Environmental Sustainability Practices at Adidas

Undeniably, Adidas is a leading sportswear organization, which produces 400 million shoes

every year. with the frequent report s of environment degradation, company has come to realize

that practices followed in the production or all the other processes carried out within organization

are creating harmful effect on the environment and the time has come when sustainable,

innovative and responsible practices needs to be followed in order to reverse the harmful effect

exerted on the environment .

Needless to say sustainability has always been deep-rooted in this organization which

continuously make efforts to devise innovative ideas for the production process while making

least negative impact on the environment and lives of factory workers . in this respect in 2015,

group had been ranked third among “ Global 100 most sustainable corporations” in the world

at the world economic Forum.this post will discuss how Adidas is creating and using innovative

ideas or practices to sustain itself in today's ever-changing business conditions and leading the

market of sportswear along with saving environment and mitigating climatic threat.
Spinning Plastic into /thread

Roughly half of the world's clothing is made up of polyester and Greenpeace has predicted that

this amount may likely be double nearby 2030 . Unfortunately, polyester is made up of

Polyethylene Terephthalate, which is manufactured from crude oil. The usage of crude oil

affects the environment negatively by increasing the number of greenhouse gases leading to the

rise in the earth's temperature.In this context, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change

(IPCC) is calling for immediate and strict actions to maintain the world temperature to a

maximum of 1.5-degree c above the pre-industrial level.

To fight back the scenario of climatic shift caused by use of plastic , in 2015 , leading

sportswear company Adidas collaborated with Parley for the Ocean an organization for
conserving environment and formed a strategic partnership called “Adidas X Parley ,” . under

this alliance , waste plastic is collected from coastal areas and beaches like Maldives and

transported to supplier in Taiwan , where it is transformed in to yarn fibers and finally used by

Adidas to produce clothes, footwear, and other sports items . This yarn replaces the use of virgin

plastic to prevent any further damage to the ecosystem.

Needless to say that these items provide the same comfort as compared to Adidas's other shoes

and clothing items. The result of this alliance has been remarkable as till now, 2810 tons of

plastic have been prevented from reaching the ocean. What is more, nearly 1 million shoes were

produced in 2017 by the company using marine trash and from the recycled plastic waste, these
figures rose to more than 5 million in 2018, and hopefully, company is planning to double these

figures this year with the vision of producing 11 million pairs of shoes this year.

Reversing environment degradation

As revealed by the 2017 study conducted by the Swiss Federal Office for the Environment

quality of recycled polyester is at par with regular polyester however 59% less energy is

required to produce as compared to producing virgin plastic.Using recycled polyester may also

significantly reduce our dependence on the usage of fossil fuels which are chiefly used in the

process of making virgin plastic.In this regard, the company has committed to making use of

only recycled polyester in its manufacture g process by the year 2024, which is nearly half of the

material used in the brand's more than 900 million items for purchase. Another creative approach
followed by Adidas is to recycle used sportswear, resulting in less demand for the energy and

resources required for the production of a new pair of use

.Incorporating Open source strategy for Innovation

Following theory Z of management, Company runs based on open source innovation strategy

where innovative ideas are taken not from the people working within the firm, but also with eth

external partner. Paul Gaudio, Global creative director of Adidas Speaking at the Cannes Lions

International /festival of creativity revealed that. at Adidas, we believe in constant reinvention.

everything can not be achieved in the little walled garden closed wall, so we strive to take ideas

from our partners which include our consumers, athletes,designers, and chemical companies.
Associating consumers in designing, creation and presenting products adiadas is trying to

strengthen its ties with the consumers. One such example of such initiatives is Danielle Cathari,

a student from Amsterdam Fashion Institute, who was allowed to design her tracksuit, which was

further showcased at VFiles fall'17 show during New Fashion week, in Amsterdam. Another

example of creativity is showcased when The Adidas Originals X Alexander Wang

collaboration was launched taking inspiration from the reseller market concept. 17 loaded trucks

were parked into different locations all around the world and items inside the truck were packed

in trash bags Surprisingly, not even a single item was left on the truck.As per designer Wang,

this was the first time he was experiencing anything like this and he attributed the success to

Adidas'ss openness to creativity and execution of innovative new ideas.

At the end , it would not be wrong to say that Adidas’s goal to promote the usage of recycled

products and shunning the use of plastic in the upcoming years is a remarkable effort which

would be extremely constructive for the environment . Not only this, but organization’s openness

towards changing business practices would help it to grow even faster in future. however, other

companies should also try to follow the footstep of Adidas to upgrade environment and

mitigating harmful footprint on the ecosystem.

References

1.https://www.adidas-group.com/. (2019). ADIDAS X PARLEY PARTNERSHIP. [online] Available at:

https://www.adidas-group.com/media/filer_public/8e/f1/8ef142c7-ac01-4cb3-b375-

875106168555/2019_adidas_x_parley_qa_en.pdf

2.Elven, M. (2019). How sustainable is recycled polyester?. [online] Fashionunited.uk. Available at:

https://fashionunited.uk/news/fashion/how-sustainable-is-recycled-polyester/2018111540000

3.THE MARITIME EXECUTIVE. (2019). adidas to Increase Production of Ocean Plastic Shoes. [online]

Available at: https://www.adidas-group.com/en/media/news-archive/press-releases/2019/adidas-to-

produce-more-shoes-using-recycled-plastic-waste/

4. Forbes.com. (2019). How Adidas Takes Inspiration From The Software World. [online] Available at:

https://www.forbes.com/sites/rachelarthur/2017/06/21/how-adidas-takes-inspiration-from-the-software-

world/#571b13114ac5

5. Adidas (2019). MESSI’S BOOTS TODAY, RECYCLED INTO YOURS TOMORROW. [online] Available

at: https://www.adidas-group.com/media/filer_public/51/cd/51cd8d06-a718-4445-a4e7-

5fa99d601424/sport_infinity_press_release_en.pdf [Accessed 4 Dec. 2019].