Allbirds Puts a Label on Fashion’s Climate Impact

Allbirds’ sustainability lead Hana Kajimura talks to The Guardian’s Nadra Nittle about why the company, founded by New Zealander Tim Brown and American Joey Zwillinger, uses carbon labelling to raise consumer awareness about the fashion industry’s link to the climate crisis.

Since its 2016 launch, Allbirds has been vocal about its aim to produce fashion with a smaller carbon footprint, Nittle writes. Each item of clothing displays a carbon emissions score to let customers know the climate impact of their purchase. The company has pledged to halve its products’ carbon footprints by 2025, and cut them to virtually zero by 2030.

“Inside each shoe or on the tag of each T-shirt there is a number representing the kilograms of CO2 that were created in making that product,” Kajimura explains. “The number measures five things: raw materials, transportation, manufacturing, product use (washing and drying) and end of life.

“We’re measuring the emissions created across the entire life cycle of that product, even after it leaves Allbirds. The customer sees the sum of that number but can also access the breakdown of it.”

Original article by Nadra Nittle, The Guardian, August 13, 2021.