As Earth Day approaches on April 22, sustainable brand Allbirds is encouraging the public to think more seriously about what goes into the clothing and shoes they wear.
Today, the company announced the launch of its carbon footprint initiative, a calculation that measures the carbon output of each of its products.
Allbirds will also be labeling every product it makes with a Life Cycle Assessment tool. Developed in-house, the tool was designed to measure each product’s environmental impact, factoring in materials, development, manufacturing and end of life. The company reports transportation separately in its company-wide emissions.
Now the company is hoping other brands will follow suit by labeling their goods with a carbon footprint measure, much like food producers label the nutritional value of their products.
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For consumers unfamiliar with the measure of a carbon footprint, it’s the amount of carbon dioxide emitted from the use of fossil fuels by an individual or a company. So going forward, Allbirds will be tallying all its greenhouse gas emissions when measuring the environmental impact of all its products.
According to the company, the average carbon footprint across all its products is 7.6 kg, compared to the industry average carbon footprint for a sneaker at 12.5 kg. For footwear, the Allbirds Wool Runner comes in at 7.1 kg, the Tree Runner at 8.1 kg, Tree Toppers at 8.8 kg and the Wool Lounger at 6 kg. In the sock category, the Hider is 1.4 kg, the Quarter is 1.9 kg and Tuber is 2.5 kg.
Currently, Allbirds uses materials that include the wool from merino sheep for shoe uppers and recycled bottles for laces, as well as castor bean oil for its insoles and recycled cardboard for its boxes.
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