Where Can You Buy Sustainable Hotel Slippers?

Sustainable hotel slippers are the newest innovation in hospitality. For decades, hotel guests have been limited to cheap feeling hotel slippers. For hotels that pride themselves on providing luxury, this was a nightmare. To make matters worse, these low-quality hotel slippers end up being thrown away into massive plastic landfills. So it ruins both your guests’ experience and the planet itself. And because of that, sustainable hotel chains have more trouble getting certifications for environmental responsibility.

That’s why we have built the first 100% circular hotel slipper. The Primal Slipper. Sustainable hotels can now give their guests the feeling of walking with nature. Primal Slippers have a natural feel, and they get recycled, instead of ending up in landfills. And they’re sourced, produced and recycled in Europe, which keeps the shipping footprint low.

In this blog, we’ll explain exactly how Primal Slippers help hotels meet the SDG’s. We’ll also go deeper into the production process of these cork slippers, so you can find out step-by-step how we go from a cork oak tree in Portugal to a luxurious hotel stay for your guests.

How do sustainable hotel slippers help you meet the SDG’s?

The Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) are a universal call from the UN to end poverty, protect the planet, and make sure that all people enjoy peace and prosperity. For many hotels, the 17 SDG’s guide their actions. Not only from an ethical standpoint, but from a financial standpoint as well. Many sustainable hotels derive a large portion of their incoming guests from sustainability certifications. And the criteria for these certifications are often derived from the SDG’s themselves. So it’s important for responsible hotels to invest in choices that contribute to the SDG’s. So in what ways do cork hotel slippers play a role? Well, the answer to that is as follows:

Millions of plastic slippers worth of waste material diverted from landfills (SDG 12)

SDG 12 deals with making sure that production and consumption processes are sustainable. As of right now, many hotels use hotel slippers made entirely of synthetic materials. Since hotel slippers are a single-use product, they get disposed of in large quantities. This is especially problematic because the synthetic materials aren’t biodegradable and end up contributing to massive landfills.

The difference between these slippers and Primal Slippers is night and day. Our circular hotel slippers are based on cork. Of course, hotel slippers are one-use products that are thrown away after every guest leaves. Even biodegradable slippers get thrown away, which is a waste of the resource they are made of. We decided to go beyond that. 

We collect all the used cork, clean it and grind it up to make parts of future Primal Slippers. That way, the slipper is reused responsibly. The footbed of our hotel slippers is always made from virgin cork, which comes straight from the tree. But by recycling the waste material, the slipper can be used over and over, instead of being thrown away.

73,000 KG of CO2 sequestered per ton of cork (SDG 13)

SDG 13 states: “To take urgent action to combat climate change and its impacts.” That means removing harmful substances from the environment. The production, shipping, and disposal of synthetic hotel slippers contributes to climate change every step of the way. When the slippers are produced, polluting processes create tons of CO2. When they are shipped all the way from Asia, the boats and trucks burn liters of fuel. And when they pile up in landfills, the methods used to dispose of them incur a heavy CO2 debt as well.

Cork is a different story. The cork oak tree is nothing short of a miracle. While it grows its bark, it removes CO2 from the environment. This process is called carbon sequestration. And it’s the secret behind the impressive effects of cork hotel slippers. When the bark of the cork oak tree is harvested, it grows back over time. This can be done many times because it doesn’t hurt the tree. And every time the bark grows back, the tree gets better at removing CO2. That way, the more cork hotel slippers we produce, the more CO2 is sequestered. 

Our cork hotel slippers aren't shipped from Asia, either. They’re produced in and shipped from Portugal, where the cork oak forests stand proudly. And as we said, the cork eventually degrades naturally. That’s how we can promise that the cork hotel slippers we make are actually carbon negative. The whole process from harvesting the cork, to collecting the used hotel slipper removes more CO2 from the environment than it creates.

Protecting 200+ species of animals by supporting the cork oak forests (SDG 15)

Another SDG our Primal hotel slippers target is SDG 15. It aims to “protect, restore, and promote sustainable use of terrestrial ecosystems, sustainably manage forests, combat desertification, and halt and reverse land degradation and halt biodiversity loss.” The cork that we use in our hotel slippers comes from the cork oak forests of Portugal. 

Portugal's cork oak forests, or "montados," are significant for both their economic role in cork production and their ecological importance. They support more than 200 species of animals, including over 135 types of birds, like the Iberian imperial eagle, and mammals such as the Iberian lynx. The forests are also home to diverse plants, insects, reptiles, and small mammals. This biodiversity is crucial for maintaining ecological balance.

Maintaining the cork oak forests and protecting them isn’t cheap. But since cork is a valuable material for many industries, the ongoing protection of the Portuguese cork oak forests is possible. So buying cork products, like our sustainable hotel slippers, doesn’t only benefit the planet as a whole. It also specifically helps create and maintain an ecosystem that allows a plethora of flora and fauna to thrive. 

So, Primal Hotel Slippers give you a sustainable alternative to traditional hotel slippers. They are fully circular and help you show your guests that you care. They also give you a measurable reduction in CO2 output and don’t require capital intensive investments. And in the end, your guests get a memorable experience that stays with them long after they leave the hotel. Research proves that consumers will choose green hotels over traditional ones. The question is, do you want them to select you? 

With Primal Hotel Slippers, you can give your guests the possibility to travel responsibly. And you prevent tonnes of plastic waste from ending up in landfills, where they harm our planet. People travel to see the world, let’s make sure there is something worth seeing for future travelers as well. So why not contact us to find out how our cork hotel slippers can make your guests’ experience unforgettable and help you get accredited as a sustainable hotel?

Sanjay Ghosh is a sustainability copywriter, and he never walks anywhere without a pair of Primal Soles. With a focus on sustainable topics, he helps make the world a bit greener one blog at a time. Find out more on his website.