Pictured here is the "shoe without a footprint," which was unveiled last week at New York Fashion Week.

(Image via NRG)

At a Glance

At New York Fashion Week, NRG Energy unveiled a sneaker that has no carbon footprint.The polymer foam that makes up 75 percent of the shoe consists of captured carbon dioxide.

NRG Energy made a big splash at New York Fashion Week by unveiling a shoe that has no carbon footprint.

Appropriately named the "Shoe Without a Footprint," the sneakers were displayed last Tuesday during the energy company's , according to Forbes. The primary material of the shoe incorporates gaseous waste , Business Insider reported, and that foam makes up about three-fourths of the sneaker.

According to NRG Business Solutions vice president Gin Kinney, the shoes are "atangible manifestation of carbon conversion, which is just as much art as it is science and practical as it is innovative."

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NRG didn't say how the carbon dioxide-containing polymer foam is produced, but the company told Business Insider that the pollutants emitted during shoe production can be collected and turned into foam for other sneakers.

"We’re thinking about fuels you can power a car with, cement you might build a building out of, polymers like polyester that ," said XPrize principal Paul Bunje. "The 'Shoe Without a Footprint' won’t solve the carbon crisis, but if we can take carbon dioxide and turn it into a shoe, we can potentially turn it into anything."

It turns out that sneaker production actually takes quite a toll on the environment. According to a 2013 MIT study, producing one pair of running shoes . With about 25 billion shoes purchased annually, finding a way to cut down on emissions during shoe production would be very beneficial to the environment.

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