Organizational Governance Marketing & Communications

Allbirds Is Giving Away Its Carbon Footprint Calculator to the Fashion Industry

In a call to action to the fashion industry, Allbirds is open-sourcing its proprietary tool to enable wider industry action to increase transparency and accountability for the often-dirty business of fashion.

Published 4 years ago | About a 2 minute read

Image: Allbirds/Facebook

According to recent research, 81 percent of Gen Z — our most conscious and influential consumer group yet — believes that brands are an essential part of the solution for the challenges facing humanity today; and 88 percent of consumers are looking to companies to help them shop more sustainably. While there have been impressive commitments to climate innovation from some of the more polluting industries, such as fashion, many companies have continued with business as usual — driving a 26 percent increase in the industry’s carbon emissions by 2050.

So, in honor of Earth Day (April 22), Allbirds is open-sourcing a version of its proprietary Carbon Footprint Calculator at FreeTheFootprint.com. After investing hundreds of hours and thousands of dollars into R&D, Allbirds’ third-party-verified life cycle assessment (LCA) tool has been a key differentiator for the company. So, why give it away — for free? Just like the company’s Plant Leather™ and sugarcane-based EVA (now used by Reebok, Timberland and Ugg), Allbirds is putting its money where its mouth is to drive the fashion industry toward a sustainable future.

"For too long, many brands have focused on marketing sustainability rather than actually implementing holistic, high-impact solutions — and to an extent, it’s worked,” says Joey Zwillinger, co-founder and co-CEO of Allbirds. “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."

Allbirds has also launched a Change.org pledge aimed at galvanizing consumers to call on the fashion industry to add carbon footprint labels to their products. Knowing that consumer demand is the key in turning “better for the planet” into “better for the bottom line,” Allbirds is giving shoppers an avenue to voice their desire for carbon accountability.

Companies interested in turning environmental responsibility from a bold experiment into a commercial norm can learn more at FreeTheFootprint.com.