U.S. footwear brand Crocs has released its 2021 environmental, social and governance (ESG) report, highlighting its efforts and plans to improve sustainability topics. As announced last year, the company plans to have become net zero and cut half of the emissions occurring during shoe production by 2030. Furthermore, Crocs wants to incorporate more of its relatively new Ecolibrium material into its Croslite foam shoes. The technology, developed in partnership with Dow Chemical, transforms sustainably sourced plant-based waste and by-products into footwear, bringing emissions down significantly. Crocs is currently producing and shipping its first shoes that include a percentage of bio-based material on a mass balance basis, with plans to increase over time.
The mass balance volume tracking system involves, for example, mixing virgin fossil and renewable or circular raw materials into existing systems and production processes. The renewable amount is then allocated mathematically to specific products and is certified by a third party to verify the use of renewable or circular resources across all stages of production, making sure that the amount of the product sold with the label never exceeds the amount of raw material certified. This system is also used for certifications like Better Cotton, where a certified production site has to verify the purchase of a certain amount of raw material that is processed at the partnering company but is not mandatory to be included in the market-ready product that is labeled with the respective product tag of a partnering brand. Mass balance allows for large-scale production and enables cost-effective solutions that meet certain environmental and sustainability targets.
Crocs’ ESG report is guided by key ESG frameworks, including the Sustainability Accounting Standards Board (SASB), the Task Force on Climate-Related Financial Disclosures (TCFD) and the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (UN SDGs).
