CO2 emissions from transport
The fuel used to transport goods to market creates carbon dioxide emissions, a major contributor to climate change. The adidas Group works each year to reduce the environmental impact of transporting our products around the world. Our policy is to minimise the impacts from transport, in particular minimising air freight shipments.
Carbon dioxide emissions are measured in grams of carbon dioxide per kilometre each tonne travels (grams CO2/km t):
- Sea freight contributes 17.5 grams carbon dioxide CO2/km t
- Road freight by truck contributes 147 grams CO2/km t
- Air freight contributes 903 grams CO2/km t.
To reduce the environmental impact of our transport operations, we typically ship most of our cargo by sea. Only in emergencies, or in times of high market demand, for example during global sporting events, do we choose to airfreight our products. Generally, we aim to limit the use of air freight through improved order and production planning tools.
See the Performance data for the full breakdown of percentages of freight types used to ship adidas products.
Driving CSR down the shipping supply chain
Due to the fact that the adidas Group works with third parties, rather than our own transport fleet, it is difficult for us to measure the resulting vehicle emissions (truck, ship and plane) from transporting our products.
To reduce our environmental impact, our transport and logistics department has developed environmental benchmarks for carriers and forwarders that help us evaluate their environmental performance. Both environmental and wider CSR performance have been included in the 2008 tender for our next carriers and forwarders, and they will influence the decision-making process. Service suppliers have been asked to provide information about the following three areas:
Details of an ISO 14001 certification and information about an environmental policy
Details and information about the supplier's current five most important CSR activities
Details and information about a supplier's CSR strategy.
The objective was to gain a clear overview of the CSR capabilities of our current and potential new service partners and to determine whether they meet our requirements for partnering with the adidas Group.
Next steps
In 2008, we will make in-depth analyses of the profiles of potential partners and will continue to detail the environmental benchmarks for our service partners.
Impact of global travel
As a global business with more than 150 locations worldwide and a global supplier base, air travel is widely used by adidas Group employees.
To obtain a better understanding about the environmental footprint caused by air travelling, the air travel managed through our in-house travel agency has been recorded. In 2007, about 72 million air miles were travelled by adidas Group employees. This amount of travel caused around 23,500 metric tonnes of carbon dioxide.
While air travel cannot be avoided, the company is developing and expanding technical solutions such as video-conference facilities to further reduce the need for air travel.