Shawn Mendes and Flow water want to rid the planet of plastic, one bottle at a time

The new partnership between superstar Shawn Mendes and Flow, the sustainably packaged water, happened organically.

“Shawn was ordering Flow online, and we found out from our delivery person that it was Shawn Mendes,” said Nicholas Reichenbach, Flow’s founder and CEO. “We were all very excited, of course. He’s one of the biggest artists in the world.”

The company reached out, and soon Mendes and his manager, Andrew Gertler, were sitting at a table with Flow talking about how to save the world. Mendes had been using Flow, a naturally alkaline water, as part of his wellness routine. (Of course, pop stars have wellness routines in 2019. We bet Ozzy Osbourne wished he had one when he was just starting out.) Soon, a new partnership was born, with Mendes and Gertler joining the company as partners and advisers and Mendes serving as a “Sustainability Ambassador” for the brand.

In their advisory roles with Flow, Mendes and Gertler will help the company through international growth and shake up the traditional, unsustainable, plastic-bottles-of-water industry. “Our goal is to help bring a great product that provides a more sustainable alternative to the world,” said Gertler.

Mendes isn’t just serving as a spokesmodel for the brand, though. He is also launching a sustainability campaign, where Flow is helping Mendes make his 2019 world tour more sustainable, by making the easy step of swapping plastic water bottles for Flow’s recyclable, sustainable water backstage. That one step will keep over 70,000 plastic water bottles from malingering in recycling plants or ending up in landfills where they will sit and not decompose.

That’s not all: With the help of Reverb, a company dedicated to helping lessen the environmental impact of touring, Mendes’s 2019 tour is offsetting carbon emissions (saving 2,072 tons of CO2), selecting sustainable catering and hospitality partners, donating excess food and toiletries to food banks and shelters, recycling and composting all waste, and engaging fans in environmental education.

“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.”

That’s right—Shawn Mendes cares about the planet. Your move, Ed Sheeran.