Unless there are immediate, rapid, and large-scale reductions in greenhouse gas emissions, limiting warming to 1.5°C will be impossible, with catastrophic consequences for people and the planet on which we depend.

Antonio Guterres, UN Secretary-General

Sustainability issues affect all industries — and the footwear sector is no exception. As part of a broad EU initiative, the two principal footwear research and technology organisations in the Iberian Peninsula, Portugal’s CTCP, that led the project, and INESCOP in Spain, have been deploying the Product Environmental Footprint EU methodology and developing the Ecodesign Guide for the sector in cooperation with a number of footwear manufacturers and suppliers*.

In anticipation of a consumer future when eco-labels will become commonplace, the LIFE Greenshoes4All project provides a clear path for footwear manufacturers and component companies towards sustainability, the European green product market and economic circularity. To this end, the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development prioritises a set of sustainable actions.

While greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions continue to rise, there is the likelihood that temperatures will temporarily exceed the threshold of 1.5°C above pre-industrial levels in the next five years. Rising temperatures are fuelling a variety of social, environmental and economic impacts, from heatwaves and fires to flooding. United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said during COP26, “Unless there are immediate, rapid, and large-scale reductions in greenhouse gas emissions, limiting warming to 1.5°C will be impossible, with catastrophic consequences for people and the planet on which we depend.”

To stay on pace with the 1.5°C pathway, the footwear sector must speed up its efforts to contribute to reducing GHG emissions to deliver a 50% absolute reduction by 2030 in line with the Paris Agreement goals on climate change (or equivalent science-based targets) and achieving Net Zero by 2050. It needs to move away from a linear pattern with growing consumption of planet resources towards a sustainable and circular economy, using fewer resources, and reducing climate-altering emissions. To do so, the industry, as well as the whole value chain and consumers, will need to take action. 

How to reach these targets

Based on product environmental footprint studies done in the Life GreenShoes4All EU project and experience of working with footwear and allied trade companies in Portugal and Europe, CTCP identified a set of sustainable actions with the potential to contribute towards a 50% to 60% reduction in the overall carbon footprint of footwear products and services.

• Design – ecodesign for longer life, repairability and circular use/recyclability.
• Materials – upper, lining, soling materials and components that have low environmental, carbon and water footprint are lighter and recycled.
• Efficiency – using materials more efficiently and reducing waste.
• Go Circular – increasing use of production waste and products at end-of-life for circularity and recycling.
• Research – developing materials, components and processes with lower environmental, carbon and water footprint.
• Green Energy – increasing efficiency and adopting lower carbon and renewable energy.
• Business Models – increasing collaboration in the value chain from supply to retail creating circular digital enabled or traceable business models.
• Processes – deploying lower impact production processes.
• Chemicals – eliminating or reducing chemically critical substances according REACH and other regulations. 
• Packaging – rethink packaging to promote reuse/recycling and reduce weight.

Figure 1 illustrates the estimated relative contribution of these actions to reducing the footwear industry’s carbon footprint. Acting on the design phase, material and components selection and circularity will generate a relevant contribution. The quantified reductions will depend on company and product baselines, the specific objectives established and the concrete measures undertaken.

Sustainable materials

These include materials with lower GHG emissions, water footprint and energy requirements on a per unit basis compared with conventional alternatives such as recycled materials. For uppers and linings: recycled hides/leather, recycled or organic cotton, recycled wool, viscose made with fibres from sustainable sources, mechanically or chemically recycled polyester (rPoly), recycled nylon or recycled coated fabric (woven, knitted, non-woven or microfibre substrate coated with PU). For the bottom parts, these will include recycled cellulose board, recycled thermoplastic rubber (rTP), recycled vulcanised rubber (rVR), recycled polyurethane (rTPU), recycle poly vinyl chloride (rPVC) or recycled ethyl vinyl acetate (rEVA).

The cost of these alternatives may currently be higher than conventional virgin materials and the supply constrained, but the industry supply chain is working to narrow the difference in price and putting in place the technologies needed to scale their production. These materials’ quality is also a fundamental asset to ensure product functionality and durability.

To decarbonise the footwear sector, it is also important to shift to green energy, moving away from coal and high carbon fuels to lower carbon alternatives. When possible, renewable solar-based electricity is a good option. Biogas and biomass could be alternative fuels. There are also opportunities to reduce energy consumption through efficiency even though this often includes interventions that have a positive return on investment, but lower return and longer payback compared with other investments. New possibilities and major challenges are expected soon, due to the relevant investments being made in hydrogen, biofuels and batteries. 

New accredited certification system

The new preferences of today’s consumers in terms of sustainability have led INESCOP to work towards enabling footwear companies to anticipate what future eco-labels for footwear will look like, something similar to what is already seen in other products, such as energy efficiency labels on household appliances.

This eco-label is based on the life cycle assessment of footwear based on the Product Environmental Footprint methodology. Currently, over 30 different footwear styles have had their PEF determined for validation. Many of them are iconic styles where manufacturers are discovering new ways of redesigning them, without sacrificing aesthetics, in line with European decarbonisation targets for 2050.

