Half a Beard, a Whole Lot of Purpose: An Interview with HalfCut's Jimmy Stanton-Cooke

“We were deep in the Bolivian Amazon… the ancient forest was just gone,” Jimmy tells us. “You’d hear chainsaws where birdcalls should’ve been.”

Bolivian Amazon Basin

Disruption With Purpose: Why Go HalfCut?

At the core of HalfCut is a bold, visual symbol: shaving, cutting, or colouring half your hair, beard, or even eyebrows (yep, people have done it). It’s cheeky, it’s uncomfortable, and it works.

“If we show up looking half-shaved, people ask why. And when they do, we tell them — half the world's forests are gone,” Jimmy says.

The symbol invites questions. It starts conversations. And those conversations lead to action: whether it’s a $25 donation to plant a tree, or a ripple effect that inspires friends, workplaces, and schools to get involved. One supporter even gave her dog the HalfCut treatment, trimming or dyeing half its fur in support.

Healing Forests, Restoring Culture

For HalfCut, planting trees isn’t just about carbon; it’s about connection to Country. In partnership with the Eastern Kuku Yalanji Traditional Owners and Jabalbina Aboriginal Corporation, the organisation funds rainforest buybacks, rewilding projects, and cultural restoration in the Daintree.

“This isn’t charity — it’s solidarity,” Jimmy explains. “It’s truth-telling, it’s reconciliation, it’s treaty in action.”

From collecting native seeds to conducting cultural burns, Traditional Owners lead the restoration. HalfCut backs their brilliance, creating First Nations jobs and generational healing, one tree, one family, one future at a time.

HalfCut’s mission is to protect and restore vital rainforests

Every Tree Has Power

Each $25 donation plants a native tree. But that seed does more than grow leaves.

“Every tree is like a green superhero,” says Jimmy. “It stabilises riverbanks, filters water, brings back wildlife—and cools the planet.”

Just as Memobottle challenges wasteful habits through design, HalfCut inspires action through symbolism. We’re proud to work alongside a movement that believes sustainability should be creative, disruptive, and deeply personal.

Activism With Heart (and Half a Beard)

Let’s face it: climate stats rarely move people. But a guy with half a moustache? You stop. You stare. You ask. Then you care.

“Our whole mantra is: Meet us halfway to do full good.”

The creativity coming from HalfCut’s community is wild: half-baked cookies, half-painted nails, even mowing half the lawn. And the impact? Real.

One story that stuck with us came from a school campaign tied to World HalfCut Day and Father’s Day. Dads showed up HalfCut, stepping into the spotlight to create a better future for their kids.

“One father told me a Greek proverb,” Jimmy shares. 

“A society grows great when old men plant trees whose shade they know they shall never sit in.”

The Heal Country, Heal Culture program led by HalfCut and Jabalbina Yalanji Aboriginal Corporation

What’s Next for HalfCut

With two major rewilding sites, Daintree River Falls and Daintree River Station, HalfCut is preparing to reforest over 100 hectares and return 100 families to Country.

They’re also growing branches of the movement through youth programs, Indigenous language revival, and innovative conservation models like “cassowary credits.”

“We want 1 million trees in the ground,” Jimmy tells us. “Let’s go.”

Memobottle co-founder Jesse Leeworthy and HalfCut co-founder Jimmy Stanton-Cooke

Join the Movement

This August, every Memobottle purchase in Australia helps support HalfCut’s reforestation and Indigenous-led conservation efforts in the Daintree. For every order placed this month, we’re donating 50c directly to HalfCut.

And we’re not just talking the talk. Memobottle co-founders Jesse Leeworthy and Jonathan Byrt are going HalfCut this August to raise awareness and show solidarity with the movement. It’s a symbolic reminder that we all have a role to play in regeneration.

“It’s not about looking pretty,” Jimmy says. “It’s about doing something that matters.”

And if you’re looking for a bold way to raise awareness?

✂️ Go HalfCut

🌱 Donate $25 to plant a tree

💬 Start a conversation that matters

You can also donate directly to our memobottle x Go HalfCut 2025 fundraising page. Every donation of $25 and over through our page gives you a chance to win a prize pack worth over $1,000, as our way of saying thanks for backing a cause that matters.

Final Words from the Forest

“The rainforest taught me patience,” Jimmy tells us. “If you plant the right seed in the right place with the right people—magic happens.”

Together with HalfCut, we’re planting more than trees. We’re planting ideas, action, and hope.

One refill, one tree, and one bold haircut at a time.

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HalfCut is a grassroots environmental organisation co-founded by James Stanton-Cooke and Jessica Clarke. Their mission? To protect rainforests, restore biodiversity, and return land to Traditional Custodians while making climate action impossible to ignore. With bold campaigns and half-shaved heads, they’re raising awareness (and eyebrows) for a better planet. Learn more at halfcut.org and follow @halfcutorg on Instagram and Facebook.