It’s a given that corporates set increasingly big revenue goals in seemingly shorter timelines. Allbirds, a 6-year old and billion-dollar, purpose-led “absurdly comfortable” footwear brand has approach their sustainability goals with equal ambition and urgency.
Their new Allbirds Flight Plan is an open invite for everyone to hold their feet to the fire. It outlines 10 science-based targets that will cut the per product carbon footprint in half by 2025 as part of the bigger goal of less than 1 kg CO2e by 2030.
They have identified a few operating principles that are worth highlighting beyond the walls of sustainability:
- Journey matters as much as the destination
- Identify milestones that will ladder up to SDG and corporate 2030 goals. It will create momentum and bring the future closer in whilst carrying everyone along.
- Lead with ‘How
- Be realistic and detailed in the execution before setting ambiguous goals.
- Complete guardianship
- Take accountability for the product from production to purchase to usage to disposal by including 1, 2, and 3 emissions.
- Measurable & Trackable
- Ensure impact of each step-change contributes to the bigger, long-term goals across scopes 1, 2, and 3.
- Bring everyone along
- Actively seek feedback from core stakeholders including customers, employees, investors, suppliers, and NGOs in the planning.
So as we watch Allbirds take steady strides to file an IPO, it appears that it’s a business worth modelling.
