Puma Reaches Sustainability Milestone One Year Earlier Than Planned
Puma on Tuesday proved that it is bucking the trend among some firms that have pulled back on sustainability and ESG goals.
A new sustainability report said the German firm has achieved its goal of making nine out of 10 products from recycled or certified materials in 2024, as well as further progress in the areas of circularity, climate and human rights.
Since 2021, when it set the initial goal of nine out of 10 products, the company has “sharply increased” the use of recycled or certified materials, which emit fewer greenhouse gases, Puma said.
The company added that last year, it used 13 percent recycled cotton and 75 percent recycled polyester fabric in its products. Puma also noted that 13.9 percent of polyester used in apparel products last year were from RE:RIBRE, its textile-to-textile recycling project using industrial and post-consumer waste as the main source of raw materials.
“Reaching our goal of nine out of 10 products one year ahead of schedule is a testament to the great teamwork of everybody involved at Puma and our manufacturing partners,” Puma’s chief product officer Maria Valdes said. “We will take this momentum and continue to look for ways to reduce our environmental footprint as part of our Vision 2030 sustainability goals.”
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As for its climate goals, Puma continues to work with its core suppliers to reduce greenhouse gas emissions in the supply chain. Between 2017 and 2024, emissions from purchased goods and services decreased by 17 percent.
Last year, Puma lowered emissions from its own operations by 86 percent versus 2017 levels. It achieved that through the use of renewable electricity to power all offices, stores and warehouses.
Renewable electricity included the purchase of Renewable Energy Certificates, an increase in the number of electric vehicles in its global car fleet, and opening two large-scale solar PV plants at its headquarters and a major distribution center in Germany.
Puma said its goal is for a 90 percent absolute reduction of greenhouse gases in its own operations, and a 33 percent absolute reduction in supply chain emissions by 2030 compared to 2017 levels. The company said those targets are what scientists say is required to limit global temperature rises to 1.5 degrees Celsius compared to pre-industrial levels.
On the human rights front, Puma said it continues to organize training sessions on important issues that include sexual harassment for workers in its supply chain. Since 2021, over 290,000 Puma employees and factory workers have received training on sexual harassment, the company said. In addition, the average payment at Puma’s core suppliers worldwide in 2024, including overtime and bonuses, was 66 percent above minimum wage, reflecting an increase of 3 percentage points from 2023 levels.
Since U.S. President Donald J. Trump took office in January, there’s been a rollback on sustainability and ESG initiatives in general, mostly due to fewer incentives to go green. And Jan. 21, within hours of taking office, Trump withdrew the U.S. from the Paris Climate Agreement for the second time. He pulled the U.S. from the 2015 climate accord during his first term, but that decision was reversed by his successor President Joe Biden in 2020.
Moreover, many companies, such as mass discounter Walmart Inc., began moving away from DEI (diversity, equity and inclusion) programs late last year to a movement of “belonging.” That intensified in this past January when Trump signed an executive order to officially end “illegal discrimination” and restore “merit-based opportunity.” Walmart competitor Target Corp. has also joined the “belonging” brigade. Both discounters have pulled back on DEI policy initiatives.
But other fashion firms and retailers such as Levi Strauss & Co. and Costco Corp. are holding firm on their diversity programs. And in the footwear space, REI Co-op CEO Eric Artz and president Mary Beth Laughton in February penned a joint letter than reaffirmed the outdoor specialty retailer’s diversity-focused mission.
That same month saw Adidas expand the role of its global head of DEI Vanessa Abrahams-John to include oversight of the brand’s North America human resources team. She continues to lead the execution of Adidas’ global DEI strategy.
