Vice president of innovation for Allbirds, Jad Finck, doubled down on the mission to create the new M0.0NSHOT shoe in 2022, the launch of which was the culmination of seven years of innovation.
"M0.0NSHOT is the greatest hits album of everything we have ever created, plus new carbon-negative materials that brought this to the net zero carbon finish line," said Finck.
Finck has worked with Allbirds since its early days, having seen its progressions through the sugarcane-derived green EVA midsole to carbon labelling initiatives and more.
He continued that it felt full circle for the M0.0NSHOT to bring together these innovations throughout the business's history, adding carbon-negative merino wool, SuperLight foam, and methane capture bio-plastic to create the world's first net zero carbon shoe.
For a project of this scale, between Allbirds and the fantastic partners it collaborated with, dozens of individuals were involved through the supply chain, making it possible to create M0.0NSHOT.
"Our robust team of scientists, product developers and designers came together with growers and leading regenerative scientists to create M0.0NSHOT."
Creating a net zero-carbon shoe required Allbirds to think more deeply than ever before about how it designed, manufactured, and transported products, as it knew that the first order of business when creating low-carbon products was to reduce the footprint as much as possible.
Finck took a step back and explained that every product has five phases in its cradle-to-grave lifecycle, including materials, manufacturing, transportation, product use, and end-of-life.
He said that Allbirds reduced emissions in each phase as much as possible by using renewable energy, biofuel-powered ocean shipping, and electric vehicle trucking, to name a few. However, the critical aspect that brought M0.0NSHOT to 0.0 kg CO2e was materials.
"We had reduced the carbon footprint as much as possible but needed carbon-negative materials that could counter the more carbon-intensive parts of the product's lifecycle, like manufacturing and end-of-life."
Carbon-negative materials, like the regenerative wool, sugarcane-derived Green EVA midsole, and methane capture bio-plastic, brought M0.0NSHOT over the line.
Founded to reverse climate change, Allbirds is firm that the world is racing for the planet. Allbirds knows it's not enough to win. Because of that, the brand has open-sourced its innovations, like its sugarcane-derived SweetFoam midsole and lifecycle assessment tools. M0.0NSHOT was no different.
"We're calling the M0.0NSHOT toolkit a 'Recipe B0.0K,' and it's pretty fitting. People can access our 'ingredients', including information on design philosophy, materials, manufacturing, transportation, end-of-life, our partners, and more."
He said that Allbird wanted folks to take these 'ingredients' and apply them to their products.
"There are some parts of our recipe that we consider our secret sauce, our design and construction, but people can take these ingredients in the toolkit and bake their cake if you will."
Footwear and fashion are applicable industries, but Allbirds believes the ripple effect of these learnings could reverberate to other spaces. The business has big ambitions and hopes to inspire a new way of making, and that M0.0NSHOT would be just the first of many net zero carbon products.
Finck said Allbirds had already seen good interest from numerous companies who want to apply the M0.0NSHOT methodology to their products. However, Finck was not at liberty to share specifics, only that it was just the beginning for the M0.0NSHOT shoe.
Comparing the M0.0NSHOT shoe to its Adizero x Allbirds shoe regarding their carbon footprints, Finck said cutting carbon was a game of inches.
"We've been in the decarbonisation game for a bit, so we know how hard it is to reduce your footprint to near zero. Our partnership with Adidas ended with a shoe that boasted a carbon footprint of 2.94 kg CO2e, and at the time, that was our lowest carbon footprint shoe."
While the Adizero x Allbirds shoes were the brand's lowest carbon footprint shoe, the brand remained vigilant in its desire to get to zero, with Allbirds having a consensus of feeling that there was still more room to push the brand further.
The critical difference that brought M0.0NSHOT to 0.0 kg CO2e was the materials, with Allbirds reducing the carbon footprint as much as possible throughout all of the product's lifecycle phases, buts its regenerative wool, sugarcane-derived Green EVA midsole, and methane capture bio-plastic was the critical area that made this shoe possible.
Finck shared a story from before the pandemic to explain precisely what made regenerative wool regenerative. He enjoyed spending time in New Zealand with Allbirds growers, walking their land and discussing their work. Here, he was blown away by the thoughtfulness growers took in their efforts to maintain and draw down carbon.
I was also blown away by the fact that so few systems exist to give growers credit for these practices.
"I was also blown away by the fact that so few systems exist to give growers credit for these practices."
After that trip ended, Allbirds joined other industry stakeholders and its partners at The New Zealand Merino Company to establish ZQRX. This regenerative agriculture index helped farmers work with nature to improve human, animal and environmental outcomes continuously.
That same ZQRX program helped Allbirds to source M0.0NSHOT's wool from Lake Hawea Station. An independent examination of the farm affirmed that it was net carbon zero, meaning it sequestered more carbon than it emitted. The realisation of LHS' regenerative, carbon-negative wool allowed Allbirds to reimagine a fundamental principle of sustainable design.
"Instead of constantly trying to reduce, suddenly we were encouraged to use more of a material; we needed to use more of the negative carbon wool to help us counter other more stubborn parts of the carbon equation."
Allbirds ultimately landed on a hightop shoe fully wrapped with carbon-negative wool. Finck said it felt like a maximal celebration of this magic material that Allbirds believe will be critical to how products are made in the future and in reversing climate change through better business.
Another material used in the M0.0NSHOT shoe is the SuperLight Foam, Allbirds lowest carbon foam ever, comprised of approximately 70 percent bio-based content.
Like SweetFoam, SuperLight Foam is made with carbon-negative, sugarcane-derived green EVA, with the sugarcane capturing carbon as it grows. The material is infused with nitrogen under the right temperature and pressure, allowing Allbirds to use more green EVA and fewer additives.
Finck continued that one of the criticisms of traditional sheep farming was that animals released a lot of methane, a greenhouse gas 30 times more harmful than carbon when they fart and burp.
Allbirds partnered with Mango Materials to use cutting-edge methane-capture biomaterial to produce components like logo badges to combat this. Mango Material's revolutionary process employs microorganisms, a species of ancient bacteria that eats waste methane and produce a material that can be made into highly functional bioplastics.
"So we were able to take something that's historically a nuisance, methane emissions, and recruit it to work on our behalf."
Allbirds plans to have the M0.0NSHOT in a bag made with bio-based PE (sugarcane-based polyethylene) for packaging. Compared with other packaging alternatives such as boxes, this is an exceptionally lightweight and compact way of shipping shoes.
Finck said that Allbirds was also really excited by the look of M0.0NSHOT as it's very visually unique, functional, and collectable.
"We're always looking to improve continually, so we'll refine our packaging until launch. And as always, it's not a one-and-done; we'll take our learnings and apply them to our other products over time."
Looking ahead, Allbirds wants to reverse climate change through better business, continuing its journey and creating net zero carbon products. Finck added that customers could also expect to see echoes of M0.0NSHOT reverberating into the existing Allbirds product line.
"And, as always, we're going to stay laser-focused on carbon reduction."
