighting government and law, and also companies, for environmental protections. When I saw I could be part of something that was more active, go and lobby in Sacramento, or even lobby in Washington D.C., I was like, "Wow, this is cool. We can see change."

Dana Thomas: So you were going back to those things with your mother, you were back in your groove, man.

Amber Valletta: Yeah, we weren't protesting but we were lobbying. It was another way at it. Yeah, it was kind of going back to that. It also was a great learning experience for me, because that's when I started learning about fashion and the issues in fashion, because they started a program called Clean by Design, and they had sent Linda Greer, a great scientist, over to China to do a lot of discovery work and figure out how we all were causing this massive rise in pollution. What were ten best practices that all factories, not just in China, but all factories that were producing fashion could take on, and change, that would be simple enough for them to make these changes to clean up their carbon offsets, their water pollution, and water waste, and chemical pollution. So when I started reading the science and all the numbers, I was like, "Oh, shit. Fashion is a big problem." So that was the foray actually into understanding that fashion was a big contributor to so many things in climate.

Dana Thomas: But you managed to merge it all together, before you were kind of compartmentalizing and you're doing your modeling and then you're doing some acting. You've been in some movies and then you were doing work for Oceana, and it was all, "This is over here, and that's over there, and I have my day job, and I have my activism." But then it came together.

Amber Valletta: Yeah. That's what happens when you are middle-aged. I was turning forty...

Dana Thomas: But also the business, the idea that fashion wasn't just about beauty and glamor and that it had this dirty dark side to it too. That it was impactful on the environment and was impactful on humanity. That there were sweatshops, that there was pollution and dumping of dyes in rivers. All that was never talked about before. Like we just don't discuss it. Or it wasn't even clocked. And this pulled it together for you. So you've joined FIT as their sustainability ambassador. You and I work together at British Vogue, where you're the sustainability editor and you've been also consulting for brands, haven't you? You've done some consulting work and trying to take this information from your activism to the fashion industry and help brands get on track.

Amber Valletta: That's right.

Dana Thomas: You work with Lagerfeld and who else?

Amber Valletta: I work confidentially with another very large brand, but we haven't publicly come out and talked about it yet. Maybe if we continue the relationship we will. I'm so amazed at what's happened in the last decade. What I've seen from when I started in this arena of really connecting fashion, environmental, and social justice–it was so niche, and there were so few people. There was obviously scientists and academics and a couple activists, but it wasn't trending and it wasn't widespread talk, and it wasn't being talked about with investors, and things like that. It was very–I don't even have to explain to you, but for your listeners, it was so niche, especially when you're specific about fashion. And when I decided to come back into fashion after being away for a while to raise Auden and act, I knew I needed to combine my value system and my passions with my profession. I knew I was a storyteller, and I knew I loved fashion, and I love creativity, and I love innovation and I love the idea of problem solving and figuring out how to make it better. So for me, it was vital that whatever work I do, whether it's acting or modeling, or something else, that the lens in which I do everything from is through sustainability–wellbeing of the people and planet.

Dana Thomas: Absolutely.

This episode is sponsored by Another Tomorrow, a women's fashion brand that redefines luxury with a commitment to ethics, sustainability, and transparency from farm to fabric to atelier. Find Another Tomorrow on its website, anothertomorrow.co, at its flagship boutique, 384 Bleecker Street in New York City, and at select stores.

And this episode is sponsored by Chloé, luxury fashion's first B-Corp-certified brand, dedicated to bringing positive impact to people and planet in everything it does. Chloé is committed to improving social and environmental sustainability with greater transparency, accountability, and beyond, with an aim to create a fairer and more sustainable future. Find out more on Chloé.com.

If you are enjoying this podcast, and want to know more about positivity and hope in the climate movement, sign up for The Green Dream newsletter at our new website, thegreendream.studio. Now back to my chat with supermodel and climate activist Amber Valletta.

Now one of my favorite things that you've done, which really brings it full circle, is you went out and protested with Jane Fonda in Washington. Ultimately, I was super jealous because I wanted to do it. And you got arrested too, right? Just like your mother. But you got arrested with Jane Fonda, which is a lot sexier than getting arrested...

