SUSTAINABILITY: WHERE WE ARE NOW – Our Operations

How We Operate

We know sustainability goes beyond shoes. We’re on a journey toward making all the elements of our business as conscious as possible. One of the biggest waste contributors is packaging. Something as small and seemingly insignificant as shoe boxes can have a massive environmental impact, which is why it was important that our shoe boxes be made from 100% post-consumer recycled content. Inside the box, we’re minimizing our use of paper materials (like shoe stuffing and packing paper) and swapped out plastic hang tag ties for ones made from natural fiber.

We also donate lightly worn shoes to charity in order to extend the life of the shoe, support communities, and reduce excess waste. So far we’ve made shoe donations to several organisations including Shoes That Fit, The Watts Empowerment Center, Genesis Women’s Shelter and Support, and Run HK.

Carbon emissions are a huge problem in our industry. That’s why we’ve chosen to work with Flexport. Flexport meticulously calculates the CO2 emissions that result from every bulk shipment of Lane Eights. We then offset those emissions by buying into CarbonFund.org projects like The Envira Amazonia Project: A Tropical Forest Conservation Project, Truck Stop Electrification, New Bedford Landfill Gas-to-Energy Project, and Soma Wind Project. So far, we’ve offset 56.18 tonnes of carbon dioxide, equivalent to the amount of carbon absorbed by 68.82 acres of forest in one year.

We also work with a company called Well. Well is a water fountain that provides purified water to both our office and storefront, allowing us to eliminate our need for single-use plastic bottles. The location of our Well station is posted on their website and app, so anyone can look us up and refill their water bottle in our shop for free. To date, we’ve provided the equivalent of over 3,000 plastic bottles worth of water refills.

We’ll always hold on to the mentality that we’re ~just getting started~ when it comes to our sustainability. We’re proud of how far we’ve come, but hitting a goal just means it’s time to go further, harder, and better. Keep an eye out this month (and beyond!) for more information about our sustainability plans, Where We’re Going, and how we’ll get there.