Sustainability at CANO

October 28 is World Sustainability Day! A very important day to reflect and be mindful of our actions, and how they impact our planet. At CANO, we strive to continuously adopt new ways to be even more sustainable as a Mexican craftsmanship brand. In this blog article, we share some of the initiatives that we are doing.

Let's start with the raw materials for our products. For our shoes, we choose to work with natural materials, such as vegetable-tanned leather and (natural) rubber. These materials have a lower environmental impact a better biodegradability than conventional materials. We strive to make the most of waste materials, so the leather we use is a by-product of the meat industry and we source rubber from upcycled airplane tires in our Goodyear welted boots collection. We carry this through in our jewelry collection by using recycled silver and upcycled brass, which reduces the need for virgin materials.

Our jewelry is packed in an undyed organic cotton bag and comes with an FSC-certified backing. And our shoeboxes, ring boxes, and padded shipping envelopes are made of recycled paper.

We are very happy to work with suppliers that share our planet-first philosophy and use certified processes that ensure high-quality materials while protecting the environment. We have chosen to work with Leather Working Group. This means that they are committed to environmental stewardship and are regularly audited on sustainability measures, such as energy consumption, water usage, air and noise emission, and waste management.

Our all our craftsmanship products, handcrafted jewelry and huarache sandals are traditionally made in Mexico by artisans. All our production steps take place in Mexico, and we source all leather locally as well. This allows us to keep transportation short and emissions low.

Interested to see what this looks like? You can view the whole supply chain using the retraced app. Don't have our any of our products yet, but are still curious? Just scroll down at MARA's product page and click on the interactive retraced plug-in.

Read more about how this transparency tool is a catalyst for global, sustainable change in this article.

In Düsseldorf, we work with an amazing initiative called Swapfiets that offers lease bicycles. Each of our employees gets a Swapfiets when they start working for CANO. On the bicycles, we commute to the office without any CO2 emissions, keeping us healthy and eco-friendly!

Lunch-time is the best time at the office, as every day one of the colleagues prepares the lunch. Most of CANOs employees are (flex) vegetarian or vegan, so we often opt for veggie meals. For example, our online marketer Sanne likes to make Knakwortels; the vegan version of traditional Dutch sausages, made of carrots!

Currently, CANO is working on finding solutions to set off its emissions. This is a long and complicated process, as we first have to establish what our total emissions are. We're teaming up with experts in this field to conduct a life cycle assessment. When this is completed, we plan to offset by investing in CO2-saving and tree-planting projects to make our planet more green.

What would you like to know about our sustainability commitments? We're happy to answer your questions!