On Friday, Koala shut its doors for 24 hours. No sales, no browsing, certainly no purchasing. The bold move was to drive awareness for Save the Koala Day.

The move was scoped to be seen by up to two million Australians, as shoppers went to go to the homepage and were instead redirected to WWF-Australia’s website. On there, visitors are encouraged to adopt a furry friend and sign petitions to local MPs to save its natural habitat. 

What is the aim of Koala?

Koala has previously made a pledge that it would work on getting its namesake off the endangered species list by 2030. The mattress company has been working with WWF-Australia to ensure that ‘we have koalas forever’, by strengthening nature laws, restoring habitats and protecting our favourite cuddly friend from diseases. 

“Since launching in 2015, we’ve been dedicated to building a furniture business that does better by the planet. Starting with our symbolic koala adoptions, we’ve always been looking out for our furry friends and now more than ever they need our support. We believe in reversing environmental trends and leaving the earth in better condition than we found it, which is why we partner with organisations including WWF,” says Mitch Taylor, founder and CEO. 

To date, Koala’s donations have helped: 

• Support important programs: Koalas Forever, WWF-Australia’s broad koala and wildlife recovery and protection program aims to double the number of koalas in eastern Australia by 2050. 
• Habitat restoration: In 2021, customers helped WWF-Australia plant 46,000 koala feed trees, restore 40 hectares of koala habitat and upskill 70 wildlife vets. They’ve also worked with 100+ volunteers, 25 landholders and 15+ community partners. 
• Fund additional conservation projects: Including Ipswich Koala Protection Society, Towards Two Billion Trees, Great Eastern Ranges Initiative. 
• Glossy black cockatoos: Each sofa bed sale includes a symbolic glossy black cockatoo adoption. This donation supports active recovery of the endangered species, plants specific food and shelter trees required for survival, installs artificial nest boxes to replace nests lost in bushfires and installs predator guards to protect nests.