Herzogenaurach
– To celebrate Earth Day, and
to underscore its ongoing commitment to sustainability, the adidas Group
announced that plastic shopping bags will be removed from its own retail stores
globally. The
switch to paper bags will be implemented immediately, with Russia and
Kazakhstan following in June 2016.
Additionally, over the last
year, the adidas Group has worked closely with its partners, resulting in the vast
majority of its franchisees committing to paper bags by the end of June 2016.
This means every year the adidas
Group will eliminate approximately 70 million plastic shopping bags across more
than 14,000 retail stores globally. This translates to 3 million
plastic shopping bags in the United States and more than 2 million plastic bags
in Germany.
“Phasing out shopping plastic bags is part of our wider effort
to constantly increase the use of more sustainable materials in our production,
products and stores, as we recently announced with our newly launched 2020 Sustainability Strategy ‘Sport needs a space’,”
says Roland Auschel, Member of the Executive Board,
responsible for Global Sales. “However, there is even more to it than that.
Our store staff has been trained on the importance of taking consumers on this
journey with us; we will therefore ask consumers if they really need a paper bag
before we give one away. Reducing the number of bags we produce also
means minimising our environmental footprint and helps us to become an even
more sustainable company.”
The plastic shopping bag phase-out initiative started
one year ago, when the company announced its partnership with Parley for the
Oceans. As a founding member, adidas supports Parley for the Oceans in its
education and communication efforts, as well as its comprehensive Ocean Plastic
Programme (A.I.R., Avoid, Intercept, and Redesign) that intends to end plastic
pollution of the oceans. On top of phasing out plastic bags, the adidas Group has
taken concrete steps to reduce its use of virgin plastic such as:
-
Ended the use of plastic microbeads across all body care products
by December 31, 2015.
-
Eliminating plastic bottles in meetings at
its headquarters in Herzogenaurach, Germany as of Q3 2015.
The adidas Group’s programme
is regularly recognised by leading socially responsible investment rating
agencies, such as the Dow Jones Sustainability Indices and the FTSE4Good Index.
In 2015, for the 16th consecutive time, the adidas Group was included in the Dow Jones Sustainability Indices. Again, at the
beginning of 2016, the adidas Group ranked fifth among ‘The Global 100 Most Sustainable Corporations in the World’,
as announced by media and investment advisory company Corporate Knights at the
World Economic Forum.
For
additional information on the adidas Group 2020 Sustainability Strategy, please
visit http://www.adidas-group.com/en/media/news-archive/sustainability-news/2016/adidas-group-launches-new-sustainability-strategy-publishes-2015/.
For more information about
the adidas Group’s continuing efforts, visit www.adidas-Group.com/sustainability.
