Adidas released its 2016 sustainability report last week, announcing goals it hopes to achieve by 2020, with a focus on switching to sustainable cotton, water and energy conservation, as well as improving employee lives.
Adidas hopes to replace conventional cotton use by using 100 percent sustainable cotton by 2018. The company also wants to eliminate plastic bags in stores, use recycled polyester products, create a completely new supply chain for Parley Ocean Plastic together with partner Parley for the Oceans. The brand also announced three new editions of the UltraBoost in Parley’s upcycled material, restating its dedication to the oceans.
“Research we conducted shows that consumers, the creator generation, see sport as an essential part of their life, and they would dislike a world without spaces allowing them to practice sports. Sport needs a space to exist,” said Adidas CEO Kasper Rorsted, in the company sustainability statement. “However, these spaces are increasingly endangered due to various threats to our world such as increased industrial pollution and its effect on the environment and our planet’s climate, the violation of human rights such as forced labor practices or discrimination, the consequences of increasing urbanization as well as the ever-growing population, to name a few examples.”
By 2020, Adidas wants to have 20 percent water savings at strategic suppliers, 50 percent water savings at apparel material suppliers and 35 percent water savings per employee on sites.
As for employees, Adidas will expand and refine grievance systems and skill training programs, champion diversity and more. The company will also increase health education and management strategies, using sport as a way for people to improve mental and physical performance.