Billie Eilish’s New Album Has An Eco-Friendly Action Plan

Not many A list celebrities could be described as climate conscious – let alone as climate activists. One of the few fighting the good fight is Billie Eilish, a highly successful musician who uses her global platform to advocate for women’s reproductive rights, gender equality and climate action. Hot off Rolling Stone controversially leaking the tracklist for her upcoming third album, Eilish is redirecting the narrative by detailing how Hit Me Hard and Soft will be her most eco-friendly album to date. Here’s what it will entail.

Billie Eilish & Her Eco-Friendly Album

Promotion for Billie Eilish’s third album is well underway, with cryptic billboard teasers of lyrics and a savvy social media movie: adding her millions of followers to her Close Friends story on Instagram and teasing the album there, too. It’s likely to be one of the biggest albums of the year, following a very successful past few years that have included a sell-out tour, an Oscar, a Grammy and countless more accolades.

But, as Eilish recently told Billboard, with such a large platform comes equally large responsibility: ‘The fact that I have a far bigger audience and platform than I’ve ever had in my life means I can reach that many more people, and that’s such a huge responsibility and privilege to have,’ Elish said. ‘If I don’t use that privilege to do some good in the world, then what’s the point?’

Hit Me Hard And Soft: A Sustainable Album

The main sustainable credentials of Hit Me Hard and Soft stem from its physical versions. Eilish will release only eight vinyl variants, which will all be released on the same day and feature the exact same track listing, all made with eco-friendly and recycled materials. Meanwhile, CD and cassette copies will be made from recycled materials and packaged with FSC certified eco-friendly stock. As for merchandise, it is made from residual dead stock, organic or recycled polyester or cotton, with non-toxic dye. All of this is detailed on the new Sustainability section of Eilish’s website (as C&TH can advocate, all good websites have a Sustainability section).

‘We live in this day and age where, for some reason, it’s very important to some artists to make all sorts of different vinyl and packaging,’ Elish recently told Billboard, ‘which ups the sales and ups the numbers and gets them more money. […] I can’t even express to you how wasteful it is. It is right in front of our faces and people are just getting away with it left and right, and I find it really frustrating as somebody who really goes out of my way to be sustainable and do the best that I can and try to involve everybody in my team in being sustainable – and then it’s some of the biggest artists in the world making 40 different vinyl packages that have a different unique thing just to get you to keep buying more. It’s so wasteful, and it’s irritating to me that we’re still at a point where you care that much about your numbers and you care that much about making money – and it’s all your favorite artists doing that.’

Eilish won an Oscar for her song on the Barbie soundtrack, ‘What Was I Made For?’. © Warner Bros.

Eilish has long been an advocate for the planet, and is outspoken with regards to the urgency of climate action. In her personal life, Eilish is vegan, and she is conscious of the hypocrisy of advocating for the climate while touring the world and selling merchandise. She is one of the few A-list celebrities who refuses to fly on private planes and, in a 2023 interview with Vogue, she acknowledged that ‘[she] shouldn’t be making any products […] It’s just more shit to go into the landfill one day.’

With regards to her career, Eilish’s 2020 world tour was produced in collaboration with non-profit Reverb with the goal of making it ‘as green as possible’, banning plastic straws, recycling all waste and encouraging fans to bring their own water bottles. Plus, environmental activist fans of Eilish have previously been invited to apply for free tickets to her shows by detailing the climate action they’d taken. Later on, Eilish collaborated with Reverb again to make her 2022 Happier Than Ever world tour climate positive, as well as setting up ‘Eco Village’ education hubs at each tour stop so fans can learn more about the planet.

‘My parents have always kept me well informed and hyper aware that every choice we make and every action we take has an impact somewhere or on someone, good or bad, and that has always stuck with me,’ Eilish told Billboard. ‘I can’t just ignore what I know and go about my business and career and not do something. That’s just not how I was raised, or how I want to live my life.’

When Will Hit Me Hard And Soft Be Released?

Hit Me Hard and Soft will be released on 17 May 2024, with no singles released beforehand so that fans can hear it all at once.