In 2008, Oboz Footwear partnered with Trees for the Future to create the One More Tree program which plants a tree for every pair sold. As of today, the program has planted 2 million trees, and in celebration of the milestone Oboz will plant two trees for every pair of Oboz Footwear sold, starting Nov. 1, 2018 and running through the end of the year.
“From the beginning, I wanted Oboz Footwear to help improve people’s lives,” states John Connelly, founder. “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 2 million trees—most of the trees were planted in grassroots projects in five countries of East and West Africa—Oboz and Trees for the Future have helped reforest more than 1,200 acres of land and sequester over 77,000 metric tons of carbon.
“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,” says John Leary, executive director of Trees for the Future’s and author of 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 farmers are joining the planting programs.
Beyond the One More Tree program, Oboz Footwear has enacted numerous sustainability efforts throughout its business. The Bozeman, MT-based company 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 Trees for the Future plant more trees can contact: https://donate.trees.org/fundraiser/1714415.
