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ERA'S TOUR

Calling all Swifties for the Era's Tour! After years of only listeing to Swift through Spotify or Apple Music, Swift has decided to provide her fans with a three hour long performance including costume changes and quality poses! Ihil iumque oditio velessene con naturis ime culla nia dundi ni alibusant mo iur re pratiur modiciet, consed qui ommolor aut aut eos assitium quamusam et volupta quaerfe ritibus et est quam quam aligenit ut volor aut autas simen-

Companies capitalize off of the false sustainability of their products, prompting students to pay attention to these tactics

STORY BROOKE REILLY & NATHAN ENGMAN ART LEVI HOROWITZ

Karl Frank, high school science teacher and sustainability coordinator, walks to the student store for lunch after teaching his environmental science class about sustainability. Surrounded by plastic water bottles and chip bags, he observes how difficult it is to be truly sustainable, especially if it comes at the cost of convenience. Finishing his lunch, he ponders whether or not the products he uses prioritize sustainability, or sell the idea to consumers like him in order to prioritize convenience.

To Frank, greenwashing, the act of an organization spending more resources for marketing itself as sustainable instead of minimizing its environmental impact, negatively affects the sustainability movement. Frank recognizes that many disingenuous companies claim to be environmentally conscious even though they are not. However, he acknowledges that some companies make strides towards genuine sustainability, highlighting Patagonia, which manufactures 87 percent of its products using recycled materials. Frank advises that when surrounded by environmentally unfriendly products, movements toward sustainability begin with consumers’ individual research.

“Disingenuous companies know better, but they're just doing the bare minimum,” Frank said. “Many companies may tout themselves as green companies even while actively engineering their products to wear out. I think the ideal scenario would be an educated populace that makes wise choices in terms of where they purchase their products because greenwashing just distracts from the real work that needs to get done.”

Similarly to Frank, Kaylyn Riddell ‘18 began being conscious of her spending habits in her last two years of high school and avoids products that are eventually meant to be discarded. Located in Bennington, Vermont, she works as a part of the Dream Program which assists low-income households in getting a variety of foods through food drives and gardening, as well as educating children on food waste and composting. Working in an environmentally conscious field and making personal efforts towards reducing her own environmental footprint, Riddell has come to

Claire Cawley ‘24 is a member of the Green Team and has learned a lot about sustainability. Cawley witnesses the problem of greenwashing in her own life, citing the clothing brand Zara as a prime example. She believes greenwashing runs the risk of misinformation about sustainability being spread in order to maximize profit. Cawley is committed to the Green Team’s efforts to make the campus more environmentally friendly, like recently planting drought-resistant plants and informing the community about recycling.

“I think that [the sustainability movement] is definitely still growing and it's growing very rapidly, especially as social media increases,” Cawley said. “These companies are taking advantage of a very serious topic that people are spending their money on to try to solve it but they're not actually getting the right information. Going to thrift stores, farmers markets, flea markets and buying your clothes from small businesses that use ethical ways of producing their products is a really good way to be sustainable.”

A major proponent of the sustainability movement, Avery Ahmanson ‘23 criticizes greenwashing and its negative impact on the movement, claiming that it reduces the movement to something disingenuous. Ahmanson also emphasizes the need for broader policy changes, citing activism as the best way to achieve that.

“The next step for the movement is to work towards making sustainability more accessible in everyday life,” Ahmanson said. “I think that people are susceptible to greenwashing especially in Los Angeles where there is a high number of people motivated to be more sustainable and have the resources to do so. When companies market products with greenwashing, it reduces the sustainability movement to something that can be bought.”

According to Jane Courtnell’s February 2023 Green Business Bureau’s article, as many as 43 percent of employees believe their company is guilty of greenwashing, and as of 2022, the general public is becoming more perceptive to it, with only 34 percent of customers trusting the brands they are purchasing from.

