But what does “better business” look like? With the sustainability bandwagon getting more and more crowded, it can be tough to know. That’s why we’re laying out our vision in plain English:
1. Establishing a 3 step approach to hold ourselves accountable
2. Outlining priorities to reduce our footprint
3. Committing to concrete changes by 2025
The fashion industry dumps 2.1 billion tonnes of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere every year. That's equal to the pollution from 456,707,817 cars in the same timeframe. Why so much? Because our industry loves fossil fuels—to power factories, ship things, and make materials. In other words, most of what we wear is made from plastic, and plastic comes from oil, a fossil fuel. It wasn’t always this way. In fact, humans really only became obsessed with plastic over the last 80 years. So we asked ourselves, “Would it be better if we went back to making things from natural materials?”
Wool
Tree
Sugar
Trino®
TrinoXO™
Climate change is a complex topic. Which is why we’re focused on what we can control: driving our emissions to zero. We do this with a data-driven approach, investing in projects, systems, and tools that maximize our potential for positive impact. Today, we have a three-part approach to address our climate impact: we measure our emissions, reduce our footprint, and work to support the removal of carbon emissions from the atmosphere.
We measure everything that contributes to our carbon footprint, from the factory floor to the lights in HQ.
We are continuously working to reduce our climate impact, driving carbon reductions through work in regenerative agriculture, renewable materials, and responsible energy
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While striving for longer-term climate goals, we are also working to support nature-based carbon removal projects that are more closely related to our value chain
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We think doing better means doing more than measuring and mitigating our impact. So we’re focused on
strategies that will reduce our footprint, with a focus on actions in our value chain.
By effectively removing carbon from the atmosphere, we are creating healthy soil.
We think doing better means doing more than measuring and mitigating our impact. So we’re focused on strategies that will reduce our footprint, with a focus on actions in our value chain.
We will not only try to use clean energy or electricity, but also to minimize the usage itself.
Like we said, reducing our environmental impact has been our priority since day one. Here are just a few notable causes for celebration on our journey to zero emissions.
Latest 2022 Sustainability Report
They announced a 12% reduction in carbon footprint per unit.
Allbirds carbon footprint tool is open sourced
Announcing vegetable-based leather
TrinoXO™ Launch
Announcing a partnership with Adidas
Introducing carbon footprint labels
Re-authorize a B-cop
Trino® Launch
Achieve carbon neutrality
SweetFoam® Launch
Launching Tree Runner
Launching Wool Runner
Become a B Corp
We get it—talk is cheap. And lately, it seems like there’s a lot of it, without much action. Which is why we’re focused on 2025 and committing to a five-year to-do list—goals that will let you hold us accountable.
Climate change is so important in large part because it's so connected to everything. Which is why our work expands beyond three pillars of commitment and into the following foundational areas.
Shifting how we draw carbon from the atmosphere.
100% of Allbirds wool will come from regenerative resources. By the end of 2025, we will have transitioned our wool supply chain, only buying wool from regenerative sources.
Reduce or sequester 100% of on-farm emissions from wool. By the end of 2025, our wool farms will have shifted towards a regenerative model, effectively turning them into carbon sinks.
Replacing virgin petroleum-based materials with natural and recycled ones
75% sustainably sourced natural and recycled materials. Taking a big step forward on our mission to eliminate fossil fuels from our material sourcing.
Reduce raw materials use by 25% across all products. Simply put, using less materials to begin with and following our mantra of "How can we do more with less?"
Double the lifetime of our footwear and apparel products. Increasing the durability of our materials to keep our products in use longer.
Using less and cleaner fuel and electricity
100% renewable energy for all "owned & operated" facilities. Transforming our offices, retail stores, and distribution centers to renewable energy.
100% renewable energy for our finished good manufacturing. Partnering with our factory partners to produce renewable energy in their facilities.
Achieve steady state of more that 95% ocean shipping. We'll maximize ocean shipping, which saves both cost and carbon when compared to shipping by air.
100% of customers machine wash their cold50% hang-dry apparel. Educating and encouraging customers to lessen their impact by adopting sustainable care practices.
Wishing and hoping won't save the planet, so Allbirds created a concrete plan for its goal of a 50% reduction by 2025.
