“From the beginning, I wanted Oboz Footwear to help improve people’s lives,” said company founder John Connelly. “Partnering with Trees for the Future has allowed us to leverage our impact and see measurable results. Put simply, more trees is a good thing, and we couldn’t have achieved this without the support of our customers.”
By planting two million trees, Oboz and Trees for the Future have helped reforest over 1,200 acres of land and sequester over 77,000 metric tons of carbon. Most of the trees were planted in grassroots projects in five countries of East and West Africa.
“We share Oboz Footwear’s belief in being True to the Trail, the ethical compass set on doing what we know to be best for people and our planet,” said John Leary, Trees for the Future’s executive director and author of the award-winning book “One Shot: Trees as Our Last Chance for Survival.” “Every Oboz purchase enables us to plant One More Tree. It could be a thorny tree planted in a living fence to protect a field from grazing animals, a fruit tree planted to provide oranges or mangoes for a family or a fertilizer tree planted to bring life back to degraded soil.”
In the mountains of Cameroon and Kenya, the trees are protecting soils and providing livelihoods for hillside communities in the form of fruit, livestock feed and natural fertilizers. In the arid lands of Senegal and Tanzania, fruit trees combined with vegetable gardens are enabling impoverished families to end their chronic hunger. The Forest Gardens Approach has proven to increase farmers income by 400 percent, and more and more farmers are joining the planting programs.
Beyond the One More Tree program, Oboz Footwear has enacted numerous sustainability efforts throughout its business. Oboz purchases carbon offsets for its footwear shipments, office utility bill and employee travel including their daily commute. Oboz also powers its offices with clean wind energy from wind farms in Central Idaho and Washington through the EPA Green Power Partnership. Additionally, Oboz donates unsellable, but still trail-worthy, shoes through partnerships with Project Sole and local non-profits.
Those interested in helping Oboz Footwear and Trees for the Future plant more trees can purchase a pair at their local Oboz Footwear dealer or donate directly to the cause at donate.trees.org/fundraiser/1714415.