Rio Hanson ‘23 makes a large effort to be more sustainable on the Green Team and in his daily life. However, he believes that it's impossible to be fully sustainable in an environment where unsustainable products are made for consumers' convenience. Similarly to Courtnell, he recognizes that other students can identify greenwashing from authentic sustainable efforts and that student effort in the sustainability movement is very crucial and worth taking part in.

WHAT DO WE OWE?

of thrill and excitement as she prepared to watch Frank Ocean at Coachella weekend one. After not performing for years, and famously known as one of the most difficult artists to see live, her emotions ran high.

As Lydia Ingram ‘24 made her way to the main stage, she felt a sense

Ingram has been attending Coachella since she was in third grade and has lost count of the amount of shows she's seen. Though Frank Ocean's performance was the most highly anticipated, unlike many, she understands why he chose to not perform again for weekend two of the festival.

“Frank's performance was real- ly intimate and sweet,” Ingram said. “Considering his first performance in years was headlining Coachella it was perfect. After facing the unnecessary criticism following weekend one, I understand why he wouldn’t want to go through that again. However, his presence is really what fueled the festival’s attendance, and it isn’t fair that fans going to weekend two had to suffer the consequences of the judgment Frank received.”

Nathaniel Friedman ‘23 is a long time Frank Ocean fan and music connoisseur. While he believes Ocean had an unnecessary amount of backlash, he also understands where the fans were coming from.

“Frank’s performance was most definitely rushed with the ice rink fiasco, lip syncing, shameless sprained ankle excuse

Calling all Swifties for the Era's Tour! After years of only listeing to Swift through Spotify or Apple Music, Swift has decided to provide her fans with a three hour long performance including costume changes and quality poses! Ihil iumque oditio velessene con naturis ime culla nia dundi ni alibusant mo iur re pratiur modiciet, consed qui ommolor aut aut eos assitium quamusam et volupta quaerfe

ERA'S TOUR

ERA'S TOUR

Calling all Swifties for the Era's Tour! After years of only listeing to Swift through Spotify or Apple Music, Swift has decided to provide her fans with a three hour long performance including costume changes and quality poses! Ihil iumque oditio velessene con naturis ime culla nia dundi ni alibusant mo iur re pratiur modiciet, consed qui ommolor aut aut eos assitium quamusam et volupta quaerfe ritibus et est quam quam aligenit ut volor aut

Calling all Swifties for the Era's Tour! After years of only listeing to Swift through Spotify or Apple Music, Swift has decided to provide her fans with a three hour long performance including costume changes and quality poses! Ihil iumque oditio velessene con naturis ime culla nia dundi ni alibusant mo iur re pratiur modiciet, consed qui ommolor aut aut eos assitium quamusam et volupta quaerfe and whatnot,” Friedman said. “Though [the performance was] undoubtedly more lackluster than when I saw him at FYF in 2017, I also found it understated given the circumstances. In truth, any other performer in the same situation would not have been subject to such outrage.”

As a musician, Paolo Pesce ‘23 believes the relationship an artist has with their fans is hard to balance. Pesce feels that the relationship should primarily be between the art a person creates rather than the person.

“To me it’s the relationship between what’s created by the artist and the fans that matters,” Pesce said. “In some cases I think that what’s created is essentially the artist, but there’s a fine line between the artist as an artist and the artist as a human being with their own

ERA'S TOUR

life and friends and stuff. I think it’s cool to see who the people you love are as people, but for me that’s a way to gain insight into why they create the way they do.”

While Pesce believes people should see artists for their art, Friedman finds that the artists most interesting to him often complicate their relationship with their fans. Moreover Friedman believes that with being a fan also comes a difficult relationship with the artist.

“Many of the most exciting artists to me are those that completely sever a relationship with fans in favor of having their work speak for itself,” Friedman said. “Fandom is hard to take part in when you constantly feel let down by who you look up to, but when there’s no relationswship to begin with, disap-