TEXTILES.ORG
U.S. footwear brand Allbirds is making available the technology behind what it says is the world’s first net-zero shoe. The company has open sourced its toolkit for the M0.0NSHOT shoe by publishing it on its website. The shoe is currently a prototype due for commercial launch next spring. The “M0.0NSHOT RECIPE B0.0K” includes sections on the shoe’s design, materials, packaging, manufacturing, transportation, end-of-life, carbon measurement, carbon sequestration and project partners.
A standard sneaker, says the shoe manufacturer, is about 14 kg CO2e based on its calculations. The company’s new shoe will have net 0.0 kg CO₂e carbon footprint without relying on a single carbon offset.
Its M0.0NSHOT is the culmination of years of work to reduce carbon throughout its business and products. In 2018, it created SweetFoam® (a midsole foam made from carbon negative, sugarcane-derived green EVA), which informed the new foam used in M0.0NSHOT. In 2020, it began to label 100 percent of its products with carbon footprints. One year later, its partnership with adidas created a 2.94 kg CO₂e shoe.
A key material in this most recent launch has been regenerative wool, supplied by Lake Hawea Station in New Zealand, a net zero carbon farm that produces superfine premium merino wool and sequesters more carbon than it emits.
The company’s carbon-efficient packaging, with reduced space and weight required to transport, is made with sugarcane-derived, carbon-negative Green PE. Carbon-conscious transportation includes biofuel powered ocean shipping and electric trucking from port to warehouse.