In 2021 sustainability became increasingly important as a topic. As the world’s leaders gathered for global conventions on biodiversity and climate change, they discussed important milestones for decarbonization and the protection of the environment.
Despite these efforts, greenhouse gas emissions and the pace of biodiversity loss continue to increase.
Many of PUMA employees, customers, consumers and business partners are eager to be part of the solution and ask for more sustainable product initiatives and ways to decouple consumption from emissions.
To respond to such concerns, PUMA executed their “10FOR25 sustainability strategy”, which is linked to the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals.
Highlights of this strategy include ensuring fair working conditions in all factories that produce PUMA goods, powering all PUMA entities globally with renewable energy, switching all major materials to more sustainable alternatives as well as building up our a more sustainable product offering.
PUMA social compliance program remains the bedrock of their sustainability efforts and has been accredited by the Fair Labor Association since 2007. PUMA purchases 99% of their cotton and leather as well as 80% of their polyester from accredited or certified sources, such as BCI, bluesign or the Leather Working Group.
To tackle the biodiversity loss, PUMA introduced a biodiversity and forest protection policy and partnered with the NGO Canopy to ensure our sourcing of man-made cellulosic materials (such as viscose) as well as paper and carboard does not contribute to deforestation.
PUMA expanded the usage of recycled polyester to 43%, in line with their target to have 75% recycled polyester in their apparel and accessories by 2025. PUMA are also on track to remove plastic shopping bags from their stores in 2023 at the latest.
PUMA ended the year with their first ever virtual stakeholder dialog meeting, discussing the important topics of Circularity and Climate Action where much remains to be done by PUMA and the entire apparel and footwear industry, to move from the current linear production model to more circular business models and to further reduce CO2 emissions from our supply chain.
