Sporty Sustainability Concepts

©Puma

The international sporting goods manufacturers are also increasingly focussing on the themes of sustainability and corporate responsibility. Within the parameters of a company-wide sustainability programme, the Adidas Group has developed its “Environmental Strategy 2015”. And Puma, for example, intends to reduce the amounts of waste and CO2 emissions through the introduction of a sustainable packaging and sales system.

In April of this year, the sporting goods manufacturer Puma presented its new packaging and sales system in London. The company has set the goal of attaining savings of 25 percent of carbon, energy, water and waste and developing approx. 50 percent of its international sports clothing collections by the year 2015 according to “best practice sustainability standards”. Together with the industry designer Yves Béhar, packaging solutions are developed which are supposed to substantially reduce waste and CO2 emissions in comparison with traditional product packaging such as shoe boxes and clothing packaging made of polyethylene.

Puma: Clever Bag Instead of Shoe Box

Thus, in the future, Puma’s textile collections will be packaged in bio-plastic bags and thus replace the traditional plastic bags. By so doing, approx. 720 tons of plastic bags are supposed to be saved per year. In addition, its T-shirts are supposed to be folded even more in order to be able to reduce the size of the packaging. An additional highlight is the “Clever Little Bag”, which was developed by Yves Béhar and is supposed to replace the classical shoe box. The use of materials will be minimised through this new type of packaging and the weight will also be reduced during transport. In addition, the customer will no longer need a separate shopping bag after the purchase at the point-of-sale. According to a life cycle assessment commissioned by Puma, the “Clever Little Bag” is supposed to save 8,500 tons of paper, 20 mégajoules of energy and a million litres each of fuel and water.
For a long time, it was said that one wanted to become the most popular sporting lifestyle company. Today, one wants to become the world’s most popular and most sustainable sporting lifestyle company.

Adidas: Environmental Strategy 2015

Within the parameters of its group-wide sustainability programme, the Adidas Group has developed an “Environmental Strategy 2015” with the goal of attaining overall improvements in environmental effects along the entire value chain. In this regard, transport packaging and product packaging also play an important role. The strategy is initially being formulated as a five-year plan. In each step of the value chain, the process sequences are supposed to be designed to be more efficient: From the product design, development and procurement to logistics and IT systems to the increasing of efficiency at the locations. Energy consumption is supposed to be reduced by 20 percent and, through the use of renewable energies, the CO2 emissions are supposed to be reduced by ten percent at its own locations by 2015. Moreover, in the future, measureable goals are supposed to also be set for the entire global value chain – for all brands, functional divisions and regions.

According to the company, some recycled materials are already being used during production. Waste disposal is also being handled in close cooperation with the local governmental waste disposal agencies. “The introduction of environmentally friendly processes along our entire value chain is an important step for us in order to be able to do business in a sustainable fashion over the long-term”, explains Herbert Hainer, CEO of the Adidas Group. “At the same time, our environmental strategy is also an ideal basis for increasing efficiency as well as innovations and thus is of fundamental importance for our company’s success.” In this regard, it is also, for example, the company’s obligation to be using “Better Cotton” at a 40 percent level by 2015 – to the benefit of growers, the environment and consumers.

Adhesives and Dyes Made of Renewable Raw Materials

But the company is also becoming increasingly environmentally conscious in the packaging segment: According to the group, the paper which is used for the shoe boxes already is being made of 80 to 100 percent recycled paper. The rest is respectively being produced from ecologically certified paper according to the manufacturer. The adhesive used for the boxes is produced 100 percent of a water-starch base, thus from completely renewable resources. However, already 75 percent of the boxes are folded without adhesives. Even the dyes which are used for the boxes are based completely on renewable raw materials such as, for example, soy.

With sales of approx. 12 billion euro in 2010, Adidas AG is in second place on the global market for sporting goods behind the U.S.’s Nike Group. The Adidas Group has a comprehensive product portfolio with brands such as Adidas, Reebok, TaylorMade, CCM Hockey and Rockport and is represented worldwide in the most important markets. The group has approx. 170 subsidiaries with its headquarters located in Herzogenaurach, Germany.

With sales of 2.7 billion euro in 2010, Puma is the world’s third-largest sporting goods manufacturer. Puma AG Rudolf Dassler Sport (Puma) is an international sporting goods manufacturer. The company was created through the splitting-up of the Dassler Shoe Company, which was founded in 1948, between the brothers Rudi and Adi Dassler to form Adidas and Puma.