Meet Shawn Mendes, Sustainability Influencer

If you’ve been to any outdoor concert, workout class or networking event in the past couple of years, chances are you’ve been handed a little carton of Flow water. On a mission to replace plastic water bottles with eco-friendly containers, the Canadian company just landed a big name in its corner: Shawn Mendes.

The Grammy-nominated singer, who has been a fan of the water brand since 2015, has just been announced as the brand’s sustainability ambassador, as well as a new partner and investor in the business.

“I am incredibly excited to work with Flow Alkaline Spring Water alongside my manager Andrew Gertler, as partners, and to become the face of a brand that promotes sustainability and positivity in the best way possible,” Mendes said in a statement.

But Mendes isn’t just serving as a celebrity face for the brand. He’s also launching an effort to make his 2019 North American tour more sustainable, swapping out plastic water bottles for Flow’s recyclable and sustainable packs backstage at all his concerts. The company, whose cartons are made of paper and plant-based materials, estimates that this move will prevent over 70,000 plastic water bottles from ending up in recycling plants or landfills.

Mendes’s 2019 tour will also be offsetting all carbon emissions (an estimate of over 2000 tonnes) with the help of Reverb, a company focused on helping lessen the environmental footprint of touring. In partnership with Flow, his team has also pledged to select sustainable catering and hospitality partners for the tour, to donate excess food and toiletries to food banks and shelters, to recycle and compost all their waste, and to engage his fans in environmental education programs.

“For a long time I’ve wanted to use my platform to encourage people to use more sustainable products,” said Mendes. “With Flow, the hope is together to inspire positive change in the world, and as much as humanly possible, to help maintain the natural beauty of our planet for our generation, and for generations to come.”