Introduction
Sustainability is no longer optional for footwear brands—it’s a market expectation, a regulatory priority, and a potential source of competitive advantage. With increasing pressure from eco-conscious consumers, activist investors, and climate-focused regulations, the shoe industry is being pushed to reduce its environmental footprint at every stage of its value chain.
From material sourcing and manufacturing to distribution and end-of-life disposal, the production of shoes has wide-ranging environmental impacts: carbon emissions, water and chemical use, synthetic waste, and supply chain labor conditions. To tackle these challenges systematically and transparently, more shoe companies are turning to frameworks like the Eco-Management and Audit Scheme (EMAS).
EMAS is a voluntary EU regulation designed to help organizations improve environmental performance by building a formal Environmental Management System (EMS), engaging stakeholders, and undergoing verified third-party assessments. For shoe manufacturers, retailers, and designers, it provides a structured path to identify key environmental risks, embed sustainable practices, and gain credibility in an increasingly green economy.
1. Understanding EMAS in the Footwear Context
EMAS goes beyond compliance—it’s about creating a culture of continuous environmental improvement backed by real data and public accountability. It includes a commitment to transparency, regular audits by accredited verifiers, and a publicly available environmental statement.
In the shoe industry, this means more than switching to “green” materials. It requires a holistic approach that touches everything: energy usage in factories, leather sourcing, chemical management in tanneries, synthetic fiber disposal, and even the logistics of shipping and packaging. EMAS helps align all of these elements under a shared environmental vision, backed by performance metrics and a clear improvement plan.
Example: ECCO, the Danish footwear brand, has applied formal environmental systems (including ISO 14001, which aligns with EMAS requirements) across its production facilities. ECCO’s tanneries are particularly advanced in water reuse and emissions management, demonstrating that even traditionally resource-intensive processes can be made more sustainable through a structured approach.
2. Conducting a Baseline Environmental Review
Before any meaningful change can occur, a company must understand its current environmental impact. EMAS requires a comprehensive baseline environmental review, which identifies the most significant environmental aspects of a company’s operations. For the shoe industry, this often includes energy consumption in production facilities, greenhouse gas emissions from global supply chains, water use and pollution in tanning and dyeing, and non-biodegradable waste from synthetic materials and packaging.
This stage isn’t just about data collection; it’s about prioritizing where the company can make the most meaningful improvements. It also helps uncover hidden inefficiencies—such as excessive scrap material or unoptimized transport routes—that cost the business money and resources.
Example: Allbirds began its environmental journey by calculating the full lifecycle carbon footprint of each of its shoes. This lifecycle analysis revealed high-impact areas like EVA foam and merino wool sourcing, and helped the company redesign products and processes to significantly lower its emissions per unit sold.
3. Establishing an Environmental Management System (EMS)
Once environmental hot spots are identified, companies must formalize how they’ll manage and reduce these impacts. An EMS—required by EMAS—functions as the operational backbone of a sustainability strategy. It defines roles, responsibilities, policies, training, goals, and reporting processes that embed environmental consciousness into everyday decision-making.
For shoe brands, a strong EMS might include guidelines for selecting low-impact materials, supplier audits, green building standards for factories, processes for reducing offcuts, and end-of-life planning for unsold or returned stock. Crucially, an EMS also provides structure for setting annual objectives and ensuring accountability.
Example: Nike’s EMS underpins its “Move to Zero” initiative—a company-wide drive to reach zero carbon and zero waste. It informs decisions across departments, from using more recycled materials to redesigning packaging and switching to renewable energy at manufacturing sites.
4. Employee Engagement and Training
A sustainability plan is only as effective as the people implementing it. That’s why EMAS places strong emphasis on staff engagement. Employees at all levels must understand their environmental responsibilities, from factory line workers minimizing waste to designers making lower-impact material choices. The EMS must include training programs and internal communication strategies to ensure widespread buy-in.
In the shoe industry—where production is often global and decentralized—this also means training across cultures and languages. Suppliers, factory partners, and logistics providers should also be considered part of the extended team and brought into the environmental improvement process.
Example: Clarks has invested in internal sustainability training, creating toolkits for product developers and buyers to assess the lifecycle impact of design and sourcing decisions. This holistic education helps reduce environmental impact from concept to consumer.
5. Monitoring and Measurement
To comply with EMAS, organizations must develop systems to monitor and measure key environmental indicators. These indicators vary by company, but common metrics in footwear include:
- Energy and water use per shoe produced
- Carbon emissions per unit of product shipped
- Waste generation and landfill diversion rates
- Percentage of recycled or renewable materials used
- Compliance with chemical regulations (e.g., REACH)
Monitoring needs to be consistent, traceable, and ideally integrated into digital systems (e.g., ERP or PLM platforms). This data not only supports EMAS reporting but also helps identify trends, benchmark performance, and course-correct quickly.
Example: Puma publishes an Environmental Profit & Loss (EP&L) report, which monetizes the environmental costs of its materials, production, and logistics. This innovative tool helps the company—and its stakeholders—understand the full impact of business choices.
6. Communication and Stakeholder Engagement
A central pillar of EMAS is public disclosure and stakeholder engagement. Unlike internal standards, EMAS requires companies to publish a verified Environmental Statement that outlines their impacts, objectives, and performance. This transparency builds trust with customers, investors, suppliers, and regulators—and positions the company as a leader in sustainable footwear.
In an age of greenwashing concerns, third-party verified communication is particularly powerful. It shows that a brand’s environmental claims are backed by evidence, making them more credible and valuable in the marketplace.
Example: Veja, the ethical sneaker brand, provides detailed public reports on its sourcing, environmental performance, and supply chain practices. By offering this level of transparency, Veja has cultivated a loyal customer base that values authenticity over hype.
7. Seeking External Verification
EMAS requires that an accredited environmental verifier audit the company’s EMS, data accuracy, and environmental statements. This step ensures that all environmental claims are credible, consistent, and independently validated, giving stakeholders greater confidence in the company’s progress.
Footwear companies often work with third-party sustainability auditors already (e.g., for leather traceability or fair labor standards), so extending this to cover environmental performance under EMAS is a natural next step.
Example: Eram Group, a French footwear manufacturer and retailer, has adopted third-party ISO standards across its production sites and logistics operations. These audits help prepare the company for more advanced certifications like EMAS by ensuring that systems are already in place for verification.
8. Continuous Improvement
Sustainability is a journey, not a destination. EMAS requires organizations to demonstrate ongoing progress, not just compliance. This could mean setting new environmental targets each year, investing in greener technologies, or launching circular economy initiatives—like shoe take-back programs or closed-loop recycling systems.
For footwear brands, this creates space for innovation: biobased materials, 3D knitting to reduce waste, low-impact dyes, or modular shoe designs that are easier to repair and recycle.
Example: Timberland has shown a long-term commitment to continuous environmental improvement, including sourcing leather from regenerative farms, using recycled rubber in outsoles, and setting aggressive carbon neutrality targets. Each year, the company builds on its past successes, pushing further toward a circular and responsible model.
Conclusion
Achieving EMAS certification offers shoe companies a rigorous, credible, and forward-looking way to improve environmental performance while responding to growing stakeholder expectations. From global brands to independent labels, footwear companies that embrace EMAS position themselves as leaders in sustainability, transparency, and responsible innovation. In a world where every step counts, EMAS can help ensure your environmental footprint leads in the right direction.