ZOURI
Basic information
Project Title
Full project title
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Project Description
ZOURI SHOES is an eco-vegan footwear brand that uses plastic trash from the Portuguese coast together with ecologic and sustainable materials. Together with local institutions, NGOs and schools, ZOURI has managed to remove 4 tons of plastic from the Portuguese beaches. The plastic trash is being transformed into raw material, mixed with natural materials like organic cotton, natural rubber, apple leather and pineapple leaves fabric - Pinatex. Zouris are ethically and fairly made in Portugal.
Project Region
EU Programme or fund
Which funds
Other Funds
Zouri was awarded the 2019 SIT winner 2nd Prize Special Category (sustainable consumption and production), promoted by the European Investment Bank.
Description of the project
Summary
ZOURI addresses major threats towards our oceans, the most important ecosystem of our planet. Over 220 million tons of plastic are produced each year. About 8 million ends up in the ocean. Together with local organizations and volunteers we are collecting plastic from our oceans and transforming it into eco-vegan footwear. Our goal is to mould the reality we live in and to develop an alternative business model for the shoe industry. We are transforming the plastic debris into raw material. Each pair of shoes reuses the equivalent of 6 bottles of plastic from the Ocean. The rest of the raw materials are sustainable and ethical, and the production is local and fair. We want to inspire designers and creators of the world to innovate using plastic debris as raw material. ZOURI aspires to the creation of the necessary conditions, in a structured and systematic way, for the collection and processing of marine plastic waste, with a view to its incorporation and recovery in sustainable footwear/textile products. It is intended, therefore, to structure and optimize an ‘end-to-end’ and circular solution, covering the various stages of these processes, from its on-site collection to its reuse, ending in the subsequent return of the products/shoes by consumers themselves when they are at the end of their lives, for a new transformation. ZOURI aims to create a circular business model where there is no more production of debris, and at the same time, collecting and transforming the plastic debris already existing on the ocean coast. ZOURI shoes are the most sustainable footwear on the planet. We want to inspire the new generations to see the plastic as a raw material to preserve our oceans and nature, in a creative and conscious way.
Key objectives for sustainability
The United Nations Joint Group of Experts on the Scientific Aspects of Marine Pollution (GESAMP), estimated that land-based sources account for up to 80 per cent of the world’s marine pollution, 60 to 95 per cent of the waste being plastics debris. ZOURI intends to support the action against the plastic Ocean, inspiring and stimulating other projects in the world at the same time that are taking action, collecting and reusing the plastic debris from the Portuguese Coast. In numbers, we have collected more than 4 ton. of plastic debris from the Portuguese coast. According to a September 2017 report from the International Labour Organization (ILO) and Walk Free Foundation: an estimated 24.9 million victims are trapped in modern-day slavery. ZOURI selects fair trade materials and produces 100% in Portugal ethically and fairly with the goal to promote the eradication of forced labour. In terms of production, our project affects more than 100 workers, from sole producers to footwear artisans. We believe there are other projects striving with the same goals and helping to change this global situation, such as Clean Up Ocean Project from the Netherlands that has created a solution to collect plastic in high waters. The projects we know that communicate the use of plastic from the ocean don't have a community or social action to address the problem, instead, they buy materials made with plastic from the oceans. In addition to this fact, the production of these products is located in Asian countries in order to have reduced prices on behalf of low salaries. ZOURI presents a circular and social business that synchronizes the economic system of humankind with the ecosystem of nature and make environmental and social protection financially sustainable. At the same time, it has a strong vision and respect for human rights.
Key objectives for aesthetics and quality
Since the creation of ZOURI, our approach allowed us to successfully create and place on the market footwear products that use marine plastic waste as raw material. It is also important to highlight all the efforts made to develop sustainable products in a holistic way, considering that the other raw materials necessary for its manufacture come from certified at the environmental and fair trade level. Additionally, the manufacture of all components of the footwear is carried out in Portugal, always at a distance close to the company, thus ensuring a reduced carbon footprint. These fundamental principles will continue to be observed and implemented in this project, as it is considered that only then will it be possible to optimize and consolidate a solution with credibility and quality with the target audience.
It is in the heart of Portugal, Guimarães, that all ZOURIs are fairly and ethically produced. Our factory in Guimarães guarantees that every pair of sneakers has the same detail and perfection. When our customers receive their sneakers you will see a letter with all the materials used in the sneakers, quantities, location of plastic, as well as the name of the persons that made your ZOURI. Over the last two years, ZOURI worked and researched for the best eco-friendly and vegan materials. The plastic trash is being transformed into raw material, mixed with natural materials like organic cotton, natural rubber, hemp, apple fibres and pineapple leaves fabric - pinatex. All raw materials are sustainable. The natural rubber, organic cotton, hemp, apple fibres are completely natural and organic. We wanted since the beginning to step aside from microfibers, leather and synthetics. NOW we are presenting the most ecological, vegan and beautiful sneakers ever made.
