Earth Day can come across as a time for big promises. In China, a lot of brands are thinking the opposite. Small, repeatable green actions are at the centre of many marketing campaigns for Earth Day 2026.
From Origins and LAN to platform players like Meituan, Aihuishou, and Tmall, the playbook is shifting. Less grand gestures, more integration with users. The question is no longer who’s going green, but how seamlessly it fits into everyday life.
Origins (悦木之源) made movement impactful
Origins’ approach is built on behavioural translation. Their Earth Day Run a Tree campaign converts everyday fitness into environmental action. Users map tree-shaped running routes via apps and share them on Rednote to unlock rewards, while the brand commits to planting real trees.
A partnership with DIGRUN adds visual outputs linking movement to nature, and offline runs with Saucony extend participation into physical spaces. The initiative builds on Origins’ long-term reforestation efforts, reframing sustainability as something users can integrate into daily routines.
LAN (兰, 蘭) are making abstract sustainability claims tangible
Sustainability is often communicated through claims but LAN’s strategy centres on the tangible. They partnered with Plant B to create an Earth Day installation at Hangzhou Botanical Garden.
Using recycled materials and empty skincare bottles, the space brings the lifecycle of reuse and regeneration into the visual. Accessibility features such as Braille poetry expand inclusivity, while community programming introduces social dimensions beyond environmentalism.
The project extends LAN’s sustainability efforts – from refillable packaging to material innovation – into a public, experiential format, transforming abstract environmental messaging into something tactile, visible, and emotionally resonant for a broader audience.
Meituan (美团) are incentivising you to build green habits
Meituan’s Qingshan Initiative scales Earth Day participation through the Good Cup Rebirth (好杯新生) campaign, targeting disposable beverage waste. Users earn rewards by completing in-app tasks, using reusable cups, and contributing to collective recycling goals.
Partnerships with brands and platforms like Dianping expand reach, while nationwide recycling infrastructure – including collaboration with resale and recycling platform Aihuishou (爱回收) – lowers participation barriers.
By embedding sustainability into everyday consumption habits like ordering drinks, Meituan is building a system that turns environmental action into behaviour that outlasts Earth Day.
Aihuishou (爱回收) wants recycling to become a daily habit
Aihuishou’s Earth Day 2026 marketing campaign turns recycling into an everyday habit through its Return for Renewal (返航新生) initiative. Partnering with brands like Za, OATLY, and Aolong Pet, it links small recycling actions to tangible rewards across beauty, food, and pet care.
Offline markets in Beijing and Shanghai showcase upcycled products and visualise the recycling lifecycle, while themed recycling machines add interactive, sensory feedback.
By combining incentives, infrastructure, and experiential storytelling, Aihuishou wants to make their campaign as accessible as they can, and position recycling as a simple, repeatable behaviour rather than a one-off environmental obligation.
Tmall (天猫) want to achieve sustainability through restraint
Tmall’s Green Active Living (天猫绿动生活) campaign, created with a2 Milk, takes a counter-intuitive approach to Earth Day. Instead of encouraging more action, it puts a pause button visual on natural landscapes. The idea is to urge consumers to reduce harmful behaviour.
The campaign links environmental issues to everyday actions and extends into commerce through programmes like the One Billion Saxaul Trees initiative – a public welfare programme that ties Tmall purchases to sustained environmental contributions.
By shifting the focus from doing more to doing less, Tmall is positioning ESG as a matter of restraint: sustainability can – and should – be embedded into all consumer decision-making.
