Reebok 2008 Annual Report Download - page 73

adidas Group Annual Report 2008 069
VOC consumption 1)
in grams per pair of shoes produced
1999 2000 2001 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008
120
80
40
0
1) At year-end.
Climate change
Tackling climate change poses a number of challenges for our
company and its functions and our manufacturing partners. We
have closely analysed the environmental footprint of our busi-
ness operations and have focused our efforts on three primary
areas: our products, our supply chain and our own sites. A wide
range of activities have been implemented to reduce our own
carbon footprint.
The adidas Group constantly strives to reduce the environmen-
tal impact of transporting its products around the world. Our
policy is to minimise the impacts from transport, in particular
air freight shipments, through improved order and production
planning tools. Our transport and logistics department has
developed benchmarks for carriers and forwarders that help us
evaluate their environmental performance. Both environmental
and wider sustainability performance have been included in
the decision-making process regarding the service suppliers
we work with.
As the generation of electricity is the major source of emis-
sions, we have taken steps to measure and reduce our energy
use as a business. At the adidas Group we apply policies,
procedures and practices to ensure that all corporate entities
are operating to the highest standards. We have environmen-
tal management systems in place at our major sites, and our
core suppliers are required to establish such a system, too. In
2008, we continued the series of energy workshops for core
suppliers in China. Additionally, we also try to limit air travel
by our own employees through more rigorous travel planning
and extended use of telecommunication systems such as video
conferencing.
Environmentally optimised product concepts
We continue to increase emphasis on the effi cient use of
resources in product manufacturing and packaging to minimise
the environmental impact of our products without compromis-
ing function and quality. In this respect, the adidas Group has
developed its fi rst environmentally optimised product con-
cept, the Originals range “ adidas Grün”, which was launched
in spring 2008. adidas Grün is a collection of footwear and
apparel that minimises its environmental impact by being as
effi cient as possible in the use of natural resources involved
in its production and packaging. It was created in response to
increasing consumer awareness of the importance of sustaina-
bility. adidas Grün is distinguished from other “eco” collections
by its clear labelling system that explains the environmental
credentials of each part of the collection. The lessons learnt
about material selection in this project have been captured
so that other adidas Group teams can apply them to their
product ranges. Besides the adidas Grün collection, our adidas
Sport Performance division has initiated a programme called
“ Better Place”. This is a horizontal concept with initiatives
from all categories. It brings adidas’ sustainability credentials
to life via products built with sustainability as the main focus.
The initiative, which began in 2008, will enter the market in
spring / summer 2009 in selected product collections.
Strong sustainability track record refl ected in
index memberships
Interest from the fi nancial community in sustainability man-
agement is steadily increasing. We appreciate positive recogni-
tion from international institutions and rating agencies, NGOs
and socially responsible investment (SRI) analysts. Each year,
we respond to various comprehensive enquiries from socially
responsible investors, fund managers and fi nancial analysts.
They evaluate our efforts through in-depth analysis of our
social and environmental programme, including document
review as well as interviews with employees and management.
As a result, adidas AG has been included in a variety of high-
profi le sustainability indices:
— DJSI World (DJSI = Dow Jones Sustainability Index)
— DJSI STOXX
— DJSI EURO STOXX
— FTSE4Good Europe Index
— ASPI Eurozone Index
— Ethibel Index Excellence Europe
— Ethibel Index Excellence Global
see Our Share, p. 038
Number of factory visits
2003 1) 906
2004 1) 954
2005 1) 916
2006 2) 1,101
2007 1,007
2008 1,323
1) Including Salomon business segment.
2) Including Reebok business segment from February 1, 2006 onwards.