Amber Valletta: Oh, I brought my Mom. Listen, I got arrested with Jane the first time. To be honest with you, Jane didn't get arrested the time that I got arrested, because Jane had already been arrested like three times. Well, you have to be very strategic, because every place has different laws, right? And if you get arrested a certain number of times, even for civil disobedience, in the District of Columbia, you've only got like three strikes, and then the fourth, I think, you end up having to stay in jail for quite a while, like three days. And then they set a court date, and then she could have gone to jail for, like, a year. They don't fool around. It seems funny, but then they don't actually fool around, you don't...

Dana Thomas: So they'll put up with it for a limited amount of time? But then after that, we're losing patience.

Amber Valletta: So when I went the first time to meet with Greenpeace and everybody there to protest, it was quite amazing because they gave you a whole education on what was going on. Because each week was very different: Fire Drill Fridays – they were being very specific – each Fire Drill Friday about an environmental or social justice issue that all correlated back to climate change. So they educated you. And then when we met the next day for the protest, it was very clear the rules of engagement and what you were going to do if you chose to be arrested. And then Jane was not arrested that time because she was holding out.

Dana Thomas: She'd used up her quota.

Amber Valletta: Well, she was holding out for another one that was going to be towards the end that was really specific. But she was cheerleading us on, and she waited, and she was there with, like, snacks when you got outta jail.

Dana Thomas: What kind of snacks does Jane Fonda bring to jail?

Amber Valletta: I don't even remember. I think they brought us something warm, because we were cold. It was freezing and you're sitting in a cold warehouse all day, and we can laugh about it, but it's not a laughing matter, because none of our greatest freedoms is that we have the right to express in this country safely really put your body and your whole self out there to say, "I won't stand for this and we are going to fight for this." And people have gone before us and given their life for this. It's really important and it should be respected. And so as much as we're giggling about certain things, I want to also just honor how...

Dana Thomas: I mean, you've got to love Jane Fonda bringing snacks to you when you get out of jail. Because she's an old pro at this, so she knows.

Amber Valletta: She waited for us with a group of other people from Greenpeace to thank us, and give us hugs, and make sure everybody got out, and you had to post your bail. I went back and I brought my mom because I felt like my mom needed to get back into the swing of things and protest again. I took her and she got to meet one of her lifelong crushes and heroes, Martin Sheen.

Dana Thomas: Wow.

Amber Valletta: Because Martin has done so much for so many causes over the years. So that was really cool.

Dana Thomas: A very active citizen.

Amber Valletta: Yes, he's a very active citizen. And we protested together again and that was really powerful in D.C. on the Capitol steps. And then I also came here and did a Fire Drill Friday with them here. But we did not get arrested here. They didn't want any of us to get arrested, because they had a group of protestors that were surrounding, I think it was a bank that was connected to funding oil companies and so they really wanted that to be the focus. So it's a very strategic, well thought-out, and they're very respectful of obviously wherever we're protesting, they're extremely respectful of the police and of the process in which you do this properly, civil disobedience. I have a great respect for protesting and people who have put their life on the line for that around the world. It's no joke. It's really serious. And no, we saw that in places like Iran and...

Dana Thomas: Now, I know that you definitely, when you work in the modeling business in fashion, you work with certain designers who are sustainably minded, like Stella McCartney, like the House of Chloé with Gabriela Hearst. How do you work out that these two worlds conflict, that you're not working for a house that it turns out their sustainability cred isn't so great, but you've worked for them for 30 years so you have this long-time friendship and relationship with them and some loyalty. Or are you helping them quietly behind the scenes, going, like, "I'll come do this for you, but can we make sure that your sequins are not made of plastic and...?" Are you tweaking along the way or are you saying I won't wear certain things on the runway or I won't advertise something if, if it's clearly not green or if it's toxic. Yeah. Do you manage to balance these two somehow?

Amber Valletta: We try very hard. My team is very cognizant. We have someone who's just dedicated to social and environmental issues within just the modeling agency, who goes through a whole process of discussing this with clients. Especially for me, because I'm more conscientious about these things than some other people.

Dana Thomas: Right. And you don't wanna be seen as a hypocrite.

