ENVIRONMENT

Strategy 2015

"As a global company we have a significant environmental footprint. The key to setting a good strategy is to look at each part of the business, understand where the key impacts are and then create a plan for tackling them", says Karin Ekberg, Head of Environmental Services at the adidas Group, and makes it sound very straightforward. "Sound environmental practice is about becoming more thoughtful and efficient in using natural resources like energy or water which also help reduce operational costs."

Karin Ekberg

Karin points to the opportunities in the marketplace as well. "This company has a fabulous history of innovation and we have been building on this in developing new sustainable product concepts."

Assessing all the factors

Through assessing each part of the business - or value chain as Karin calls it - three key principles have been defined:

  • Use resources sustainably.
  • Reduce our emissions.
  • Limit risks and chemical hazards.

So the focus is on energy and climate change, water (conservation and discharge), waste and chemicals.

What's the goal?

The overall goal is to continuously reduce the company's environmental footprint. Karin explains how: "We aim to achieve this by applying environmental best practice in our daily work. And we are asking our suppliers to do the same. For our own business operations we have already set ambitious targets for 2015. But we want to go further and to set measurable and effective targets for the entire value chain. These will encompass all brands, functions and regions as well as our global supply chain. While this is a challenging exercise, we want to have achieved this by the end of 2010."

Tackling each part of the business

Karin is not leaving things to chance. Each part of the business will be addressed. So for example, the innovation function will consider environmental issues. And the teams will have targets for the number of styles that are to have environmental features. Design for Environment (DfE) guidelines will help the innovation and product creation teams to design environmentally sound products without compromising performance.

Product creation

Our own operations

When it comes to the company's own operations, there are targets which are part of the Green Company Initiative, launched in 2008. A key one is to reduce relative energy use by 20%. On top of that, using green sources of energy will account for a further 10% cut in carbon emissions. This is aligned with our overall carbon strategy that prioritises:

  1. Lower energy consumption and intensity.
  2. Energy sources with lower carbon emissions.
  3. Consideration of carbon offsetting mechanisms.
Green company

In our supply chain

It is perhaps in the supply chain where the biggest challenge lies because the company can only partly influence what its suppliers do - and this is where most of the environmental impacts are.

Our environmental supply chain strategy encompasses:

  • Risk management - focusing on the environmental risks related to specific manufacturing processes and suppliers, applying risk assessment and audit tools.
  • Building a high-performance supply chain - working with our suppliers to deliver continuous improvements in their operations. We do this through guidance and training and success is measured by annual targets.
  • Increasing leverage through partnerships - building partnerships wherever they help to improve the performance of the entire industry.
Greening the supply chain

Use and end-of-life

We use some recycled materials in our products. When it comes to the recycling of our used products, we have to work closely with local waste authorities and others. Our approach is to promote different partnerships, depending on their technical and environmental feasibility.

Next steps

Other areas, such as transport and our retail business, will also be looked at in more detail in the future. In 2010, a group of experts from all the company's core functions will work out the exact targets and priorities for each part of the business. These targets will inform our environmental roadmap 2015.

Find out more about our Green Company Initiative.