Corporate responsibility
World Federation of the Sporting Goods Industry (WFSGI)
The WFSGI is an independent association formed by the industry suppliers, national organisations and sporting goods industry related businesses. It enables the sports industry (including manufacturers from developing countries as well as brands based in the richer market countries) to work together on a range of trade, legal and other issues, including CSR.
One of WFSGI’s earliest project initiatives was to phase out under-age workers from football stitching. The project, which began in 1997, worked through the support of a number of different organisations, including adidas, local NGOs, the International Labour Organization, Save the Children, FIFA and UNICEF.
The adidas Group is an active member of the WFSGI’s CSR Committee.
Read more at www.wfsgi.org
World Business Council for Sustainable Development (WBCSD)
The membership of the adidas Group in the WBCSD was agreed in 2000 and became effective in January 2001. The Council is a coalition of some 200 international companies who share a commitment to sustainable development.
The WBCSD aims to develop closer co-operation between business, government and all other organisations concerned with the environment and sustainable development, and to encourage high standards of environmental management in business.
The adidas Group has been engaged in various working groups over the past five years and has helped develop guidance materials about sustainable development and CSR issued by WBCSD to its members. Recent activities include contributing to a paper on the role of business in tomorrow’s society and the development of a briefing paper on sustainable consumption.
CSR Asia
CSR Asia provides research and training on sustainable business practices in Asia. Operating as a social enterprise, CSR Asia occupies the middle ground between civil society organisations and a commercial consultancy. The adidas Group is a member of CSR Asia’s Strategic Partner programme and in 2007 CSR Asia acted as an independent facilitator and reporter for the Group’s Suppliers Stakeholder Dialogue hosted in Hong Kong.