Our wildlife-friendly approach and its impact

Each step of the manufacturing process of our products is considered. We do our best to limit our impact on biodiversity. We have decided to focus our efforts on the 4 factors that have the greatest impact on living things: animal well-being / the exploitation of natural resources (primary forests, water) / pollution (carbon emissions and waste) / the energy footprint . Although our approach is still far from perfect, our sneakers remain much more respectful of life than the vast majority of models on the market.

In this article, we detail our actions on each of these 4 axes and the associated impact.

1. Animal welfare

More than a billion animals are killed each year for their skins. We believe that today the industry offers enough alternatives so that we can do without animal material in our sneakers.

2. Materials that respect wildlife

Cattle farming is responsible for 80% of deforestation in the Amazon. 85% of Thai rubber (the main world exporter) comes from deforestation. 4000L of water are needed to make a traditional pair of sneakers. We carefully chose our materials and traced them to ensure they were not associated with wildlife habitat loss. In addition, we only work with recycled materials.

Below are our materials and their impact:

appleskin (stem) : 

Biobased alternative to leather, made from apple waste and recycled polyurethane (PU). Frumat was founded in 2009 in Italy. This company transforms biological industrial residues from beekeeping into new raw materials for the development of innovative products. Exact composition: 32% apple waste, 34% organic cotton, 34% recycled PU.

IMPACT 🡺 The Appleskin is certified by PETA and the USDA Bio-preferred program . The apple waste comes from northern Italy and the entire transformation process takes place near Florence, far from the Amazonian forest… Its coloring is made from pigments of natural origin. Its carbon footprint is approximately 7kg/CO2/M2 compared to 60kg for standard leather. It is also 5.28kg lighter than a synthetic made only of PU.

Recycled nylon (upper): 

Recycled nylon is an eco-responsible alternative to nylon. Its manufacture is made from discarded nylon, which makes it a zero-waste material. It is also less energy and water intensive.

IMPACT 🡺 Water consumption reduced by 40%. Zero-waste.

Recycled polyester (label, laces, lining and sockliner):

This petroleum derivative is very difficult to degrade in the environment. We must at all costs prolong its life by avoiding throwing it away. By recycling polyester, on the one hand, unnecessary additional production, the use of natural resources and the pollution that go with it are limited. On the other hand, we limit its impact on ecosystems. It releases plastic microparticles as it degrades, and pollutes soils and waterways.

IMPACT 🡺 Water consumption reduced by 40%. Zero-waste. Limits pollution of soils and waterways.

Recycled rubber + natural rubber (sole):

Our soles are made from a mix of recycled and natural (virgin) rubber. Our sole supplier recycles 100% of its waste rubber in production, which it then mixes with natural rubber. This is part of a zero-waste approach. Natural rubber is also a real topic. It comes from the rubber tree, the cultivation of which can be likened to that of palm oil in countries such as Brazil or Thailand. When it does not come from a plantation managed in a sustainable way (and labeled FSC for example), natural rubber is very often associated with monoculture and therefore deforestation. We work with virgin rubber from a sustainable plantation grown in permaculture in the Amazon.

IMPACT 🡺 Zero-waste. Preservation of wild habitats.

3. Pollution (emissions and waste management)

Our sneakers have taken to traveling around the world before arriving at our feet. Suppliers in the four corners of the planet, assembly in Asia (in 90% of cases), delivery to warehouses in Europe to finally be dispatched to shops all over the world. A large-scale logistics that is obviously not guaranteed by bike! And it's not over, our sneakers love to travel so much that they travel thousands of kilometers again when we decided to part with them. Open-air dumps in Asia or giant markets in Africa, you never really know where our old favorite pair will land. To respond to these issues, we have thought about short circuits and better management of the end of life of our sneakers.

Short circuit:

All our partners are located in Europe (Portugal, Spain and Italy, see list of our suppliers ). Our eco-responsible sneakers are assembled by hand in our Portuguese workshop located in Guimarães, north of Porto. All of our materials are transported by truck, with the exception of Amazonian natural rubber, which is transported by boat. As our warehouse is located in the Paris region, we have chosen not to ship our sneakers to countries outside Western Europe. In addition, our logistics partner Big Blue is committed to a CSR approach with ecological last mile deliveries.

Recycling :

In addition to using recycled materials (see above), MEEKO also selects suppliers committed to approaches for reusing their waste / production offcuts. Our assembly plant thus recovers all of its scraps which are recycled by a partner to have a second life when possible. Our sole supplier proceeds in the same way but recycles its scraps itself, which it then mixes with rubber to offer zero waste soles.

The latter has also developed a recycling program for sneakers at the end of their life. The process consists of removing the metal parts (when there are any, which is not the case on your MEEKOs) to then grind the sneakers and create a soft paste that looks like latex.

We are setting up an organization to collect used MEEKO pairs via partner collection points, because that is indeed the most complex thing.

4. Energy footprint

A minimalist design, low impact materials, short circuits, sufficient solidity to cushion the environmental cost and we're all good? Almost, but we forget the essential: energy. The production of electricity via fossil fuels is the main cause of greenhouse gas emissions. To reduce our energy footprint, we therefore chose an assembly plant 75% powered by solar panels. It has thus reduced its emissions by 50 tonnes per year.

Similarly, our Portuguese insoles supplier is 90% powered by solar panels.

Despite our high standards and the constraints we have imposed on ourselves, we are proud to present our collections of wildlife-friendly sneakers. Alternatives that are more respectful of life, without sacrificing aesthetics, comfort or durability. We are not yet perfect (spoiler, we will never be), but we already guarantee cleaner sneakers than the vast majority of the market.

Discover your future favorite engaged pair here: https://meeko.store/collections/all 

The MEEKO team