Sports apparel company Innerforce has unveiled its climate neutral certification for its 2020 carbon emissions. Accordingly, Innerforce notes that it has become… ‘the first triathlon and multisport climate neutral certified brand.’
The sports apparel company, founded in 2018 in the United States, has given some background to its climate neutral status…
‘Tackling climate change means immediate actions. It’s not about devising a ten or twenty-years plan, it’s about finding solutions at this very moment. Innerforce, which became carbon neutral in 2020 as an organization by offsetting the emissions of its operations and energy consumption, extends now its commitment to their entire activities, production, supply chain, and product life cycle.
‘Striving for sustainable practices is not something new for Innerforce. During June 2020, the company organized the Endurance Conference, the first Climate Neutral Triathlon conference. A 3-day virtual conference to benefit the USA Triathlon in which world champions, Olympians, and top-class leaders came together to support the USA Triathlon Foundation.
‘In honor of the foundation, Innerforce made a contribution through One Tree Planted to support reforestation projects in Colorado to offset the conference’s emissions and went on to support projects in other states such as Florida and California through 2020.
‘Climate Neutral is the standard earned by companies that commit to measure, reduce and offset all of their unavoidable greenhouse emissions. To do so, Innerforce went first through a thorough assessment process with the assistance of a measurement tool provided by Climate Neutral.
‘Once a benchmark had been established, the organization set a pathway of ambitious reduction goals and taxed itself by offsetting the remaining emissions through a variety of nature-based and infrastructure projects.’
Innerforce points out that no business today can reduce its emissions to zero, the company has committed to working hand in hand with independently verified offsetting projects. While committing to reduce as much as possible year-on-year, the goal is to ‘tax itself for its operations, production, and impact.’
The company adds that carbon offsets for unavoidable emissions drive immediate investment into climate change solutions, such as tree planting or renewable energy projects.
The next step is for the company to further work on implementing its reduction plans to decrease its footprint in 2021. This includes:
- Shifting production to Spain to have more control of each aspect of the process and to shorten the distances between suppliers, production and customers.
- Major changes in packaging, moving onto compostable bags for both product and mailer bags – and abandoning single-use plastic bags.
- A commitment to sustainable fabrics. Innerforce is committing to at least 50% of its materials to be sourced sustainably by the end of the year.
“At Innerforce, we believe that how and why we do things is just as important as what we do,” said Juan López Salaberry, CEO of Innerforce.
“It is not only about creating amazing products; it’s about what it means while we do this. We are aware that this certification is not the solution to tackle climate change.
“However, it’s our commitment to our stakeholders that we are conscious about what we are doing and how we are doing it, and we’re ready to be held accountable. This is only the beginning.”
