The sustainability-oriented shoe supplier Allbirds is working on the first shoe that has a carbon footprint of 0.0 kilograms of CO2.
The US shoe supplier has already reconsidered the entire production of its products and so no climate compensation – the offsetting of greenhouse gas emissions through climate-promoting projects – was necessary for the ‘M0.0NSHOT’, Allbirds announced on Tuesday. The company also relies on full transparency and makes the approach available as open source so that other providers can also use it.
“Developing a net-zero emissions shoe that is commercially viable and scalable is the culmination of all our past work,” said Allbirds co-founder Tim Brown. “The M0.0NSHOT is not a miracle cure for the climate crisis. But it is proof that if we take sustainability seriously and really focus on reducing carbon, then we can make incredible breakthroughs.”
Carbon Negative Materials: From Sugar Cane to Sheep Burps
But how does Allbirds manage that the shoe has this carbon footprint? To do this, the brand uses CO2-negative materials, the production of which stores more carbon than it emits.
This includes an upper material made from regenerative merino wool, which is obtained at the Lake Hawea Station animal farm in New Zealand. The midsole made of sugar cane-based foam, which consists of 80 percent bio-based ingredients, is also CO2 negative.
It gets really bizarre with the eyelets. These are made from bio-based plastics, for which Allbirds collaborated with more sustainable material developer Mango Materials. The polyester, which can be molded like regular plastic, is made from methane – a greenhouse gas emitted by sheep when they burp – in an “innovative new process”.
In order to make transport more conscious, the products are transported to the warehouse with biofuel-powered ships and then with electric trucks. For the packaging of the shoes, Allbirds relies on Green PE – a bio-based polyethylene made from sugar cane.
“We believe this will revolutionize the journey to net zero and move the entire industry forward. We can spend decades debating the ins and outs of carbon sequestration, or we can innovate today based on common sense,” said Hana Kajimura, Head of Sustainability at Allbirds. “It’s about progress, not perfection. The Science has shown us what’s possible, now it’s the fashion industry’s turn to leverage the open source insights of the M0.0NSHOT.”
To measure the carbon footprint, Allbirds has partnered with Lake Hawea Station and wool producer The New Zealand Merino Company to develop a new measurement method that incorporates materials and processes that capture and emit CO2. Among other things, the calculation of the new model calculates the CO2 footprint of the entire farming operation at Lake Hawea Station. In addition to the emissions, the carbon sequestration on farms is also included.