Environmental success for Puma: Reduced emissions - but cotton from forced labor?

Created: 05/12/2022, 20:20

By: Felix Herz

Puma in Herzogenaurach: sporting goods manufacturer reduces emissions © Christoph Hardt/IMAGO

Puma reports sustainability successes: Despite strong growth, the sports company has managed to reduce emissions, in some cases significantly.

Herzogenaurach – For several years now, the sporting goods manufacturer from Herzogenaurach near Nuremberg has been trying to reduce CO₂ emissions and operate more sustainably.

At the end of April, Puma reported a successful balance sheet for the past few years: It had succeeded in reducing its own CO₂ emissions and those from purchased energy by 88 percent between 2017 and 2021.

And that despite strong growth, according to the press release.

Puma reduces CO₂ emissions - and wants to become even more sustainable

In the four years, the company from northern Bavaria has grown by 65 percent.

Nevertheless, it was also possible to reduce emissions from the supply chain, in which most greenhouse gases are produced, by 12 percent.

According to their own statements, the sports company is concentrating on “buying 100% renewable energies from green electricity tariffs and green electricity certificates”.

The vehicle fleet is to be converted to electric drives, more sustainable materials are to be used in the products and the efficiency of the supply chains is to be increased with the partners.

Stefan Seidel, Senior Head of Corporate Sustainability, is pleased: "Our own emissions and those from purchased energies have fallen more than necessary to make our contribution to limiting global warming to 1.5 degrees."

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Puma on the path to sustainability: fight against climate change

However, Puma is willing to make further improvements, the press release announces.

This is how you want to implement the "Forever Better Sustainability Strategy".

The use of climate-friendly materials also plays an important role.

In 2021, the proportion of recycled polyester was increased to 55 percent.

By 2025, this number is to be increased to 75 percent.

Nine out of ten Puma products are said to be made with more sustainable materials.

In 2021, this was already the case for six out of ten products.

As a founding member of the Fashion Industry Charter for Climate Action, Puma is committed to this task.

With regard to the materials, however, Puma has recently been criticized – as research recently published by NDR shows.

Controversial topic: cotton from Xinjiang – also at Puma

A difficult topic in the fashion industry is cotton - especially where it comes from and under what circumstances the plantation workers carry out the harvest.

The Chinese region of Xinjiang in particular is being criticized here – forced labor among ethnic and religious minorities would also take place there, according to the NDR.

Large fashion manufacturers such as Puma and Adidas claim that they do not source any cotton from the disputed region.

However, research by NDR shows that this is not the case: cotton has an identifiable fingerprint that allows conclusions to be drawn about its origin.

And this is exactly what the NDR examined in cooperation with scientists from the Agroisolab in Jülich and found that cotton from Xinjiang can also be found in Puma and Adidas products.

So far there has been no response to questions about the subject.

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