Allbirds proposes 10 new sustainability commitments

As part of its continuous efforts to rescue the world, Allbirds, Californian footwear, and clothing company recognized for its innovative materials and aggressive carbon-neutral ambitions have unveiled 10 science-based sustainability commitments.

Allbirds said it will focus on regenerative agriculture, renewable materials, and responsible energy use to meet ten of the “most ambitious” near-term, science-based sustainability goals the footwear and apparel industries have ever seen, as well as a concrete roadmap for how they will be met by 2025.

According to Allbirds, each of the ten new quantitive pledges in the ‘Allbirds Flight Plan’ has been developed through in-depth scientific study and has been evaluated by major third-party sustainability organizations, consulting groups, and its supply chain partners.

Allbirds has stated that it has set a deadline of 2025 for all ten goals in order to demonstrate its commitment to identifying short-term solutions that can help expedite long-term change.

Under regenerative agriculture, the commitments include sourcing all Allbirds’ Wool entirely from regenerative sources and reducing or sequestering 100% annual on-farm emissions from wool.

Under renewable materials, commitments include reducing the carbon footprint of Allbirds’ raw materials by 25%, reducing Allbirds’ total raw material consumption by 25%, doubling the lifespan of Allbirds’ footwear and clothing products, and manufacturing all Allbirds goods out of 75% sustainably produced natural or recycled materials.

Under responsible use, commitments include sourcing 100% renewable energy for “owned and operated” facilities, source 100% renewable energy for Tier 1 manufacturing partners, attain a constant condition of more than 95% ocean shipping, and reaching 100% of customers machine washing on cold and 50% of customers hang-drying Allbirds clothing.

These commitments come on top of the company’s two ambitious carbon targets – one for 2025 and a longer-term objective for 2030 – as part of its “Cradle-To-Grave” accountability strategy to reduce its per-unit emissions to as near to zero as feasible by 2030.

It has established a goal of halving its per-unit carbon footprint by 2025, fully accounting for scope 1-3 emissions, such as emissions from customer usage and end-of-life. By 2030, the carbon impact per unit will be approaching zero.

According to Allbirds, these are science-based goals, with a 42 percent decrease in absolute emissions by 2030 compared to a 2020 baseline across scopes 1, 2, and 3.

The footwear business has also established an internal incentive system, which includes linking corporate compensation for its leadership team to carbon objectives and establishing a Sustainability Advisory Board made up of external experts to monitor and hold them responsible.