Allbirds announces 10 sustainability commitments

Footwear and apparel company Allbirds known for its innovative materials and aggressive carbon neutral targets has announced 10 science-based sustainability commitments as part of its ongoing goals to save the planet. 

Allbirds said that it will focus on regenerative agriculture, renewable materials, and responsible energy use to meet what it calls 10 of the “most ambitious” near term, science-based sustainability goals the footwear and apparel industries have ever seen, alongside a tangible roadmap for how they will be achieved by 2025.  

Each of the 10 new quantitive commitments in the ‘Allbirds Flight Plan’ has been determined by in-depth scientific analysis and have been reviewed by leading third-party sustainability organisations, consulting groups, and its supply chain partners, explains Allbirds in a statement. 

Allbirds added that it has timed all 10 goals to 2025 to demonstrate its commitment to finding near-term solutions that can accelerate long-term change.

Allbirds Flight Plan - 10 quantitative sustainable commitments by 2025

Regenerative Agriculture:

• 100 percent of Allbirds’s Wool will come from regenerative sources
• 100 percent of Allbirds’s annual on-farm emissions from wool will be reduced or sequestered 

Renewable Materials:

• 75 percent of materials used in Allbirds products will be sustainably sourced natural or recycled materials
• Allbirds will reduce the carbon footprint of its raw materials by 25 percent
• Total raw materials used by Allbirds will be reduced by 25 percent 
• Double the lifetime of Allbirds’s footwear and apparel products 

Responsible Use:

• Source 100 percent renewable energy for “owned and operated” facilities
• Source 100 percent renewable energy for Tier 1 manufacturing partners
• Achieve a steady state of >95 percent ocean shipping
• Reach 100 percent of customers machine washing on cold and 50 percent of customers hang-drying Allbirds apparel 

Allbirds accelerates ‘Cradle-To-Grave’ accountability

These commitments are alongside its two aggressive carbon targets – one for 2025 and a longer-term goal for 2030 as part of its ‘Cradle-To-Grave’ accountability plan to drive its per-unit footprint to as close to zero emissions as possible by 2030.

By 2025, it has set itself a 50 percent reduction of its per-unit carbon footprint, fully inclusive of scope 1-3 emissions, including emissions from customer use and end of life. This expands to a near-zero per-unit carbon footprint by 2030. 

These are science-based targets, explains Allbirds, and by 2030 it will achieve a 42 percent reduction in its absolute emissions against a 2020 baseline across scopes 1, 2, and 3.

The footwear brand has also created an internal incentive structure, including tying corporate bonuses for its leadership team to its carbon goals and a Sustainability Advisory Board made up of external experts to monitor its progress to keep them accountable.