Statement on GRI

We have referred to the Global Reporting Initiative (GRI) guidelines for a steer on what to include in our report. The GRI has comprehensively captured stakeholders' views in an internationally consistent format that guides business on how to report about their sustainability performance. Its reporting guidelines help us to identify structure, prioritise, evaluate and present key issues that are relevant and meaningful to stakeholders.
 
With the launch of the GRI G3 Guidelines an application scheme was introduced that allows companies to communicate how much of the reporting framework has been used in their reporting process. We used the GRI G3 Application Level table to assess what information the adidas Group could report.
 
For the 2007 report we have chosen level C reporting for the following reasons: we have gone through a careful and rigorous self-critical process of analysis of where our report completely meets the relevant indicators, we acknowledge that there are still gaps in our reporting. However it is part of our approach to transparency and credible communication not to hide these gaps to our stakeholders by superficially addressing issues in the report, which are not backed by effective policies and programmes.
 
While the GRI guidelines are a useful benchmark for report readers, we believe they do not fully take into account the nature of the sporting goods industry, where the impacts of supply chain management and their specific challenges outweigh the direct social and environmental impacts of the companies themselves. We are committed to continuously improve our efforts to transparency and to strive towards advanced levels of reporting in the coming years.
 
Our 2007 report includes a GRI Index that describes where we have followed the GRI guidelines.