Amber Valletta: No, but I also believe that there's a time and a place to have conversations with people that are not necessarily doing the right thing that need guidance. Listen, there's people that are greenwashing, and I wouldn't work with them, but there are people that I think legitimately want to try to do it better. And I think it's important to have those conversations. I try, especially with advertisement, and really public work, that I am aligned with my values. Of course, there are brands that I've worked for that are maybe not as verbal about what their environmental practices are, but a lot of them are working hard, and I ask those questions to designers. I do have conversations with almost everybody I work with. I'm sure I'm kind of annoying. I do have those conversations, and if it's somebody that's maybe a bigger company that I'm not able to have that conversation with, if we can't get good answers, then we don't do the job.

Dana Thomas: You just say no. And you also have spoken out a lot and you talk about the beauty industry, and how the beauty industry should be and can be easily cleaner than it is. And it is seeming to pivot. There's this whole idea that having a fancy lipstick case is luxury, but we can make it green. It doesn't have to be made of plastic, it doesn't need to be a single-use plastic, on top of it. You are working with beauty companies too, right? To get them on the...

Amber Valletta: I'm not actually working with any beauty companies. I'd really like to...

Dana Thomas: You're speaking out about it.

Amber Valletta: For sure. Obviously I'd like to. I am speaking out about it because I think they've kind of hidden behind fashion and let fashion take the brunt of the punishment for environmental issues and even social issues and they are just...

Dana Thomas: They're getting called out.

Amber Valletta: They are just as bad, and they're so...

Dana Thomas: If not worse because it's so much single-use plastic.

Amber Valletta: And a lot of chemicals. So I think I want to challenge them to do better, because even me, it's so hard to find a place to recycle stuff. It's so hard. And this is, for me, the waste issue for fashion and for beauty is so frustrating, because we want to put it on consumers to do better. We keep saying be sustainable, but they don't have anywhere to take things once they're done with it. If it's really the end of the life cycle, they have nowhere to take it. So there's very few places to recycle. So…

Dana Thomas: You can't walk into Chanel with your empty lipstick cases and dump them off in a basket. They would have a heart attack.

Amber Valletta: And you should be able to.

Dana Thomas: And you should be able to. I mean it's like stores that sell batteries must take them back and recycle them.

Amber Valletta: Yes. I think that's a big thing with businesses – and it's not just fashion and beauty – the responsibility of what they produce, the onus needs to be on them to help the consumer figure out how to put it back into the stream of life, to either be recycled, reused, repurposed. And we're just kind of blaming, throwing responsibility. It's like tennis. When in actuality the truth is that if you're the creator, you need to figure out how to be the restorer.

Dana Thomas: Yeah. Or the CEO. A big chain like Sephora that sells all sorts of beauty products should definitely have bins in the beginning. Either you can refill or you can throw out.

Amber Valletta: Dana, they do.

Dana Thomas: Shows you how often I go to Sephora.

Amber Valletta: No, but this is the thing, Dana. It's only in like two stores in LA. Now, how many fricking Sephoras are there in LA? I have one just down the street and I've called them like three times and I've said, "Do you have the beauty recycling bin in yet?" "No, we don't know when we're going to get it." You know, it's simple information, people. At least tell me you're going to get it in six months. It's crazy. They only let you take like five pieces at a time. So imagine, people are like, I moved, I had all this stuff like die in storage. It also showed me, "Oh my God, I've got to get rid of all of this. I need to find glass. I need to find that heavy cardboard paper." It did motivate me to really pay attention to the beauty products even more. I can't just throw it in the trash. And a lot of times you can't even throw it in your own recycling.

Dana Thomas: It's very specific. Especially in America. So on The Green Dream, one of the things that we always do is ask our guests if they have any suggestions or tips for listeners on how to live a greener life. So, what would be some of your top two or three things that you do that you've incorporated into your life and it made a big difference?

Amber Valletta: I think the first thing is to find what makes you really excited that you're really passionate about in the world. Whether it's a social issue or an environmental issue. And put your focus there and make it part of your value system in which you either shop, even if you're buying a car or you're buying a new beauty product or you're buying a phone, whatever it is, it creates a value system, which you use to direct things. Like, "How much do I need this?" "Where is it made?" It'll provoke you to ask questions, I think, when you have ... if you really care about animals, then you'll be much more clear. You're not going to be eating meat anymore or you're only going to buy organic. It sounds, maybe, simple, but it's a really good way to be direct about your intention.

