Rothy's shoes from recycled bottles
California-based retailer Rothy's makes shoes from recycled plastic bottles. The mission of the company is to make eco-friendly shoes that are stylish. Rothy's motto is From bottle to beautiful. The plastic is sterilized, cut into small pieces and pressed into granules, and then heated and stretched to strands. The shoes are 3D printed using a special foot-shaped blank and sold in biodegradable packaging. Over the past 5 years, the company has recycled more than 45 million plastic bottles, completely clearing several large landfills.
Practice
Accenture has formulated guidelines to help retailers meet their financial goals and be on the green agenda. First, employees must be able to quickly adapt to different conditions and work efficiently, both face-to-face and online. Second, the company must have a team of sustainability experts who will be aware of the strengths and weaknesses of the business. Another recommendation is to form a budget depending on the actual need for resources, without focusing on data from previous years. The approach, called "budgeting from scratch" (from the English. Zero-Based Budgeting), allows you to free up funds and redirect them to solving pressing social and environmental problems. Retailers are advised to optimize supply chains and select suppliers based on their commitment to sustainability - and create eco-friendly product lines. In addition, Accenture advises companies to disclose information about their activities to better understand business processes, see new growth points and become closer to consumers.
An important factor forcing retailers to more actively use eco-practices is the attitude of investors, who are paying more and more attention to ESG factors (environmental, social, governance - environmental factors, social and managerial). Morningstar, a US-based analytics firm, has more than doubled the number of index-only mutual funds and ETFs investing in environmentally responsible companies. In mid-2020, there were 534 such funds in the world, managing assets worth $ 250 billion.