Sustainable materials company Evoco is leading the change in responsible business towards a sustainable world in consumer goods.
Based in Toronto, Evoco is a privately-owned cleantech innovation company that develops plant-based and carbon-reducing technologies for sustainable materials. FATES™, one of Evoco’s headlining brands, provides the footwear industry with sustainable eco-foam insoles and midsoles. The company has partnered with footwear brands such as Kodiak, Timberland, and Vans, to create natural USDA and GreenCircle certified products that don’t sacrifice sustainability for performance.
Jason Robinson, founder and CEO of Evoco holds a degree in chemical engineering from McMaster University and a Master of Business Administration from the Ivey Business School. Robinson provided sustainable solutions to footwear companies right after graduating, which allowed him to rapidly develop and commercialize Evoco’s technologies.
The company claims to have helped save 948,900 kg of CO2 emissions to date, the equivalent to planting 95,000 trees.
“It’s a significant and prevalent problem that we just do not understand the impact of materials on the environment and climate change,” said Robinson.
“We’re driving more cars, we’re wearing more shoes, more clothes, and we’re buying more beds. That is an impact not only from a carbon perspective, but also pollution and waste. Some of the materials you find in furniture or mattresses cannot be recycled and are often thrown into landfills,” he continued. “We’re creating [organic] materials that can be biodegraded in industrial composting environments. That is the idea of natural circularity.”
In October 2021, Evoco raised $CAD 5 million from Forage Capital Partners to grow the company, and develop new plant-based innovations to bring sustainable solutions to additional consumer goods and industrial markets. The company is determined to replace petrochemistry from everything into other industry supply chains to make a lasting difference.
“We have new technologies coming out that can replace fake leather with an 85% to 95% plant-based material, and [we] can take this to anything from adhesives to bedding or even eventually into automotive,” said Robinson.
“We have to take accountability to make a change,” said Robinson. “As more materials become environmentally friendly, consumers will begin to understand that even something as simple as purchasing a shoe can have a drastic change on the environment.”
