Lush and Patagonia to shut shops for global climate strike

The week-long strike – Week for Future – starts on September 20, three days before the UN Climate Change Summit in New York, and will see businesses around the world taking part in the campaign.

Lush US and Canada (on September 27), Patagonia, Ben & Jerry’s and HSBC are just some of the hundreds of businesses planning to walk out and shut up shop for the day.

Notably, the cruelty-free cosmetics brand will shutter 250 stores along with its headquarters, manufacturing facilities and online platform, and will encourage more than 5,000 of its employees and millions of followers to join the protest.

Lush North America president and chief executive Mark Wolverton said: “As a business with deep roots in environmental activism, giving our thousands of staff the time to get out there and demand bold action is a no-brainer.

“We all share this planet, so we need to band together to sound the alarm and show our politicians that ‘business as usual’ is no longer an option. The climate crisis won’t wait, and neither will we.”

Patagonia chief executive Rose Marcario said: “”For decades, many corporations have single-mindedly pursued profits at the expense of everything else — employees, communities and the air, land and water we all share.

“Now we face a dangerously hot and fast-changing climate that is exacerbating natural disasters, causing food and water shortages, and speeding us toward the biggest economic catastrophe in history. The plain truth is that capitalism needs to evolve if humanity is going to survive.”

Retail giant Amazon has stayed quiet on the planned strike action. However, more than 1,000 of its headquarters staff in Seattle are set to walk out to join the protest.

The movement was founded in August 2018 by a then 15-year-old Thunberg, after she sat in front of the Swedish parliament every school day for three weeks, sparking the #FridaysforFuture movement.