Toronto, ON– Roots Canada has shown it’s serious about environmental issues by teaming up with Zerofootprint, a not-for-profit organization that helps businesses become sustainable by increasing efficiency and offsetting environmental costs.
The new Roots location at 1073 Yonge St. features a fashion and home design store, as well as a yoga studio. Just as importantly, it makes it clear to its customers that it understands that consumers and businesses will be changing their habits as environmental concerns become increasingly urgent.
“This new store is a natural extension for Roots,” says Michael Budman, co-founder of the company. “Roots has always been connected to nature and the great outdoors including being active, healthy and socially aware. In addition to showcasing and selling our products, we also see this store as sending a positive message to our customers about how being green is not a sacrifice but is about change and evolution and a way of thinking.”
Roots made every effort in the construction of the store to ensure that it environmental footprint is as small as possible. They’ve used EcoLogo-certified bamboo floors, Woodstalk fibreboard as an alternative to MDF, and water-based glue that reduces volatile organic compounds and air pollution. The store also offers for sale Roots home tables made of reclaimed wood—wood that would otherwise find its way into the wastg stream.
But every human activity comes with an environmental cost, and that is where Zerofootprint plays a vital role in making the store sustainable. Zerofootprint’s energy experts calculated the environmental costs of the store’s ongoing activity—it’s electricity use for example. Once a company knows what its “footprint” is, it can take steps to “neutralize” it. By investing in renewable energy initiatives and carbon-sequestering tree planting projects, Zerofootprint was able to “offset” Roots’ greenhouse gas emissions. That means that the store’s net emissions are zero.
What makes Zerofootprint unique in the offsets field is that the company neutralizes not only greenhouse gas emissions, but natural resource depletion as well. Since Roots stores use paper bags, Zerofootprint calculated the water and trees exploited in the manufacturing process, then took steps to ensure that the trees were replaced and that investment was made in watershed protection.
“We are excited to have worked with Roots to ensure its store has almost no net environmental cost,” says Deborah Kaplan, Executive Director of Zerofootprint. “It is very satisfying to work with businesses as forward-thinking as Roots has shown itself to be. Not every company realizes that there is a lot they can do to offset their footprint. The good news is that what we’ve done with Roots, we can do with anyone.”
About Roots
Established in 1973 as a natural footwear company, Roots is today Canada’s leading lifestyle brand, known around the world for its wide range of quality leather goods, clothing, and accessories. Starting as a tiny store in Toronto selling the Roots Negative Heel Shoe, Roots now has more than 125 stores in Canada and the United States, along with 20 locations in Asia. In addition, Roots has a state-of-the art leather goods factory and design centre in Toronto.
About Zerofootprint
Zerofootprint provides information, products, and services to the global network of consumers and businesses that wish to reduce their environmental impact. Our organization focuses on three areas: Zerfootprint.Net , a content hub for the green community; Zerfootprint Energy , which specializes in making renewable energy systems financially accessible to builders and homeowners; and Zerofootprint Offsets , a program that helps companies, publications, and events mitigate their environmental impacts through natural resource restoration and carbon offsetting.
For further information on these initiatives, please contact Deborah Kaplan at 416.365.7557 or visit any of the sites listed above.