Brand CasesPUMA - FOREVER BETTER in Climate Action

Publication Date:2022-09-16
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As part of its “Forever Better” sustainability strategy, PUMA has set 10 targets it wants to reach by 2025 (10FOR25) and keeps working to achieve those targets to reduce the environmental footprint from its own operations, products and supply chain.

For climate action, PUMA is committed to upgrade its Science Based Target for Greenhouse Gas reduction from well below 2-degree scenario to a 1.5-degree scenario by 2025. It will move 100% of PUMA’s own entities to renewable electricity and expand the use of renewable energy at PUMA’s core suppliers to 25%. 

During the UN Climate Conference in Glasgow, PUMA’s CEO, Bjørn Gulden, reiterated PUMA’s full support of the Fashion Charter for Climate Action and the ambitious new commitments set by this industry-led coalition under the umbrella of the UN Climate Secretariat. Compared to its baseline 2017 the combined Scope 1 and 2 emissions were reduced by 88% (market-based). Taking into account the purchase of Renewable Energy Certificates (RECs) and rooftop solar panels, PUMA has already achieved its 100% renewable electricity target in 2021 and has already have exceeded the 2030 science-based emissions target of 35% for Scope 1 and 2 emissions. PUMA also exceeded the absolute 55% reduction for scope 1 and 2 emissions required to align its target with a 1.5-degree scenario.

At the supply chain level, PUMA continued and expanded its efforts to enrol more suppliers in cleaner production programs, feasibility studies to install rooftop solar panels and to phase out coal fired boilers. In greater China, PUMA has invited its suppliers to participate in projects like Clean by Design (CbD) in partnership with Apparel Impact Institute (Aii), Low carbon Manufacturing Program (LCMP) in collaboration with WWF.   The four supplier factories, which participated in CbD in Greater China, in total have saved 160,000+ GJ energy, 120,000 m3 of fresh water, and reduced 4,000+ tons CO2e emissions every year. In the meantime, PUMA’s suppliers continued to source renewable energy. As of now, in Greater China, PUMA’s core suppliers have installed 16.76 mega-watt (MW) of rooftop solar PV, 11.18MW under installation, and a further 4.81MW capacity is in the pipeline.  Off-site wind plant capacity has reached 45MW, and 15,000 megawatt-hour (MWh) of green electricity were purchased by PUMA suppliers. The combined actions on renewable energy have an estimated impact in terms of 95,000 tons of Greenhouse Gas reduction in a year.  Furthermore, some of PUMA’s suppliers in Greater China have purchased International Renewable Energy Certificates (iREC) and converted their electricity into green electricity. In 2021, PUMA has conducted a detailed assessment of its scope 3 emissions and recalculated its baseline, in line with the Greenhouse Gas Protocol. In 2021, PUMA’s absolute Greenhouse Gas (GHG) emissions fell by 12% and its GHG intensity relative to sales was reduced by 46% since 2017.

To further reduce greenhouse gas emissions during the material production & processing phase, PUMA focused on increasing the usage of recycled polyester.  In 2021, 43% of the polyester used in PUMA products were from recycled sources, which was only 14% in 2020. By using less material in our shoeboxes, PUMA saves 2,800 tonnes of cardboard per year, and more than 95% (by weight) are made of recycled cardboard. PUMA’s consumer-facing plastic bags already have 80% recycled content. Moreover, we reduced the use of plastic shopping bags by 52% as compared to 2020. 100% transit plastic packaging from 2021 was recycled. Even for the polyethylene (PE) bags used to keep our products dry and clean during transport, all were made from recycled material since summer 2021.By reducing the thickness, once again 400 tonnes of materials were saved per year. In 2021, PUMA conducted a Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) of its 3 bestselling products, which provides valuable insight for new material selection and product development. From this LCA, PUMA understood that development of more sustainable materials for Rubber and Leather hold the key to reduce the carbon footprint of products in future.

With all of the above measures, PUMA will take another step on its journey to be more sustainable and be FOREVER BETTER.

(The above content was provided to IPE by the brand, who is responsible for the accuracy of the data.)

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