Key objectives for inclusion
Our most valuable and distinguishable goal to achieve was to create a brand that fights for the preservation of our oceans and coast along with the community. To bring our customers as a central piece of the circular business model. By 2020, ZOURI reached an incredible collection of 4 tons of plastic from the sea, in joint actions with more than 1300 volunteers, in cooperation between municipalities and NGOs across the country. ZOURI objective is to promote, together with 150 schools, environmental awareness programs about the damage of plastic, and how this, combined with creativity, could become the most valuable raw material of this decade. ZOURI, which has marked one of the biggest revolutions in innovation in Portugal in the area of Circular Economy, receiving awards from the European Investment Bank for Social Innovation and the national award from Academia Eletrão, has received the support of Portuguese personalities like Catarina Furtado, Daniel Ruah and Ana Guiomar, and foreign personalities like Garrett McNamara, Alan Cummings and Alicia Silverstone, who quickly validated the ZOURI brand as one of the most avant-garde, innovative and promising footwear brands in Portugal. This has been an honest and natural strategy we adopted, to approach personalities that identified with our values, and with this spread the word regarding the state of our oceans and coasts. Thousand of people have been shown that design and environmental consciousness can be allies, and the shoe/textile businesses can be hand in hand with ethical and fair principles. To create a business that not only fulfils potential customer´s desires but most important to make them feel and be part of the ecological transformation our world needs.
Results in relation to category
The impact of our project is based on several indicators: Firstly, public schools and institutions, NGO's are contacting us in order to present the project at schools to elucidate and inspire new generations, as well as to create partnerships with different designers and artisans; secondly, the national and international press have already contacted us to write and document our story, normally the most sharable articles; thirdly, we have been feeling the exponential interest of the public throughout our social media channels, including dozens of messages sent from all over the world praising and with the wish to participate on the project; lastly, the impact that we seek to obtain concerns the ocean and beaches clean up, to take out the most amount of plastic from those places and give them a new life, creating a social dimension of pride by being part of this movement. In resume, we will consider the following indicators: quantity of plastic collected (tons), cleaned area (km2), number of participating schools and NGO's; the number of countries participating as clients and as partners; the number of pairs sold (also by markets). Since the beginning our idea was to replicate this project in other countries creating local clean up actions, implementing the logistics system and producing locally. More and more people are interested in becoming part of this movement - beginning the ocean clean up actions on beaches, until the interest by the fashion industry that aims to adopt innovative and sustainable solutions. As long as there is ocean and coast, we can find in almost all of them the plastic that lays on sand causing prejudice to nature in oceans and then inland. All these cleanup actions can be done in countries that have a coast, alongside public and/or private entities that wish to promote a better lifestyle on the planet. The more people who use Zouri footwear, the more clean up actions we have to do.
How Citizens benefit
The phenomena is exponential. Back in 2019, in the first clean up action we had 600 volunteers from schools, NGO and municipal institutions involved. Following clean up actions gathered more and more people. In Portugal, press media covered our project from tv channels to newspapers and online media, which created a huge impact and awareness about the problem of plastic ocean issue and made a lot of people get involved, participate and share. We have been receiving a lot of invitations from public institutions, schools and NGO's to present the project, as an example of an innovative idea to solve the problem.
At a decisive time for the future of our planet, the United Nations has decided that this will be the Decade of the Oceans (2021 to 2030), during which the generation and dissemination of knowledge related to the ocean will be the main focus of the education of the new generations so that we can return to recovering the destroyed ecosystem, and for this reason, this has been the flag of ZOURI as soon as it hit the market in January 2019 and represents the will of Adriana Mano, founder of the brand.
We strongly believe that this will grow on a larger scale growing in Portugal and in other countries in Europe, and for this reason, we have been making a great effort in building partnerships with multiple agents like NGO, municipal institutions, schools, and public organisations that are now giving their first steps in making awareness regarding the importance of the preservation of our oceans and lands. We honestly believe that this decade is crucial to attracting the attention of the general public to change mentalities and the way we live within nature, and ZOURI wishes to make this difference by changing people´s mindset towards plastic debris, and the unlimited possibilities that garbage can be turned into a positive item. We aim to bring the new generations close to ZOURI to inspire them to create their own brands and projects.
Innovative character
ZOURI Shoes - From The Ocean, is a company (brand) formally created in late 2018, of environmental impact, based on an innovative concept of circular economy, focused on sustainable footwear. It is an organization that looks at its purpose in the light of new consumer demands, population and needs planet earth, in addition to concerns about its financial results, understanding that only in this way can it be viable in the medium and long term. ZOURI presents itself as:
- Positive for the Community: it involves the community: schools, associations, city councils and companies. Together for a cause.
- Encouraging Circular Economy: collects and reuses marine plastic waste in the production of ecological footwear. At the end of life is reused in the production of other products in other value chains (currently for furniture urban).
- Sustainable and Sea Friendly: it is an environmentally sustainable project with a focus on protecting the oceans.
The experience of its founder in the sector and the work of the company developed until today, allowed make available and commercialize more than 60 different footwear products (sandals and sneakers), which can be consulted and purchased on the company's website. All products incorporate marine plastic waste, as previously indicated, as well as sustainable materials and raw materials and certified, corresponding to the concern of providing sustainable footwear in a holistic way. Its main market of activity is in Portugal, having also started its internationalization. In addition to being a pioneer company in its scope, it has also achieved financial results demonstrating that it is possible to be a financially successful company with deep concerns over the level of sustainability.