Allbirds has released the details of its net zero carbon shoe, M0.0NSHOT, and, in a bid to encourage competitors to create their own version, is giving away its entire methodology.
M0.0NSHOT, set to launch commercially in Spring 2024, is a high-top shoe wrapped in carbon-negative regenerative wool. The midsole features a carbon-negative bio-based midsole foam made with sugarcane. Molded components include a logo made with methane-capture bioplastic via a partnership with Mango Materials. Even the packaging – sugarcane-based polyethylene – has been designed to include a carbon-negative material which also reduces the weight and space required for transportation.
In 2020, Allbirds released its apparel line with carbon footprint labeling. A year later, the brand announced a partnership with Adidas to collaborate on a low-carbon shoe: The Adizero x Allbirds. M0.0NSHOT, announced in March 2023, was the next logical step. The name refers to “shooting for the moon.”
“A relay, not a race”
However, for Allbirds’s co-founder Tim Brown, the M0.0NSHOT achievement is “meaningless without others taking action: which is why we felt compelled to open-source our learnings, so others can pick up the baton and take us forward.”
Brown added: “This is one small step for Allbirds – but it could be one giant leap for the footwear industry if others join us. Unlike the space race, this is a relay – we’re all on the same side.”
As such, Allbirds has released “Recipe B0.0K”: An open-source toolkit detailing each step of the M0.0NSHOT’s process, including materials, manufacturing, transportation, end-of-life, and carbon footprint calculation.
The toolkit has already been distributed to the thousands of attendees at the Global Fashion Summit in Copenhagen. It is now available digitally on the Allbirds website for anyone to download and implement.
How Allbirds accounts for the net zero rating
- First, Allbirds worked with The New Zealand Merino Company’s regenerative wool program, ZQRX, to source M0.0NSHOT’s wool from Lake Hawea Station.
- Second, it calculated Lake Hawea Station’s specific farm-level carbon footprint (developed independently of this project and verified by Toitū Envirocare, a New Zealand-based B Corp and carbon certification business).
- Allbirds then collaborated with The New Zealand Merino Company to translate this farm footprint into a product-level wool material carbon intensity for M0.0NSHOT.
- This new wool carbon intensity is used to calculate the product’s carbon footprint using the Allbirds Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) Tool, with modifications. The initial Allbirds LCA Tool was third-party verified against the requirements of ISO 14067, which specifies principles, requirements and guidelines for calculating the carbon footprint of a product.
The carbon footprint of M0.0NSHOT accounts for on-farm carbon sequestration, in addition to emissions, which is a deviation from standard industry practice. As a result, the calculated carbon footprint for M0.0NSHOT, unlike Allbirds’ standard products, is not fully aligned with ISO 14067.
However, Allbirds believes this wool carbon intensity value captures a more comprehensive model of the total emissions fluxes happening on-farm.
In its Q1 earnings, Allbirds reported a net loss of $35,166,000 against a loss of $21,878,000 for the period ended March 31. The company aims to generate $35 to $40 million in annualized cost savings, including $15 to $20 million in SG&A. The new factory partner in Vietnam is expected to deliver additional cost savings as 2023 progresses. And an already completed workforce reduction is forecast to provide $7 million in annualized savings in FY23.
