Sports company PUMA made seven out of ten products from better materials in 2022, according to the company’s Sustainability Report 2022, as it further scaled up the use of recycled materials.
“We know there is still a lot of work to be done, but we are encouraged by our progress last year,” said Anne-Laure Descours, Chief Sourcing Officer at PUMA.
“Our Forever Better strategy aims to improve PUMA across the entire value chain, whether it comes to materials, carbon emissions, circularity or human rights.”
Descour acknowledged there was still a lot of work to be done but that the company was encouraged by its progress last year.”
While PUMA, which is on track to reach its goal of making nine out of ten products with better materials by 2025, continued to power 100 percent of its offices, stores and warehouses with renewable energy in 2022, its suppliers also increased the use of renewable energy in the supply chain, where most of PUMA’s carbon emissions originate.
PUMA’s core suppliers, which represent approximately 80 percent of PUMA’s production volume, more than doubled their consumption of renewable energy in just one year, from 0.2 percent in 2017 to 11 percent in 2022.
This was achieved by installing large-scale solar power systems at selected suppliers and purchasing renewable energy certificates. By 2025, PUMA aims to more than double this figure again and get its core suppliers to source a quarter of their energy needs from renewable sources.
More than 50 percent of the polyester used in PUMA’s apparel and accessories came from recycled materials, and the company has also started to scale up the use of recycled cotton.
At the same time, PUMA progressed with its Forever Better experiments RE:SUEDE, which tests for a biodegradable sneaker, and RE:FIBRE, which aimed to scale up more advanced polyester recycling technologies. Both projects will continue in 2023.
To ensure that the rights of more than half a million workers in PUMA’s supply chain were upheld, the company collected audit reports from 510 factories producing finished products and materials in 2022.
As a result of the feedback PUMA received during its first “Conference of the People” in London in 2022 and to reach out to young audiences, parts of the sustainability report will also be made available as a podcast on Spotify, launching June 1, 2023.
