When you have a well-developed sustainability programme, as we have, engagement is rarely a one-off event: stakeholder relationships develop over time and along the way, the nature of the dialogue changes, and matures. Where there is a positive and open approach to engagement, perspectives can be shared, differences respected and, at times, new partnerships forged.
In 2011, the adidas Group continued to pursue its long-standing engagements with civil society groups, such as Oxfam Australia, the Institute for Global Labour and Human Rights (formerly the National Labor Committee) and the Worker Rights Consortium in the USA, as well as local trade union federations in Indonesia, the Philippines, Central America, and Sri Lanka.
Industry concerns over the use of prison labour in Cambodia and the potential risks that this would pose to apparel exports, required our close engagement with the government, facilitated by the International Labour Organization (ILO). We also engaged with the Indonesian government over the extradition of foreign factory owners, where they had failed to fulfil their fiduciary duties during factory closures. In Singapore we were invited to offer our views on the role of business and human rights in a key workshop with ASEAN member states. This in turn led to our participation in an ASEAN business leaders roundtable on human rights, hosted in Malaysia in November 2011.
Our sponsorship of the upcoming London 2012 Olympic Games drove our continuing outreach with the London Organising Committee of the Olympic and Paralympic Games (LOCOG) and with international trade union federations and labour rights groups. To capture a broad array of stakeholder views on the adidas Group’s role and responsibilities in relation to sponsoring major sporting events, we hosted a Stakeholder Dialogue in London in May 2011. An online stakeholder dialogue was also conducted in 2011 to obtain feedback and views on the launch of the Group’s 2015 Environmental Strategy.
Environmental concerns remained topical, and at times controversial, with the launch of Greenpeace’s Detox Campaign, calling for an end to the use of hazardous chemicals in the textile industry. The adidas Group responded positively and together with a coalition of other brands developed a joint roadmap towards the zero discharge of hazardous chemicals by 2020.
On the following pages we describe the major stakeholder dialogues that took place around the world in 2011. These engagements are classified as: