*All of the information in this blog post has been updated to reflect business practices as of 2022.

In this post, we share in-depth information about our supply chain and business practices through the lens of the first two pillars of the Nisolo Sustainability Framework, which are People and Planet. To learn more about our framework in general or the other pillars (Transparency, Accountability, and Ecosystem Building), visit here.

We are a Certified B Corporation, and our executive team is required to evaluate each decisions’ impact on people and the planet. To ensure accountability, we’ve written this into Nisolo’s legal operating agreement and by-laws, which our executive team is required to comply with in order to remain in good, compensated standing with the company.

Yes, we take all of this very seriously. Let’s dive in!

Rather than continuing in the devastating direction the fashion industry is heading today, we envision it becoming a vehicle for eradicating poverty for hundreds of millions of the world’s most vulnerable people, and, in time, inspiring other industries to pull their stakeholders out of poverty as well. Making this a reality starts by demonstrating it can be done across our own value chain.

We are committed to providing living wages and actively protecting the labor and human rights of all of our producers across our supply chain from our Tier 1 factories to our Tier 4 farms and everywhere in between. In addition, we are committed to ensuring representation of producers and manufacturers’ voices in our conversations about workers’ rights as well as our vision for the company. Our CEO and our Sustainability Lead visit all of our manufacturing facilities and have personally spent extensive time with shoemakers and producers on the factory floor. From time to time, you will see live interviews highlighting the experiences of People within our supply chain across our social media channels such as the ones we’ve done in the past of our CEO and our Sustainability lead interviewing several long-time shoemakers in Peru. Our producers have participated in company-wide staff retreats and we publicly acknowledged them when we released the Sustainability Facts Label. A thank you note inspired by our producers is the first thing our customers see when they open a Nisolo box because our work wouldn’t be possible without them. To us, producers and shoemakers play a central role in determining our practices and programming through expressing feedback to leadership about how we can improve as separate entities and as an interconnected supply chain.

Apart from these in-person visits, to date, we have done thorough social impact assessments of our Tier 1 factories to ensure that everyone is receiving a living wage and working in a safe and healthy work environment where they can thrive. Tier 1 is in good shape, and we have begun to vet Tiers 2 & 3. Over the next two years, we will continue auditing the social practices of all of our tanneries and raw material suppliers, and we will execute our plan to ensure they have a positive impact on their workers and dependents.

With that said, let’s unpack some of what we know today:

Our Factories

We currently produce our footwear and accessories in 4 total factories.

We envision the fashion industry regenerating the natural environment instead of depleting it. And, we are committed to growing at a healthy rate that does not put the planet at risk. We believe Fashion can reverse its impact on climate change, and inspire other industries to do their part in saving the planet. In contrast to fast fashion’s “take, make, dispose” model, we believe in a “circular fashion” approach that takes environmental impact into account at all stages ranging from initial design, to the sourcing of materials, to manufacturing, to logistics to the final customer, to the end lifecycle of products post consumer use, and all steps in between.

In 2020, we ordered 61,773 products, and emitted a total of 2,752 tons of CO2. In 2021, we ordered 139,315 products, yet emitted a total of 2,614 tons of CO2, which marks a cumulative decrease of 4.2% YOY. Approximately 70% of this reduction came from a change in Climate Neutral’s methodology that was previously inflating our 2020 emissions beyond reality. Approximately 30% of this reduction was due to implementing more carbon efficient shipping methods. Our reduction efforts have contributed towards 3rd party verified carbon reductions. Each year, we measure, strive to reduce, and compensate for 100% of our scope 1, 2, and 3 emissions through a 3rd party verified REDD+ conservation project in the Peruvian Amazon. In addition to making a public commitment to carbon reduction plans, we are measuring and compensating for 100% of the carbon emissions taking place in our supply chain all the way down to the farm level as a Climate Neutral Certified brand. To read more about our total carbon emissions and other statistics related to our environmental impact, see this post.

We offer preferred supplier status to our factories that have invested in renewable energy to curb their carbon emissions through shifting a greater share of production to those factories. Currently, Creatra powers 30% of its facility through solar panels on the roof of the factory, and Artigiano has purchased and installed solar panels at their facility as well. Lefarc, one of our tanneries, also relies on renewable energy.

100% of our leather is a byproduct of the meat industry. Defined as “an incidental or secondary product made in the manufacture or synthesis of something else,” we can be certain that leather is a byproduct because a cow hide is only 2.29% of the economic value of the entire animal (Source: United States Department of Agriculture, 2020). No cow would ever be killed for the exclusive purpose of creating leather. By using the hide, we play a role in diverting it from immediately ending up in a landfill. If these hides were not repurposed into leather, we would have a huge waste issue on our hands. An estimated 33 Million hides would go into landfills annually in the US alone. In this way, leather fits into the circular economy. It’s also incredibly durable, repairable, and recyclable for new products.

We do not use any oil-based materials or synthetics like virgin polyester in our primary raw materials and are committed to never using plastic or fossil fuel based materials unless they are 100% recycled and recyclable at the end of their life. In 2022, we launched our first products made with Global Recycle Standard (GRS) post consumer recycled PET from Taiwan, thereby increasing the total percentage of our recycled raw materials. We are actively identifying recyclers and second life providers to implement fiber-to-fiber recycling technology into our product offering.

Over the past two years, we have invested hundreds of thousands of dollars to completely rework Tier 2 of our supply chain in order to source from Leather Working Group (LWG) Certified tanneries that prioritize environmental responsibility. The majority of our leather comes from LWG Certified tanneries, which means they have been evaluated and certified for best practices against the following criteria: material traceability, environmental management system, restricted substances, energy consumption, water usage, air and noise emissions, waste management, effluent treatment, health, safety, and emergency preparedness, chemical management, and operations management. We are certain that investing in LWG Certified tanneries has improved the health of people and ecosystems along our value chain as it relates to emissions and chemical pollution. 100% of our leathers will be sourced from LWG Certified tanneries within the next twelve months.

Providing LWG Certified tanneries with our preferred supplier status has had a significant positive impact in the following areas:

• Carbon emissions – LWG Certified tanneries monitor air emissions, as this is a critical part of LWG’s protocol. Tanneries detail all points of forced emissions to air (i.e. boiler stacks, spray machines, fume cupboards, etc.), in addition to the results of environmental aspects and impacts assessments made upon those emissions. In this way, we have invested in reducing and eliminating the negative health impacts of pollution along our value chain.
• Water management and stewardship – LWG Certified tanneries must have operating permits in place depending on their geographical location when it comes to water consumption, usage, and discharge into local waterways. Tanneries undergo a re-audit every 2 years and are required, as part of the protocol, to provide water pollution data based on the previous months to show either an improved rating, or maintenance of a high standard of water quality, to enable them to remain LWG Certified.
• Chemical management – LWG Certified tanneries are required to manage and dispose of their chemicals responsibly, and are aligned with our commitment to avoid the use of hazardous chemicals. “LWG provides a platform that enables brands and retailers to work with suppliers throughout the value chain and build a chemical management system that is aligned with ZDHC and AFRIM Group objectives. Coupled with a robust due diligence testing programme, this helps our [LWG] members to provide assurance that safer chemistry has been practiced in the manufacture of leather from LWG certified facilities.” Read more about LWG’s chemical management standards here. We also leverage vegetable tanning across several of our products, which is a less chemical intensive process to traditional tanning since it uses natural tannins.

Our shift towards working with LWG Certified tanneries and vegetable tanning has significantly reduced the chemical pollution that occurred in our supply chain when we sourced a much higher percentage of products from tanneries that did not have these 3rd party verified practices and systems in place, and this was a primary motivator for reshaping our supply chain and raw materials providers over the last several years.

We are working to enhance the level of auditing done both by internal and external parties to evaluate our supply chain.

Currently, our tanneries are located in León, Mexico, and include the following:

• Lefarc (302 workers)
• Kodiak (196 workers)
• Wyny (650 workers)
• Alfamex (111 workers)
• Bengala (60 workers)
• Concurmex (138 workers)
• Caxamarca (6 workers) (located in Trujillo, Peru).
  
  

• Water – We are committed to tracking our water consumption across our supply chain and establishing time-bound targets to ensure that water is sustainably managed on a local level by 2030. Our targets will be context based and focused on water-stressed areas. At the moment, we are certain that our Tier 1 and Tier 2 suppliers are tracking their water consumption, and we are digging into Tiers 3 and 4.
• Chemicals – Our LWG Certified tanneries operate with a strict MRSL and robust chemical management system that is aligned with ZDHC and AFRIM Group objectives, and we are in the process of implementing a MRSL across the rest of our supply chain.
• Waste – We create durable products that are repairable and made to last in order to reduce waste. Currently, we are in the process of establishing time-bound targets to reduce both pre- and post-consumer raw material waste to landfill through innovative design and second life techniques.

We are committed to further evaluating our farms’ animal welfare policies and practices and will use our influence to support best animal husbandry practices. We have a strict commitment to never use exotic skins (i.e. ostrich, crocodile, kangaroo, elephant, lizard, snake, etc.), or fur for our products due to the historic animal rights abuses of these industries. We are committed to ensuring the wellbeing of the cattle within our supply chain, and we are committed to ensuring the Five Freedoms are met within our supply chain:

• Freedom to express natural behavior
• Freedom from injury and disease
• Freedom from discomfort
• Freedom from thirst and hunger
• Freedom from fear and distress

We are working in collaboration with our tanneries and Tier 3 suppliers to map 100% of our leathers back to the farm level. In 2022, we made significant progress, achieving 100% visibility of our Tier 3 suppliers. That said, we have not yet achieved visibility of birth farms, but we are working hard to get there. We do know that 100% of our leather is cow leather and a byproduct of the meat industry, and our raw material suppliers have guaranteed that no deforestation is occurring within our supply chain.

Read more about our holistic approach to working with leather here.

While we are still learning more about the base of our supply chain in our pursuit to obtain a comprehensive list of Tier 4 suppliers, we know that our leather comes from Mexico and the United States (primarily Kansas & Nebraska), and include the following organizations whose facilities are located in the American Midwest: JBS, Cargill, and National Beef. You can learn more about these farms and their animal welfare policies at those respective links.

We measure and compensate for 100% of our upstream (factory to distribution center) and downstream (distribution center to customer) shipping, and have achieved reductions in shipping emissions by relying more heavily on ocean shipments vs. air. The majority of our packaging is made from recycled corrugated cardboard and is fully recyclable. We are in the process of overhauling our packaging to reduce its environmental impact, and we have already begun using single ship boxes rather than double boxes for shipping and plan to move 100% of our single shipped units to single ship boxes in the next 6-24 months.

Currently, we resell all flawed and damaged products we receive back from customers or from our suppliers at a discounted rate to guarantee that everything we produce gets utilized. Flawed or damaged products are predominantly sold at our warehouse sale in Nashville, Tennessee, which we welcome anyone in the area to attend. We are in the process of determining a resale strategy and platform to implement in 2023 that will accelerate and scale our ability to sell flawed and damaged products more effectively.

Our intention is to keep our products in use as long as possible, which is why we aggressively push the sales of our leather cleaning kits and products that better care for our goods. At the end of the product life, we encourage customers to recycle and dispose of their products responsibly when necessary. We offer leather care kits and repair and upcycling services at 100% of our brick-and-mortar locations, and we incentivize customers to use these services by offering free shipping when they want to mail products in as well as $40-50 credit on future purposes when they recycle their footwear as part of our product reclamation program in partnership with Soles4Souls.

To learn more about our holistic approach to Sustainability, please visit this post.

Nisolo means “not alone.” It’s a tribute to the importance of relationships and our interconnectedness with one another and the planet. We welcome all stakeholders to learn about our business and its impact, so that we can work in collaboration to shift the industry in a more sustainable direction.

If there is an area of our business you have additional questions about as it relates to social and environmental responsibility, we want to make ourselves available to you. We know we have a long way to go, and we’d love to hear from you what you think we can be doing to further improve. We’d also love to hear what you think we’re doing well, as it’s tough work to compete with companies in our industry who intentionally cut corners on a regular basis.

Put simply, all news from you is good news to us, and we’d love to hear your feedback. If you’d like to contact us relating to our sustainability practices, please reach out directly to sustainability@nisolo.com.