The Calgary company enters into an agreement with Adidas to produce running shoes with built-in CO2 emissions
CALGARY – A Calgary-based technology company has signed a deal with Adidas that will see the sneaker giant manufacture some of its shoes using ink embedded with captured carbon emissions.
The partnership is a major win for Oco, the consumer-facing offshoot of Carbon Upcycling Technologies, a company specializing in carbon capture and utilization solutions for heavy industry sectors.
Currently targeted at the cement industry, Carbon Upcycling uses proprietary technology installed at Enmax’s Shepard Energy Center east of Calgary to capture and store the carbon dioxide emissions produced by Alberta’s largest natural gas-fired power plant into industrial by-products for use in the production of concrete.
But the company also wants to engage the public with products that help people see the potential of carbon capture technology.
Oco takes the solid powder created from its parent company’s carbon sequestration process and markets it to brands looking to improve their carbon footprint by incorporating captured carbon material into their products.
“This is just a starting point that we selected,” says Madison Savilow, co-founder of Oco, of the carbon-embedded ink the company will supply to Adidas for the production of 400,000 pairs of Terrex running shoes.
She said the same carbon-embedded material used to make the ink for Adidas could also be used in plastics, pharmaceuticals, batteries and more – meaning there’s a wide range of possibilities.
For a company like Adidas, she said, using captured carbon additives in its shoes is more than just a gimmick. Many inks are made from petroleum-based ingredients, so Oco offers companies a way to reinvent their supply chains.
“One of the problems we’re seeing after talking to dozens and dozens of big, big consumer brands is they all have this net zero goal that they’ve set for themselves,” Savilow said.
“But they’re not sure how they’re going to hit it or even what path is out there for them to hit it.”
Savilow said her company’s long-term vision is to create a “circular economy,” in which the emissions created in the production of a particular product can be captured and reincorporated into that same product.
“Our goal is to eventually see every material used in the consumer goods industry made through a circular or regenerative process,” she said.
“We start with inks, but a lot of the work we do is in polymers or plastics… And we also develop and develop materials in-house that can also have a bigger impact. That includes things like resins, and we’re also looking at the textiles space.
Adidas’ Terrex shoes with the CO2-enhanced ink are expected to be released in the fall, with a retail price of between $80 and $350 per pair, depending on the model.
While the idea of embedding carbon in consumer products is still in its infancy, proponents believe it has long-term potential. Another Calgary-based company, CleanO2, uses exhaust gas emissions from heating systems to make eco-friendly soaps and detergents.
A 2018 report by McKinsey and Co. said captured carbon dioxide can technically be converted to any type of fuel or chemical otherwise derived from petroleum, meaning it has a host of potential industrial and commercial uses.
But the McKinsey report also warned that before the use of captured carbon becomes widespread, the technology used to collect and record emissions from power plants and industrial facilities must become much more cost-effective.
This report from The Canadian Press was first published on July 12, 2023.
