The Figures

125kg of clothing repaired – resulting in a saving of 2,900kg of emissions
80,000 trees planted
700kg of kit swapped and given new life – that swapped ski gear has saved an estimated 16.28 tons of carbon emissions.

The “Fix It” events have gone down a storm. Big thanks to all those involved, and an extra big thanks to Gina for all the repairs. We’ve been on tour to Courchevel, Méribel and Morzine, received an incredible welcome in each resort, and met with loads of like-minded people that want to get involved.

We’re working with Montagne Verte to grow their reach across the Alps, forming an action group to help small businesses change their models by offering them support, consultation and carbon off-setting.

We’ve made big steps at The Boot Lab to change the ways we operate, and we want to work with like-minded small businesses to change the industry. While planting trees helps off-set our carbon footprint, our primary goal is to change the way we do things, and hopefully encourage others to do likewise.

Here we break down the numbers from the tour into easily digestible stats.

143 items of clothing repaired

Big thanks to Gina for all the hard work. She replaced zippers, patched rips and hand stitched gloves during each event. The production of a kg of material produces 23.2kg of CO2 emissions. With roughly 125kg of clothing repaired, and back in use, Gina has helped keep 2,900kg of CO2 emissions under ground.

What is the Impact of Clothing?

According to The Carbon Trust, clothing accounts for around 3% of the global production (or 850 million metric tonnes) of CO2 emissions per year. This figure includes both the production process and emissions produced after we have bought the clothing, such as washing, drying and ironing.

What are we Doing?

Promoting the repair of clothing to stop what we consider over consumption.

But hang on a minute, we’re a shop how can we encourage this?! We have big plans for next winter regarding clothing.  With the help of Gina we’ll be instigating an up-cycled swap shop at our stores. We want to reattach a value to used clothing, and think this is the best way to keep emissions in the ground. We want to encourage the usage of products to their fullest.

At The Boot Lab we fix and fit customers existing ski boots, we have a policy of improving the boot if we can, rather than fitting new ones. When we fit boots we guarantee them for the lifetime of the boot, squeezing every bit of use out of the materials. Then when boots are finished with we have instigated a recycling service with Tri-Vallees.

Over 80,000 trees planted

1 tree sequesters about 22kg of CO2 per year, so in total you’ve helped us sequester 1,760,000 million kg of carbon each year.

Where are we Planting?

We’ve started off in two locations. The first here in the French Rhône-Alpes through our company portal at MyTree. And the second through Trees for the future, an organisation that plants trees for families in Africa. This gives communities the ability to transition from unsustainable farming techniques to a Forest Garden system, where tree planting not only sustains and empowers, but also changes lives forever.

Why is this Important?

A recent study reported by Yale environment 360, found that planting 1.2 trillion trees could cancel out a decade of CO2 emissions.

There is enough room in the world’s existing parks, forests, and abandoned land to plant 1.2 trillion additional trees, which would have the CO2 storage capacity to cancel out a decade of carbon dioxide emissions, according to a new analysis by ecologist Thomas Crowther and colleagues at ETH Zurich, a Swiss university.

The research, presented at this year’s American Association for the Advancement of Science conference in Washington, D.C., argues that planting additional trees is one of the most effective ways to reduce greenhouse gases.

How can I Help?

Want to show your support for the project? Then next time you need to buy clothing shop please consider shopping responsibly.

You can do this through our “One Tree at a Time” store. Each time you buy a tee, we’re planting a tree. Each tree has the capability to lock away a ton of C02 over its lifetime. Clothing is a huge drain on the environment, but to counter this we use Teemill to create all our products. They use organic cotton, have a zero-waste policy, and use a wind-powered factory. As well as instigating a circular economy. This means that when you’re finished with your clothing it can be returned for re-manufacturing into new tees. We think that is awesome.

Bring and Buy Rail

Through the “Bring and Buy Rail” we have enabled the  swapping of over 800 items of clothing and ski gear. That’s a massive 700kg of kit that has been given a new life. That swapped ski gear has saved an estimated 16.28 tons of carbon emissions.

Thanks to your contributions we have been able to reattach a value to clothing, and that value is trees. Not only did that help us plant a forest, it also helped keep loads of clothing out of landfill.

So a huge thanks to all of you that, helped repair, donated ski gear and purchased trees. You’ve helped make a real difference.

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