The other thing that costs no money is: sign petitions online. There's so many petitions, NGOs, there's legislation. It takes usually a minute to sign things, especially in your local and federal governments. The more they get the pressure to hear that we want change, they will change those things, because they want our votes. And then lastly, just being super cognizant, we go back to even just fashion, being really cognizant of what you have, and rework things. Shop from your own closet. I know that sounds sort of hypocritical coming from a model, but just because I'm selling things, I try again to make sure I know who I'm selling for. But I'm very cognizant of my own life about buying things. I buy very specific: I want to keep that. I'm going to wear it more than 30 times. I'm going to wear it a ton of times. How I care for it. I don't need to wash jeans every single time I wear them. How you treat your items already and giving them respect and value, and just cut a dress that's too long. Maybe make it short. Now, I was thinking about a dress that I'd given away in a charity, and I was like, "Gosh, if I had only made that into a mini, it would've been so cool." Just reworking, reusing, repurposing I think is so important.

Dana Thomas: My daughter stained her white jeans with a bunch of black stuff on the bottom and she's been trying to get them clean, and finally I said, "You know what, you're just going to have to over-dye." And let's get out the dye and have some fun. And then she started researching, and she found how she could do stenciling, and so then, she's getting really excited, and said, "I'm going to start–look at this. I could do this with them." Like: you can do this with them.

Amber Valletta: Exactly. That's...

Dana Thomas: They're not ruined. They'll just have a different life.

Amber Valletta: I think that it's really being cognizant of things in your life and that they're not just throwaway and it's not just fashion, it's even your beauty products, it's your items in your home. Just being more conscientious I think is such an important key to changing behavior.

Dana Thomas: As I always say because "away" is a place. It goes somewhere. It doesn't just evaporate.

Amber Valletta: It doesn't.

Dana Thomas: You're not throwing it away. Away to some other place.

Amber Valletta: And the joy of cleaning and that connection to joy, which became a big thing. Don't know the books' name and – it's not diss on the woman who wrote it. But I think it's about knowing where you're going to take things when you do clean them out.

Dana Thomas: I gave my books to the library.

Amber Valletta: Exactly. So they have another life.

Dana Thomas: Anybody can read them. One last question is, how can folks get involved in things like Fire Drill Fridays? Should they reach out to Greenpeace? Should they reach out to Oceana if they want to help with the ocean cleanup and fighting for cleaner oceans? What are some of your favorite NGOs that are very receptive to listeners?

Amber Valletta: Most NGOs want people following them on social media and want donations and activations and participation, volunteering locally. And then internationally there's tons of great things. Again, it's just being involved in things you care about. It could be women's education. It could be helping feed the hungry. And that's the thing that gives me hope is there's so many people doing so many good things, and really trying to make the world better. I think it's just about getting involved in what you believe in and, and follow them on their social channels. And you'll see, Greenpeace, they're very clear Fire Drill Fridays, they tell you when they're meeting and where they're meeting. If you can be a part of it. It's just get involved. I think that's the big piece here. Get involved in your life and the world around you.

Dana Thomas: And that's what we always talk about on The Green Dream. This is perfect. Thank you so much, Amber, for being on the podcast today. It's been wonderful. And we will look out for you in the magazines, but also in the newspaper, and see if you get arrested again.

Amber Valletta: Thank you so much, Dana.

Dana Thomas: Thank you for listening to The Green Dream with Amber Valletta. Tune in next week for our episode with Shaunak Sen, director of the powerful award-winning documentary, "All That Breathes." The movie is about majestic birds flying above New Delhi, suffering from air pollution, and two brothers who nurse them back to health. The film has been nominated for the Academy Award for Best Documentary Feature. We hope you'll join us.

This episode is sponsored by Another Tomorrow, a women's fashion brand that redefines luxury with a commitment to ethics, sustainability, and transparency. From farm to fabric to atelier. Find Another Tomorrow on its website, anothertomorrow.co, at its flagship boutique, 384 Bleecker Street in New York City and at select stores.

The Green Dream was written by Dana Thomas. From Talkbox Productions with executive producer Tavia Gilbert, and mix and master by Kayla Elrod. Music performed by Eric Brace of Red Beet Records in Nashville, Tennessee. I’m Dana Thomas, the European Sustainability Editor for British Vogue. You can follow me on Instagram and on Twitter, where my handle for both is @DanaThomasParis. And you can sign up for The Green Dream Newsletter at our website: thegreendream.studio. Thank you for listening.