The results obtained so far are promising and show reductions of over 60% in the total carbon footprint of the styles analysed. In this sense, the implementation of eco-design principles, based on the knowledge of the environmental performance of each of the components used, allows the application of modifications to achieve positive environmental impacts.

In addition, the implementation of circular economy models, both at the raw materials stage with the selection of materials with a low environmental footprint (recycled, recyclable, bio-based, compostable, etc.) and in the minimisation and management of waste during the manufacture and end of life of the product and its recycling/recovery, allow a significant reduction in the environmental footprint of footwear.

Towards a sustainable future

As mentioned, this research has been carried out within the framework of the European project LIFE GreenShoes4All, (LIFE17 ENV/PT/000337), the main objective of which is to implement, demonstrate and disseminate a methodology through which efficient eco-design, recycling and manufacturing solutions can be developed. As a result, footwear is leading the way towards sustainability in the European industry, in line with the requirements of the 2030 Agenda and the European Green Deal.

Leading Portuguese and Spanish footwear manufacturers, such as AMF Safety Shoes, Pikolinos and Ecoalf, have collaborated with CTCP and INESCOP to learn about and improve their environmental performance by applying sustainability from the design stage. To this end, the project developed an essential tool for understanding this term: the Ecodesign Guide.

Sustainability by design is the cornerstone for conceiving new products based on innovation, aiming to identify technological solutions that will drive the transformation of the footwear industry. Besides CTCP and INESCOP, others in the LIFE GreenShoes4All consortium included AMF, APICCAPS, Atlanta, CEC, Evathink, FICE, INCDTP-ICPI and Il Passo.

BioShoes4All

In footwear, the materials, components and waste are the highest contributors to the total GHG emissions and research and innovation are core to pursuing footwear 2030 targets. The sector needs to develop and deploy the ‘next generation’ of sustainable materials and processes, including, for example, biological and plant-based materials, man-made bio-based materials, material-to-material recycling and innovative production technologies. The integrated BioShoes4All Portuguese project included 70 partners from industry to retail and academia. The project is organised into five pillars – Biomaterials, Ecological Footwear, Circular Economy, Advanced Production Technologies and Training and Promotion and intends to support the transition to a sustainable circular bio-economy.

Commenting on this, Maria José Ferreira from CTCP, the project technical coordinator says, “There is also the need to create new concepts of eco-products for footwear and leather goods, with lower carbon footprint, high durability, functionality and circularity, fundamental assets in the strategy of differentiation and creation of value in the long term, aimed at the consumer, who appreciates design and fashion, is informed, socially and environmentally demanding and responsible, and often digital.” Equally relevant will be the design and application of new approaches and technologies aimed at minimising and valuing production and post-consumption waste, in the context of a circular green economy, contributing to extend the life cycle of materials, carbon neutrality and the fight against climate change.

The scope of the BioShoes4All project includes tools for the traceability of the value chain, robotics, value from data or artificial intelligence, that will contribute to the increase of flexibility, productivity, competitiveness and resilience of the cluster. 
The project is set to run until end of 2025. 

Environmental auditing

INESCOP recently undertook a study based on carrying out environmental audits throughout the entire footwear value chain in the industrial cluster of the Valencian Region in Spain. According to the study, the environmental situation of the footwear and components companies is quite promising at an organisational and product level. The development of materials with a low environmental impact, which do not reduce the quality and comfort of the product, means that the environmental results are improving as a result of their progressive introduction in the production processes.

Another factor to consider in this paradigm shift is the proliferation of intra- and inter-sectoral industrial symbiosis models at a local level for the management of waste and its subsequent use as a raw material, contributing to the implementation of a circular economy in the area. From this perspective, one of the great challenges faced by the sector is its adaptation to the future law on waste, which includes extended producer responsibility. For this reason, the end-of-life stage of footwear is currently of special interest, as well as the search for technological solutions that contribute to reducing its impact. Efforts are focused on the recycling of products that are not suitable for a second life.

To this end, INESCOP has worked on setting up a pilot plant for the recycling of multi-composition waste in collaboration with the textile and toy sectors. The plant, which is located in its facilities in Elda (Alicante), is aimed at contributing to testing and validating future technologies related to the recyclability of footwear. Different models of mechanical and/or chemical recycling are currently being investigated for the recovery of raw materials and their subsequent utilisation. All these measures help reduce the Product and Organisation Carbon Footprint, which is now a powerful tool for communicating and improving the sustainability of the industry, thus contributing to European policies to achieve climate neutrality and product circularity, as well as the Sustainable Development Goals.

The work done in Portugal and Spain should be seen as a template for the international footwear industry and not be considered as only of interest to those working in the European Union. The subject is clearly part of the pressing need to reduce greenhouse gas emissions in the drive to limit global warming to 1.5°C above pre-industrial levels. This was reinforced again at last November’s COP26 conference in Glasgow. 
2030 is an urgent eight years away, 2050 to achieve net zero is just around the corner. Time is running out. 

*World Footwear acknowledges the detailed input of the authors and researchers, including Maria José Ferreira, Vera Pinto, Joana Gomes and Patrícia Costa from CTCP and Borja Mateu Romero, Ana Belén Muñoz Milán and Francisca Arán Ais of INESCOP in developing this article.

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