On its path toward sustainability, athletic wear retailer Adidas committed to sourcing 100 percent sustainable cotton by 2018, and the company has so far exceeded its 2014 target.
Last year, more than 30 percent of the cotton Adidas sourced was Better Cotton, beating its initial goal of 25 percent and marking the highest volume of sustainable cotton the company has ever sourced.
“At the adidas Group, we are constantly trying to increase the use of more sustainable materials for our products, and Better Cotton is a clear success story for us,” Adidas SVP of sourcing John McNamara said. “As a founding member of the Better Cotton Initiative, we firmly believe that Better Cotton is well on its way to becoming a sustainable mainstream commodity. We will continue to increase the amount of sustainable cotton we use over the coming years.”
The Better Cotton Initiative is an undertaking to make global cotton more sustainable by working with supply chain stakeholders to address negative environmental impacts of mainstream cotton farming and promoting fair working conditions, among other efforts.
Furthering its effort to lesson harm to the environment, Adidas is also working to incorporate other sustainable products like recycled polyester and developing products with a lower footprint like its DryDye, a polyester fabric dyeing process that doesn’t use water, uses 50 percent fewer chemicals and 50 percent less energy than the traditional fabric dyeing process.
Adidas sourced the majority of its Better Cotton in 2014 from farmers in India, Pakistan and Brazil. The company’s next milestone goal is to use 40 percent Better Cotton by 2015.