Renewable Materials

Our Goals for Dec. 2025

  • 75% sustainably sourced natural and recycled materials
  • Reduce the carbon footprint of raw materials by 25%
  • Reduce raw materials use by 25% across footwear and apparel products
  • Double the lifetime of footwear and apparel products

Why We Care

Roughly 57% of footwear and 64% of apparel is made from synthetic materials. The problem with synthetic materials? They’re made from plastics. Plastics come from oil. And oil is a fossil fuel that’s accelerating climate change. What’s even weirder about the link between fashion and fossil fuels is that these materials weren’t widely used in our industry until the 1980s. But we’ve quickly become dependent on them. The reliance on fossil fuels is accelerating climate change, creating negative impacts on waste, biodiversity, and more. Which is why we need to transition back to renewable, natural materials.

What We're Doing

From day one, we’ve always sought to replace petroleum-based synthetic materials with natural alternatives whenever we can. When we haven’t found suitable alternatives, we’ve either invented our own—like SweetFoam®, our shoe sole material derived from the world’s first carbon negative green EVA—or invested in novel solutions, like Plant Leather, our 100% natural, plant-based leather. Of course, all of this comes with challenges. To help increase durability, we use recycled synthetics to bolster natural material content where we need to, and are innovating around new technologies to increase the performance and longevity of natural materials. On top of that, we know two important truths: we should be minimizing the amount of material we use in the first place to create lighter products, so we're working to redesign packaging and eliminate manufacturing waste. And in the spirit of fewer, better things, we should aim to  keep products in use longer, so we continue to think how we can give them new life when you're done using them.

Allbirds Sustainability Initiatives

Introducing M0.0NSHOT
Learn more about the world’s first net zero carbon shoe, and how its landmark 0.0 kg CO₂e carbon footprint was achieved without relying on a single carbon offset.
2022 Flight Status Report
Our version of a sustainability report is here, highlighting our progress across a variety of areas in 2022.
We're A Certified B Corp
From the very beginning, the environment has been a stakeholder here.
Giving Mother Nature a Seat at the Table
We are prioritizing the planet, not just profits. Introducing the next generation business.
adidas x Allbirds
We teamed up with adidas to reimagine what an ultralight running shoe could be with a mix of sustainable materials and our lowest carbon footprint to date.