“Beyond Coal” Underwear Line & Underwear Activism Fight Coal Power for Campuses {VIDEO}

Beyond Coal student activism in Miami, Ohio. (click to enlarge)

This Earth Day, the Sierra Club and underwear company PACT have teamed up to fight coal-powered campuses with college student activism… in underwear, of course.

PACT isn’t your normal underwear company. It’s a cause-based and design-driven company that sustainably manufactures its organic cotton underwear. Its new collection is titled ‘Beyond Coal’ and was released on Thursday, April 14th. This line was developed exclusively for the Sierra Club and “10% of the proceeds of the collection will go to support the Sierra Club’s continual advocacy for clean energy.”

http://youtu.be/BtVJKMfW6v8

The Sierra Club Student Coalition’s “Campuses Beyond Coal” initiative seemed like a perfect fit for this environmentally and socially minded company. In support of better public health and long-term sustainability of our natural environment (which we rely on to live), you can now buy truly green, and hot, underwear that helps in the fight to cut our coal problem in the United States (… as you can see in the pictures below, though, the underwear is actuall blue and black — more on that below).

Want a little more info on the video above? Here’s some news on that:

Students from coal-powered campuses, as well as those protesting in solidarity, have already used the underwear line in conjunction with organized events such as “flesh mobs”, where students spontaneously strip down to their PACT underwear, and a race to renewables, a cross-campus underwear run, to advocate for the use of cleaner fuel sources. Included in these actions, Miami University students staged a pants-less rally in front of their campus coal plant on March 31st, while University of North Texas students shook off their shorts in front of their administration office on April 1st.

On April 4th, Miami University of Ohio announced it would immediately begin reducing the amount of coal burned on campus and eventually eliminate it altogether, validating the demands of Miami students who had worked for months to pressure the university to improve local health by abandoning coal.

Looks good. Citizen action is working! (As it always has, if there are enough people involved.)

Beyond Coal student activism in PACT underwear at the University of Miami in Ohio. (click to enlarge)

“These college campuses are burning coal in spite of the fact that they are building tomorrow’s leaders, who overwhelmingly look to cleaner technologies to power their future,” said Mary Anne Hitt, Director of the Sierra Club’s Beyond Coal campaign. “This is another admirable example of student advocates putting upward pressure on those in power to transition to cleaner, renewable sources of energy.”

“PACT shares these students’ vision of a cleaner future, so we saw ‘Campuses Beyond Coal’ as a great opportunity for lending our support,” said Jason Kibbey, Co-Founder of PACT. “We were thrilled to offer this print first to the student coalition members, and now to the public, which shows the harm that coal can have while also reflecting the Sierra Club’s optimistic message that we can solve this problem.”

The new “Beyond Coal” underwear line is available at wearpact.com. It features two prints created by world-renowned designer Yves Behar of FuseProject. Prices range from $18-$24 a pair. “The prints represent clear skies, offering a vision of a cleaner future no longer dependent on coal.”

About PACT:

PACT is an apparel company launched in 2009 by Jason Kibbey and Jeff Denby offering design-driven, sustainably manufactured, premium underwear connected to powerful social and environmental causes. PACT creates partnerships with nonprofits and donates 10 percent of each underwear purchase to support these organizations’ work. PACT underwear is made of responsibly grown and manufactured organic cotton, transported in zero-waste packaging and delivered with a minimized carbon footprint, demonstrating the company’s ongoing commitment to style, sustainability and social consciousness.

About The Sierra Student Coalition:

The Sierra Student Coalition (SSC) is a broad network of high school and college-aged youth from across the country working to protect the environment. The SSC is the youth-led chapter of the Sierra Club, the nation’s oldest and largest grassroots environmental organization.

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