In 2021, KPOP4PLANET decided that they weren’t going to stand by and watch the industry they love destroy the planet. As devoted K-pop fans, they saw the discarded, plastic-filled albums, trash-heavy tours, and carbon-loaded fashion creations and decided they’d had enough. The organization launched on March 3, 2021, World Wildlife Day, and is still running campaigns today surrounding deforestation, coal use, and combatting the overall climate crisis.
Through their love for K-pop and the environment, they’ve created the tagline, “There’s no K-pop on a dead planet.” This tagline fuels their passion and rationale for continuing to fight for more eco-friendly practices, not only in South Korea but across K-pop activities worldwide. Their team is based around the world, including countries like Indonesia, Japan, South Korea, and the Netherlands, and those who take part are spread across the globe. No matter where you are located, there are ways you can join KPOP4PLANET and their movement to keep K-pop and our planet alive and thriving.
5 Current Campaigns To Be Part Of
K-POP CARBON HUNTERS FT. CONCERT
It’s not demons they are fighting this year. Instead, KPOP4PLANET are campaigning for lower carbon emissions during concerts and tours. In the organization’s report on concert carbon emissions, they explain that “live performances are the largest source of greenhouse gas emissions in the music industry.”
Through this initiative, the dubbed K-pop Carbon Hunters are asking venues to do a few things. First, they are asking companies to measure their carbon emissions during concerts or tours and present this information to the public. Additionally, they are looking for venues to consider not using single-use plastics or fossil fuels. Artists like Coldplay, Billie Eilish, and Massive Attack have all held fossil fuel-free concerts and tours, and they were a great success, proving it’s possible for others as well. Lastly, they are requesting that fans and companies use more eco-friendly modes of transportation, such as the bus or carpooling systems, instead of flying or driving separately. If all of these things are promoted by artists and their companies, fans are a lot more likely to participate in them – building a community of environmental activists!
To help make a change, sign the petition here.
HANA, BRING K-POP, NOT COAL
Hana Bank, a large financial institution in South Korea, previously collaborated with artists like G-DRAGON and An Yujin. Now, Hana Bank has invested in a nickel smelting project on Obi Island in Indonesia that is being powered by coal plants. In the past, Obi Island’s ecosystem was clean, green, and healthy. Because of projects like this, it is now damaged to the point that residents are struggling to find access to clean water.
This campaign launched in December 2025, and by February 2026, select leaders of KPOP4PLANET headed to the Hana Bank headquarters. It was here where they delivered an open letter expressing the dissatisfaction of the company and the need for the discontinuation of the funding in Obi Island. While there, they had an in-person meeting with Hana Bank colleagues, but the higher-ups have refused to make a statement about the matter. Because of companies like Hana Bank, the climate crisis is worsening, and the environments that people and animals live in are being destroyed.
To help make a change, sign the petition here.
PLASTIC ALBUM SINS
The plastic used to create K-pop albums seems bad, but it’s only getting worse. In their open letter, KPOP4PLANET explains, “According to South Korea’s Environment Minister, Korean entertainment companies’ plastic use has exploded. They used 14 times more plastic in 2022 compared to 2017, growing from 55.8 tons to a horrifying 801.5 tons.” Where does this plastic end up? Sure, some of it ends up on our shelves, but a lot of it ends up in oceans, which hurts animals, our health, and our air – permanently affecting the planet.
K-pop companies have taken the fans’ love for their biases and turned it into a money-making machine that thrives on plastic use. By promoting over-consumption through photocard collecting, the desire to have every version of an album, or the chance at winning a fan call, fans spend hundreds or even thousands, and more and more plastic is wasted.
In 2024, KPOP4PLANET spoke about this topic at the National Assembly, where “government and legislative officials and music industry representatives gathered and formed a consensus on the need for change.” The second open letter of this campaign was published in 2025, and the fight for cleaner, more sustainable album creation is ongoing.
To help make a change, sign the petition here.
UNBOXED: HIGH FASHION, HIGH CARBON
K-pop idols have quickly taken over the world of luxury, with nearly every brand having ambassadors from the Korean music industry. These ambassadors are included to increase brand appeal to younger audiences like millennials and Gen Z, but the brands aren’t always good institutions to support. Though brands like Chanel and LVMH aim to appear like they are eco-forward by using solar power or having a supposed clean supply chain, the reality is much different.
90% or more of pollution in the fashion industry happens in the manufacturing process, which is often offshore due to lower costs of labor and materials. As a way of hiding their individual harmful production reports, most luxury companies do not disclose any of this information, yet hold onto promoting the small good that they are doing. For example, Saint Laurent (owned by Kering) makes only 1% of their goods. The rest is made from other companies that may hold less-than-clean practices.
When buying the items that idols wear, and therefore promote, fans deserve full transparency about how the clothes were made and who made them. Chanel, Celine, Dior, and Saint Laurent have all failed to clean up their operations, and now fans are standing up for better quality and better working conditions.
To help make a change, sign the petition here.
NO K-POP ON A DEAD PLANET
The “No K-pop on a Dead Planet” campaign was created soon after KPOP4PLANET launched and is an ongoing petition to bring sustainability and eco-friendly practices to K-pop. Over the last five years, KPOP4PLANET has had many campaigns, from ARMY 4 FOREST, where they planted trees as a fandom war, to SAVE THE BUTTER BEACH, where they were determined to stop a coal power plant from being built on the beach where the BTS “Butter” music video was filmed.
Campaigns like these stand as proof that fans want better environmental practices to be taking place within the K-pop industry. Through this campaign, KPOP4PLANET is now demanding that K-pop companies start doing just as much work, if not more, to save the planet as K-pop fans are. This campaign has been presented at the National Assembly, was the call to action for collecting unused K-pop albums to show mass waste, and acted as the catalyst for Earth Day initiatives.
As the largest and most comprehensive campaign on their site, “No K-pop on a Dead Planet” needs every signature it can get. Even though it has over 10,000 signatures, K-pop companies have done little to change and improve, but the fans will not be silenced, and their work isn’t done just yet.
To help make a change, sign the petition here.
To keep up with the campaigns of KPOP4PLANET, follow them on Instagram, X, and TikTok.
Interested in learning more about sustainable practices in creative industries? Check out our small business spotlight with GON Vintage here!
