Swedish footwear company Icebug isn't one to let climate change worsen on their watch. Since they were founded in 2001, Icebug has manufactured outdoor footwear with sustainability in mind. Over the past year, their hard work paid off: Icebug has officially achieved the United Nations Climate Neutral Now Initiative.
This achievement has enabled Icebug to become the world's first climate-positive outdoor footwear company.
The business has always relied on eco-friendly practices in mind. But their dedication to sustainability inspired the company to become climate-positive within a year.
"When we made the decision, we plunged into the unknown," claims CEO David Ekelund. "We didn't know if it would cost 20 cents or 20 euros per shoe, but we felt we had to take action. Our prior actions towards emission reduction certainly helped speed up the process, but we want other companies to know that becoming climate positive was easier than we thought."
The company was able to achieve this by limiting greenhouse gas emissions as a whole and compensating for any remaining emissions through the purchase of CERs. To stay on the safe side, Icebug purchased 30% more CERs than they have in the past to offset the 3,637 tons of greenhouse gas they produced from March 2018 to February 2019.
CERs are known as United Nations-certified emission reduction points. By investing in CERs, a company is able to produce more greenhouse gases since CERs are used to limit greenhouse gas production in other areas. The idea is that a company will achieve carbon neutrality by buying CERs to match greenhouse gas production.
In the case of Icebug, the number of CERs they purchased negated their greenhouse gas emissions entirely. But that isn't all: Icebug has also challenged other companies to achieve climate-positive status.
"Simply offsetting is not a free card to continue business as usual. We want the maximum effect, and that can only be achieved if others follow suit," notes Ekelund.
And it isn't just climate change that's driving businesses to change their practices. Now, more than ever, American consumers want to invest in companies with eco-friendly initiatives in mind.
In fact, a recent Business Insider survey revealed that 38% of young couples would consider the impact that their offspring would have on the environment before having children. It makes sense why younger people would want to invest in climate-positive companies and initiatives.
Even further, more than 52% of respondents for a recent landscaping survey wished they had more green spaces in their cities. Solar energy production has also been on the rise; experts claim solar energy has grown by 20% each year over the last 15 years alone. Now that Icebug has become a climate-positive company, consumers can now literally walk the walk instead of just talk the talk that they've held on to for so many years.
More than 2,000 business in the United States have signed onto the Paris Agreement despite Trump's withdrawal so far, but Icebug's achievement has left big shoes to fill.
Category: David Ekelund, Eco-friendly Footwear, Icebug Footwear, Men's Shoes, Shoeography, Sustainable Footwear, United Nations Climate Neutral Now Initiative, Women's Shoes
About SHOEOGRAPHY.COM:
Shoeography.com is a daily footwear blog highlighting what's new and what's hot in mens shoes, and women's fashion shoes!
