Everyone has a different product, price point, channel and customer. With that in mind, we developed this guide to cover an average shoe, knowing some shoes will be much further advanced with EPMs than others. Establishing an average shoe is important to ensure we assist those just now starting their sustainability journey or those who started but still need some guidance on the path forward. As the industry progresses, we will work to update this inaugural guide with higher percentages and targets.

Companies need to continue to understand and be wise to shoe material decisions. There are many factors in understanding if a material or component is truly more sustainable than another – for example one biomaterial may be seen as an EPM but producing this material could have required more water, generated more emissions or waste than a traditional material. [ASTM and USDA in this guide will verify the fact that the material has bio-content but it doesn’t look at whether that content is more sustainable or not, e.g., it could be palm oil.]

This guide does not delve into LCAs or production issues around materials or components – over time you will need to understand, for example, what the bio content is, if its food chain related and where its coming from – this guide is a simple way to help you make better decisions now and help you push your progress upward as you start out and learn more about sustainable materials.

Materials and components listed in this guide must be certified or have Life Cycle Assessments (LCA) docs at the percents listed. Learn more here on certification organizations and standards, as well as the definitions, that correspond to this guide. 3rd party labs listed in the guide refer to establish testing labs like Bureau Veritas, SGS, Eurofins, TUV SUD who are FDRA members.

Weight is the traditional measurement by governmental bodies as well as 3rd parties who verify content. Percents listed below are by weight.

Simplified, FDRA defines sustainability as ACTING & ENACTING BETTER – thinking consciously to make better material choices, use better processes, develop better policies and sell better shoes in order to shrink your environmental footprint more than conventional business practices. This guide only focuses on materials in order to zero in on this area, simplify and solve challenges here. It does not cover processes or chemicals to reduce complexity for those starting out. Those areas are being worked on by FDRA and its members separately to be combined as a whole later. For those wishing to focus on better chemical management as part of sustainability, we refer you to FDRA's industry developed RSL for shoes here.

These guides should not be considered marketing guidance - your teams must do legal due diligence on your material sustainability claims per the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) Green Guides. This guide is intended to help operations teams – designers, development and sourcing professionals – as well as retail merchants better understand what is and is not a footwear EPM and make better choices/make better requirements.

This guide was developed with feedback from suppliers and dozens of shoe companies. It provides a clear threshold or baseline of where companies should be for their shoe EPMs. The thresholds are very attainable, and typically do not greatly increase costs. As companies continue their sustainable journey, they should work to push their materials above these thresholds in a short period of time.

Companies already reaching these targets are trailblazers and provide encouragement to the industry that progress can be made. There are major challenges around product types and prices across the industry – not everyone is in the same boat. However, please use these standards where you can in your products to help make your processes and products more sustainable. These targets are not to overwhelm but to be guide posts along the journey – do what you can when you can as you keep moving up the mountain. Baby steps are still steps forward.