Allbirds Makes In-House Carbon Accountability Tool Open Source, Invites Fashion Industry To Track Emissions

Just in time for Earth Day, sustainable shoe brand Allbirds is open-sourcing its version of a carbon footprint calculator and is encouraging consumers to call on the fashion industry to add carbon footprint labels to their products. To promote the same, the company unveiled the carbon accountability campaign with an ad in The New York Times, along with newspapers in Japan, Germany, and the U.K.

The New Zealand-American company Allbirds spent a great deal of hours and dollars to develop its third-party verified life cycle assessment (LCA) tool and is now open-sourcing a version of the carbon footprint calculator at FreeTheFootprint.com.

With the brand’s plant leather and sugarcane-based EVA used by footwear giants like Reebok, Timberland, and Ugg, the reason it is making the tool available for free is to drive a positive and sustainable shift in the entire fashion industry.

Calling on industry peers such a Nike, H&M, Lululemon, Zara and others, it published ads in the New York Times about its campaign and pushed for the brands to be transparent about their carbon emissions.

In a press release seen by Green Queen, co-founder and co-CEO, Joey Zwillinger, said that for a long time, the focus was just on marketing sustainability. “It wasn’t on actually implementing holistic, high-impact solutions– and to an extent, it’s worked. If we want to continue pushing fashion toward a more sustainable future, we need brands to take responsibility for what they share with consumers. Having a key, universal identifier like Carbon Footprint to evaluate sustainability claims and force accountability from businesses is critical to drowning out the noise.”

If we want to continue pushing fashion toward a more sustainable future, we need brands to take responsibility for what they share with consumers. Having a key, universal identifier like Carbon Footprint to evaluate sustainability claims and force accountability from businesses is critical to drowning out the noise

co-founder and co-CEO, Joey Zwillinger

To further strengthen the call for brands to add carbon footprint labels, Allbirds has launched a petition where consumers can sign and make their voices and desire for carbon accountability heard.

In a survey where consumers were asked about buying sustainable products, 88% of consumers were found to look for companies that help them shop more sustainably. However, the fashion industry continues to release high amounts of carbon emissions, pushing for a 26% increase by 2050.

Back in June of last year, Allbirds joined forces with Adidas, a global sportswear behemoth, and are busy creating a performance shoe that will have the lowest carbon footprint to be ever recorded.

And just the month before that, Allbirds partnered with Clean Agency, an environmental consultancy firm to calculate the impact of each product, from production to use to end of life and revealed that for every shoe in its collection, consumers will be able to view the carbon footprint count online thus encouraging transparency and promoting sustainability in the fashion industry, with this being the first time a label has presented its items with carbon footprint numbers.

According to the company, their sustainable shoes give out less than half of the carbon emissions compared to a traditional pair of men’s running shoes.

You can sign the petition here and access the carbon footprint tool here.

Lead image courtesy of Allbirds.