Introducing: The ReRun Greenwashed Collection
Allbirds one-day-only capsule calls attention to greenwashing and their every-day-always aims to avoid it.
April 22, 2024
To put it simply: sustainability is… complicated. So when it comes to corporate sustainability commitments, it’s hard to know what’s real. People are rightfully skeptical, especially on days like Earth Day, when companies are eager to share their latest sustainable thing.
Even just the word “sustainability” can mean ten different things to ten different people. That level of complexity leaves consumers vulnerable to greenwashing: false or misleading statements about the environmental benefits of products or services. Greenwashing, whether intentional or unintentional, confuses consumers and undermines the many credible efforts happening to address the climate crisis.
In an effort to shed light on the issue, for one day only, we are going green[washing]... by introducing the Greenwashed Collection, a selection of green colorways* on Allbirds’s resale marketplace, ReRun. (*Yep, we reorganized our already available pre-loved styles in green, and gave the collection a punchy name to bring attention to the issue of greenwashing. Super inventive, huh?)
When this one-day-only Greenwashed Collection goes away, we will continue our every-day-always sustainability efforts – because limited capsules and collections won't get us out of the climate crisis. That’s why we aim to apply sustainability to all of our products and practices, helping you assess our impact on the environment by keeping this complex work as simple and straightforward as possible, so you don’t have to sort sustainability fact from fiction.
Numbers don’t lie
Numbers are worth a thousand words (or something like that). That’s why we label each of our products with its carbon footprint, detailing the emissions associated with the product’s lifecycle, keeping us accountable and keeping you informed. We worked with consultants and third-party verifiers to develop and validate the tool, methodology, and datasets used to calculate product carbon footprints, so you can be sure these digits are backed by data.
Ongoing efforts to strive for better
While measuring our impact is an important step, we’re ultimately focused on strategies that will reduce our footprint in the first place. Our Flight Plan (AKA, our sustainability strategy) outlines specific initiatives to reduce our impact within three key pillars: regenerative agriculture, renewable materials, and responsible energy.
But part of what makes climate work so complex–and important–is that everything is interconnected. That’s why our Flight Plan initiatives expand beyond carbon reduction initiatives to also include commitments around Fair Labor, Water, Chemistry, Animal Welfare, and Traceability & Transparency.
Transparency–about our wins and our weak points–along the way
Plans and priorities are just that: plans and priorities. We also need to share our progress. That’s why we annually publish a Flight Status report outlining our progress toward our goal of cutting our average product carbon footprint in half by the end of 2025 and to near zero by 2030. It’s not all glitz and glam (in fact, most of it isn’t), but nonetheless, we’re committed to sharing our near-term, science-based progress every year. Check out our most recent Flight Status report here.
Don’t take our word for it
We know, we know. We’ve done a lot of talking about ourselves. But actually, some of the best measures of how we’re doing come from outside sources, which is where third-party verifications come in. For instance, we are B Corp certified–and have been since 2016–which is a key accountability measure for our ongoing commitment to environmental, social and governance matters. We also work to source materials with leading certifications, like FSC® for our tree fiber and ZQ Merino for wool, to ensure responsible sourcing.
“When Earth Day comes to a close, and when the ‘Greenwashed Collection’ is long gone, we want people to rest assured that our everyday work to reduce our impacts will continue on – because sustainability can’t be constrained to one-day-only commitments or collections,” said Aileen Lerch, Director of Sustainability, Allbirds. “The real work of reducing our impact requires regular, routine, and somewhat unremarkable efforts, day-in and day-out. Because every incremental improvement, every small shift, adds up to something greater and gets us closer to our 2025 and 2030 targets.”
To shop the Greenwashed Collection and support our efforts to extend the use of pre-loved products, visit https://www.allbirds.com/pages/rerun.
About ReRun
ReRun is Allbirds’s resale marketplace aimed at extending products' life, one of many commitments Allbirds has made to help lower its impact. At participating Allbirds storefronts, people can trade in gently used shoes for a credit, giving someone else a chance to put them to use and keeping shoes out of landfills. ReRun is operated in partnership with Trove, experts in circular business. While not all trade-ins meet ReRun standards for resale, we will accept any Allbirds shoe–regardless of condition–and responsibly process it, through recycling or donation to our non-profit partner, Soles4Souls.
About Allbirds
Based in San Francisco, with its roots in New Zealand, Allbirds launched in 2016 with a single shoe: the now iconic Wool Runner. In the years since, Allbirds has sold millions of pairs of shoes, and has maintained its commitment to incredible comfort, versatile style and unmatched quality. This is made possible with materials like Allbirds’s sugarcane-based midsole technology, SweetFoam™, and textiles made with tree fibers (TENCEL™ Lyocell) and Merino wool – so consumers don't have to compromise between the best products and their impact on the earth. www.allbirds.com
