What's in a TOMS shoe??

TOMS shoes are created with 4 materials: canvas, EVA, dye, and an adhesive. This information comes to us from Blake Mycoskie, owner of TOMS, and a fellow blogger who asked a TOMS employee via chat session.

Components of a TOMS shoe

So, what are the environmental impacts of each material?

1. Canvas

- According to a report on shoe production by Southern India's Investment Expansion Process and TOMS, canvas minimally impacts the environment.

The production of canvas shoes does not have adverse effect on environment. By - products of the process are the cuttings and trimmings of canvas linings, rubber sole, etc. These can easily by collected, stored in containers and disposed of together with solid waste of the plant. 

- Being organic, the cotton used in the canvas also has a smaller environmental impact in terms of pesticide/insecticide use.
- However, a lot of water is diverted to cotton fields and have negatively impacted the Aral Sea in Uzbekistan.

water diversion has reduced the Aral Sea to 60% its original surface area-- some 11,000 square miles once under water are now dry and saline, and villages once dependent on fishing are now stranded miles from the shore.

2. EVA Rubber Composite
- This is a composition of ethylene and vinyl acetate.
- There are small, quick emissions into the air and water supply from production and is energy intensive.

Fugitive emissions to air, water and intense energy consumption are the main environmental impacts associated with the production, use, and disposal of EVA.  The largest impact associated with the production of a plastic like EVA is the improper disposal of plastic goods by consumers (17-18). 

- The carbon dioxide emissions into the air is ~1.81lbs/kg of EVA. Compared to other materials that are commonly used to produce shoe soles, this is quite environmentally friendly. Other materials, such as PVC, Rubber, and plastic, produce 6.8lbs, 6.3lbs, and 7.3lbs of carbon dioxide/kg of the respective material.

3. Adhesive Glue
- The TOMS representative could not tell me what type of adhesive was used. (The online chat conversation I had with the TOMS rep can be found at the end of this post.) But typical shoe adhesives, such as the kinds Timerland Shoes uses, release Volatile Organic Compounds (VOCs) into the atmosphere.  The main VOC's released, toluene, methyl ethyl ketone (MEK), and trichloroethane (TCA) are considered Hazardous Air Pollutants (HAPs) under the 1990 Clean Air Act Amendments. These VOCs are thought to cause cancer, birth defects, and neurological damages. TCA is also known to deplete the stratospheric ozone layer, the "good" ozone layer that protects life on Earth from the sun's ultraviolet rays.

4. AZO and Lead Free Dyes
- AZOs are inorganic chemical compounds that produce red, orange and yellow dyes. They, along with lead, are carcinogenic and the chemical/metal can produce negative health consequences.

some azo-based dyes (Azo dye group III A1 and A2) shed carcinogenic aryl amines as the garments are worn (they contain metallic elements) creating health risks, according to the Federal Institute for Risk Assessment.

Conclusion
- It seems as though the materials used are relatively safer and more environmentally friendly than regular shoes. Besides the adhesives and EVA, there aren't any materials that are known to be significantly harmful to the environment. Considering that traditional shoes utilize the same adhesives and EVA, but also use conventional cotton (which employs a lot of pesticides) and leather (which is energy intensive and have indirect environmental impacts as the material comes from a cow), TOMS shoes seem to be an environmentally friendly alternative to the more conventional shoes available on the market.
- One thing to note, though, is that the materials are shipped from all over the world and therefore, transportation may be a major environmental consequence of TOMS shoes. Unfortunately, TOMS could not provide me with any information about where exactly in the world the materials are gathered from. This is an issue that needs to be addressed. TOMS does state, though, that they

employ fair trade practices, although there are currently no official fair trade standards for footwear manufacturing.

But what could the dependent clause possibly mean? Did they create their own standard for what is "fair trade"? Why did they say that no fair trade standards for footwear manufacturing exist? There are plenty of other fair trade organizations, such as the World Fair Trade Organization (WFTO) and Fair Trade International (FLO International), that TOMS could use as a guide for fair trade practices. This, and their inability to tell me where exactly they got their products from, suggests some questionable trading policies. Maybe I'm just being a skeptic, but companies' ability to hide the origins of the products they are selling to us has been a reoccurring issue that needs to be solved in order to mitigate climate change and also promote human rights.

Conversation with TOMS employee over the materials within their shoes