{"id":2924,"date":"2019-09-23T11:18:26","date_gmt":"2019-09-23T11:18:26","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/desis.osu.edu\/seniorthesis\/?p=2924"},"modified":"2019-09-23T11:18:27","modified_gmt":"2019-09-23T11:18:27","slug":"allbirds-is-making-sustainable-shoe-soles-from-sugarcane","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/desis.osu.edu\/seniorthesis\/index.php\/2019\/09\/23\/allbirds-is-making-sustainable-shoe-soles-from-sugarcane\/","title":{"rendered":"AllBirds is Making Sustainable Shoe Soles from Sugarcane"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

https:\/\/fashionista.com\/2018\/08\/allbirds-sweetfoam-sustainable-shoe-soles<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

On\nThursday, Allbirds finally \u2014 after three years in development \u2014 adds a third\nsustainable material in “SweetFoam,” a proprietary sole material\nthat’s derived from renewable sugarcane. The journey to SweetFoam began when\nthe Allbirds team quickly grew dissatisfied with the range, or lack thereof, of\neco-rooted, non-petroleum-based options available in shoe soles.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“We’ve\nalways known from day one that one of the weakness we’ve had from a\nsustainability perspective is the bottom of the shoes,” Zwillinger told\nFashionista in a cross-country phone call.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

When\nAllbirds as we know it was still in its infancy, Zwillinger and Brown\nbegan contact with a Brazilian petrochemical company called Braskem. In their\ninitial pitch, the Allbirds team relayed their vision of creating both a brand-new\npolymer and subsequent foam out of sugarcane. (“We knew that sugarcane was\nthe most environmentally responsible, self-sufficient carbon source, pretty\nmuch on the planet, that you could find,” said Zwillinger.) After a\ncourtship period, Braskem eventually signed on to help invest in and partner\nwith Allbirds to make SweetFoam a reality.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The\nphysical sugarcane at the root of SweetFoam comes from dense, rain-drenched\nfields in Southern Brazil. In its growth, it’s treated with minimal fertilizer\nand later, processed in facilities that are run entirely on renewable power,\nmaking SweetFoam the planet’s first carbon negative EVA polymer.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

How does\nthe sugarcane physically become SweetFoam? The sugarcane is processed in a\nsugar mill, during which point the purest portion is removed and sold as\nrefined table sugar while the waste product, called molasses, is treated. From\nthere, the molasses is put into large stainless-steel tanks along with a\nyeast, which metabolizes the sugars within the molasses and coverts it into\nethanol. Then, through a number of other chemical processes, that ethanol is\ntranslated into EVA, which Allbirds takes and mixes with a “special\nblend” to make the end product \u2014 SweetFoam \u2014 more comfortable. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Analysis: This Article\nshows how big businesses are trying to become more sustainable. Even AllBirds,\na company obsessed with being the most sustainable they can be, are working on\nnew soles made from more organic materials while trying to limit a shoe soles\ncarbon footprint. <\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

https:\/\/fashionista.com\/2018\/08\/allbirds-sweetfoam-sustainable-shoe-soles On Thursday, Allbirds finally \u2014 after three years in development \u2014 adds a third sustainable material in “SweetFoam,” a proprietary sole material that’s derived from renewable sugarcane. The journey to SweetFoam began when the Allbirds team quickly grew dissatisfied with the range, or lack thereof, of eco-rooted, non-petroleum-based options available in shoe soles. “We’ve always […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":9,"featured_media":2925,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[22],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-2924","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-science-tech"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/desis.osu.edu\/seniorthesis\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2924","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/desis.osu.edu\/seniorthesis\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/desis.osu.edu\/seniorthesis\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/desis.osu.edu\/seniorthesis\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/9"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/desis.osu.edu\/seniorthesis\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2924"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/desis.osu.edu\/seniorthesis\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2924\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2926,"href":"https:\/\/desis.osu.edu\/seniorthesis\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2924\/revisions\/2926"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/desis.osu.edu\/seniorthesis\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2925"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/desis.osu.edu\/seniorthesis\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2924"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/desis.osu.edu\/seniorthesis\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2924"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/desis.osu.edu\/seniorthesis\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2924"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}