Nothing is everything.
And when we say nothing, we mean nothing. As in zero. Zilch. Nada. See, when we unveiled the Allbirds Flight Plan in 2021, that was a big part of our commitment: cutting our carbon footprint in half by the end of 2025, then reducing it to near zero by 2030. Now, only two years in, we’re more than halfway towards our goals—and we’ll stop at nothing to get to nothing.
And not for nothing, we’re on track.
Only two years in, we’re more than 60% of the way towards our goals for 2025. In 2022, we reduced our average product carbon footprint by 19% compared to 2021. Which might not seem like much, but here’s the thing: this is a game of inches and we’re big on near term, tangible progress. It’s just one small part—okay, big part— of our mission to reverse climate change through better business.
Through Better Business
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:
- Establishing a 3 step approach to hold ourselves accountable
- Outlining priorities to reduce our footprint
- Committing to concrete changes by 2025
Our Beginnings
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?”