Icebug Becomes First Climate Positive Outdoor Footwear Brand

Jonsered, Sweden (April 2, 2019) – “The climate crisis can’t wait for us to become perfect. We need to act now” – Icebug CEO David Ekelund.

Icebug, the Swedish outdoor footwear company. They have been manufacturing footwear to tackle slippery conditions since 2001. From their start as a company, Icebug has incorporated sustainability and eco-consciousness into their business practices. This past year, Icebug committed to – and succeeded at – implementing the United Nations Climate Neutral Now initiative. Thereby making Icebug the first climate positive outdoor footwear brand.

As I’ve written before::

As the Guardian reports, every day, most of us dress ourselves in items. All churned out by what is arguably the world’s second-most polluting industry.

Reportedly it’s topped only by oil, the fashion industry is contributing to major environmental destruction. That’s mainly because consumers insist on buying so many clothes at such cheap prices

This initiative involves emission reduction through companies committing to three steps:

1. Measuring greenhouse gas emissions

2. Reducing emissions as much as possible and

3. Compensating emissions that can’t be avoided by using UN certified emission reductions (CERs).

Apple Too

Many companies are doing this like Apple for example.

As part of its commitment to combat climate change and create a healthier environment, Apple announces its global facilities are powered with 100 percent clean energy. This achievement includes retail stores, offices, data centers and co-located facilities in 43 countries — including the United States, the United Kingdom, China and India. The company also announced nine additional manufacturing partners have committed to power all of their Apple production with 100 percent clean energy, bringing the total number of supplier commitments to 23.

“We’re committed to leaving the world better than we found it. After years of hard work we’re proud to have reached this significant milestone,” said Tim Cook, Apple’s CEO. “We’re going to keep pushing the boundaries of what is possible with the materials in our products, the way we recycle them, our facilities and our work with suppliers to establish new creative and forward-looking sources of renewable energy because we know the future depends on it.”

Although Icebug committed to reducing their emissions. Moreover and for several years. So they sped up their process and officially became climate positive at the end of February 2019.

So Icebug’s biggest challenge was measuring production emissions. Since there is no simple process to measure emissions, Icebug purchased 30 percent more vegan CERs than necessary to account for the margin of error.

Currently, Icebug is the only climate positive footwear brand in the world. Icebug CEO David Ekelund now challenges his colleagues and competitors:

Finally and for more on their sustainability efforts. Please Read and be a part of the change:

Icebug’s Climate Footprint Facts:

1. Icebug is estimating they emitted 3,637 tons of greenhouse gas for fiscal year March 1, 2018 – February 28, 2019.
2. Finally, Icebug over-compensated an additional 30% to become climate-positive. As a result, Icebug offset 4,755 tons of CO2 equivalents through the UN Carbon Offset Platform on February 21, 2019.

Source: Icebug