New sustainable shoe packaging at Puma
14/04/2010
The company said the initiative was part of a wider programme through which it aims to reduce waste and carbon emissions by a significant amount by moving away from traditional product packaging such as shoe-boxes and plastic bags.
Its new sustainable packaging and distribution system was created by renowned Swiss industrial designer Yves Béhar. The most striking component is a box made from a single, folded piece of 100% recycled cardboard that will come into use in transportation, storage and display of Puma athletic shoes, and a re-usable red bag, in which consumers will carry off their new purchase, leaving the box behind to be recycled or re-used.
Puma said the initiative, which will go live in its supply chain with the autumn-winter 2011 collection, will enable the company to use 65% less paper in its packaging, reduce its carbon emissions by 10,000 tonnes, and its use of plastic by 275,000 tonnes annually.
A parallel part of the new packaging strategy is to reduce by half the amount of plastic that comes with a new Puma T-shirt. The company will achieve this by the simplest means imaginable: it will fold each T-shirt one extra time for the purposes of storing and displaying them. Another aspect of the overhaul of packaging will be to use 45% less paper in its hang-tags and for all of the paper it does use in them to be recycled.
“Often the simplest things take the longest time to create,” said Puma chief executive, Jochen Zeitz, at the event. He explained that this new development had come after more than ten years of successful implementation of Puma’s social and environmental standards (Puma Safe) and the introduction of its company initiative (Puma Vision) last year.
He said his company had changed its mission statement. It has had the stated aim for a number of years to be the most desirable sports lifestyle company in the world. To this, it has now added the word ‘sustainable’. It has a vision of a better world, Mr Zeitz continued, and to achieve that vision it is committing itself to four key attributes: to be fair, honest, positive and creative.
The new packaging and distribution ideas that the company presented in London are linchpins of its wider sustainability strategy, Mr Zeitz said. That strategy also encompasses the choice of material it will use in its footwear and apparel collections. For example, it will insist that all the leather in its shoes is free of chromium VI, and it will favour sustainable wool and organic cotton for its clothing. If it uses regular cotton, it will favour producers from Africa in its approach to sourcing. Puma clothing will also contain recycled yarns, including recycled cotton, polypropylene and polyester.
All of these ideas will combine to form a new Puma Sustainability Index (S-Index), which the chief executive said deliberately made a play on the word ‘sin’. He explained: “We feel responsible for our sins. We have to face the reality that our company, and our industry, are not sustainable yet. Business is part of the problem. So, at the very least, we have to find ways of being less unsustainable. This is no longer negotiable.”
Using the S-Index, he said Puma would commit to making 50% of its international footwear and apparel collections sustainably by 2015. In the process, he said the company would reduce by 25% the amount of energy and water it uses and the amount of carbon and waste it emits. It will also reduce by 75% the amount of paper it uses across the business.
“The long-term plan is to give back to the environment what we take out of it,” Mr Zeitz said, “to have a neutral paw-print. When it comes to corporate social responsibility, this is just the beginning. The mission we have set ourselves is ambitious, but we have no choice but to believe it if we believe in a better world.”
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