Carbon-Negative Insoles

Planet-first footwear company SOLE™ launches climate accountability initiative CO2negative™ with the world’s first Certified Carbon Negative insoles. The brand advocates for the planet through carbon labeling and the use of natural recycled cork as a sustainable alternative to petroleum-based foams and plastics.

Canadian footwear manufacturer SOLE has launched CO2negative, an initiative to promote and facilitate accurate climate impact labeling on consumer products and certify carbon-negative products. The initiative follows SOLE’s commitment to labeling all core line products with precise CO2e impact data so that customers can make informed purchasing decisions.

CO2negative is founded on the conviction that businesses can, and must, do more to accurately account for their impact on the planet, and that consumers deserve the information they need to make educated climate-conscious purchasing decisions. SOLE has launched CO2negative to add their voice to growing calls for universal climate impact labeling, and to highlight the incredible potential for creating products that are actually good for the planet, using natural cork. CO2negative’s central thesis is that when it comes to carbon, neutral is not enough. In the face of the climate crisis, it falls on businesses to ensure their impact on the planet is not only carbon neutral but carbon negative: removing more greenhouse gases from the atmosphere than they add.

“Simply reducing harm is not enough, we need to repair and remediate the damage that has been done to our planet,” says Mike Baker, Founder and CEO of SOLE, ReCORK, and CO2negative.

With that in mind, SOLE announces their first CO2negative™ Certified Carbon Negative collection; the Performance footbed collection. Created using ReCORK™ Recycled Cork, the Performance Medium footbed has a carbon impact of -2.28kg CO2e (Carbon Dioxide equivalent), that’s 2.28kg CO2e removed from the atmosphere. This incredible number is thanks to the sustainability of natural cork. Cork is harvested from the bark of carbon-trapping cork oak trees, without ever cutting a tree down. For every kilogram of cork harvested, cork oak forests sequester an average of 55kg of CO2 from the atmosphere. CO2negative accounts for this sequestered carbon when calculating the final impact of products made with natural cork.

Products created using enough cork will often be carbon negative: all the greenhouse gas emissions associated with the product’s life cycle will come to less than the CO2 sequestered by cork oak trees while growing the cork used in the product. By accounting for the role of cork forests in their calculations, CO2negative hopes to highlight the benefit of utilizing existing materials that are good for the planet, in place of harmful petroleum-based foams and plastics.

While not all products can be made carbon-negative from the outset, all products’ carbon impacts can be offset. CO2negative will also offer carbon-negative certification on a product-specific or company-wide basis to any product or company that shows its impacts have been offset by a minimum of 110%. In this way, consumers can rest easy in the knowledge that supporting any CO2negative™ Certified Carbon Negative means having the right kind of impact on climate stability.

SOLE has committed to being Carbon Negative starting in 2022. Once year-end is complete and all data for 2021 is collected, SOLE will offset 110% of all emissions from 2021 through ReCORK tree planting initiatives. SOLE and ReCORK continue to push the status quo and are set to embark on a range of exciting new planet-friendly product launches and collaborations with industry leaders.

Image Credit: SOLE