Fact: Allbirds pollutes the planet. We have ambitious goals to reduce our emissions but in the meantime, we believe that we—and all businesses, really—should be held accountable for our climate impact. That’s why we tax ourselves for the carbon we do emit, and use those dollars to support carbon projects. While there are emissions that we are not able to reduce today, we recognize the importance of supporting high quality carbon projects, with a focus on shifting to projects that remove or sequester emissions. 

Nature is a, well, natural focus area for us. We are a company that focuses on the responsible use of natural resources. In fact, a harmonious relationship with nature is core to the products we create, as some of our key materials – wool, tree, and sugarcane, for example – come from… you guessed it, nature. 

We aim to keep projects as close to the business as possible, which is why we are increasingly focused on nature-based carbon removal initiatives (a fancy phrase for projects in the great outdoors that help sequester carbon) that are connected to our value chain (a fancy phrase for the materials and mechanics it takes to create our products). 

One example is the Argentina Wool Improved Grazing Project, which helps wool growers to transition to regenerative farming practices. This approach allows fields to ‘rest’ from sheep and regenerate, growing grasses that are both better for livestock and more effective at sequestering carbon dioxide in the atmosphere. Allbirds first invested in the project in 2021, when it began with 10,000 hectares of land – and has since expanded to 200,000 hectares of land – with aims to expand to 1,000,000 hectares by 2030. 

We work with trusted partners to support projects we believe in. All projects that we support must be certified to an internationally recognized offset standard such as Gold Standard and Verified Carbon Standard, and are screened against criteria like permanence, additionality, and leakage.

Our philosophy is always evolving, but we believe this approach is the most meaningful way to address our emissions today, and gives us the greatest potential for positive impact.

You can read more about the nitty gritty here.

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.