Shoes which Plant Sea Trees and Offset Our Carbon Footprint
We are proud to support the SeaTrees project with every pair of WAES shoes purchased. Our mission is not just to create the most sustainable trainers on the planet, but also make a positive impact where we can and to spread a positive message of change without becoming eco bores.
And nothing could be more exciting than restoring mangroves, the nurseries of our oceans and a starter home for the smallest fish up to the largest sharks. SeaTrees only work with high-quality reforestation and forest protection projects around the world. Each of these projects sequesters carbon, while also providing significant social and ecosystem benefits. You're not just offsetting your carbon footprint; you're having a positive impact on the ocean.
One mangrove tree sequesters up to 1 ton of CO2. So, 1 purchase = 1 Mangrove tree and up to a ton of CO2 being stored away. Given that the average CO2 footprint of one of our shoes creates less than 10kg of CO2 (current calculations are ongoing) we are well into positive territory. But offsetting is not enough and that's why we try to drive our emissions down in every aspect of our business.
When planting trees, it's essential to consider where the trees are being planted and if they are providing a useful environmental purpose. It's no use just planting trees for the sake of it, and every mangrove we help to plant offers sustainable employment for two villages on Biak Island, Indonesia.
This helps to protect Biak Island from storm-surges and sea-level rise. It also creates habitat for threatened species and sequesters carbon in one of the most efficient ways possible. In fact, mangrove forests are 5x more effective at storing carbon than tropical forests.
Indonesia's forests are a crucial part of the lungs of our planet, and it has been one of the worst-hit places in terms of plastic pollution. Large swathes of what was until relatively recently pristine tropical ecology have been impacted by deforestation, agriculture, development and then covered in plastic from both domestic and imported sources.
This shrink-wrapping of the ills humanity can visit on a landscape is thankfully being reversed in part by SeaTrees reforestation, and it's also worth pointing out teh work done by organisations like Bye Bye Plastic Bags to remove single use plastics in Indonesia.
By restoring, replanting and protecting coastal ecosystems around the world through their core conservation partners – SeaTrees is supporting the 17 United Nations / Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), which are designed to transform our world for good by 2030.
SeaTrees is designed to support all 17 SDG goals, with these seven SDG goals being the highest priority for their chosen projects: Goal 1: No Poverty, Goal 5: Gender Equality, Goal 6: Clean Water, Goal 8: Decent Work and Economic Growth, Goal 13: Climate Action, Goal 14: Life Below Water, Goal 15: Life On Land.
Collectively, these projects reduce climate change impacts, increase biodiversity on land and in the sea, protect endangered species on land and ocean, create sustainable jobs, alleviate poverty and hunger, support education and gender equality, and lots more.
Shoes which plant sea trees? Count us in.