"The startup also secured third-party certification of its surfactants’ greenhouse gas impacts, which are 45% lower than comparable ingredients — a plus for manufacturers with carbon goals."

"Footwear production accounts for 1.4 percent of annual global greenhouse gas emissions, according to a 2018 Quantis study — roughly equivalent to the emissions of Canada. Manufacturing accounts for 43 percent of those emissions, and extracting and processing raw materials 34 percent, the report found. Making a pair of sneakers generates 30 pounds of CO2, according to an analysis by MIT in 2013. A typical shoe contains several materials tightly sewn together — leather, plastic, cotton, rubber, synthetics and so on — and is thus very difficult to recycle. Ninety percent of old shoes end up in landfill sites."

"Eidelson emphasizes that while Stepchange is driven by what he sees as a moral imperative — working as fast and aggressively as possible to slash carbon from every sector of the economy — he also expects it to succeed financially."