Author Archives: Karin Ekberg

Instilling green blood into the ‘supply chain beast’

Karin EkbergAugust 27, 2012 10:13 amOn-the-Job Records, Sustainability Aspects

Is there anyone who would disagree that sound, environmentally friendly behaviour is an absolute necessity – not only for companies, but also for each and every individual? I’d say, probably not. However, putting it into practise usually takes a lot of hard effort. Let’s think about ourselves: only few people manage to rigorously separate waste, never use plastic bags and save as much water as possible. So how does the adidas Group try to improve its environmental friendliness? What do we do to implement meaningful and sustainable changes into this complex beast which we call our supply chain?

Sustainable Apparel Coalition launches Higg Index

Karin EkbergJuly 27, 2012 3:02 pmBusiness Operations, Sustainability Aspects

Let’s assume you’re a coach and you want your team to get as fit as it can possibly be. You strongly believe in fitness being your game changer. What do you do? First of all you’d probably want to evaluate what your individual team members’ strengths and weaknesses are. But therefore you’d have to measure various performance aspects of your athletes – strength, endurance, flexibility etc. This is exactly the course of action we went for, after setting ourselves the goal of improving the environmental impact of our products, suppliers and brands: we decided that it would be necessary to index the parameters of environmental friendliness in the supply chain (read more about this topic here). However, we knew from the very start that our challenge would be far more complex than measuring speed or power as aspects of fitness. We, this is an industry wide group of brands called the Sustainable Apparel Coalition (SAC) and the index we are talking about was launched just yesterday; it is called the Higg Index – it’s one of our game changers.

adidas saves more energy and carbon than expected

Karin EkbergMay 15, 2012 3:39 pmSustainability Aspects

As you may know from my blog post “Another milestone on the road to be a Green Company” the adidas Group defined within its Environmental Strategy also ambitious targets towards reducing our own site’s relative environmental impact. These targets are summarized under the umbrella of the so called “Green Company” initiative.

Today I can share an update with you: the adidas Group is well underway to reaching its goal of 20% energy savings by 2015.

Another milestone on the road to be a Green Company

Karin EkbergDecember 20, 2011 3:58 pmHeadquarter News, Sustainability Aspects

Recently, we have been informed officially that the adidas Group has succeeded with the so called “ISO 14001 certification” of its headquarters in Herzogenaurach and Indianapolis. As these were the last in a row of adidas Group locations which got certified, this is another milestone in the adidas Group’s Environmental Strategy. Read on to learn more about the ISO 14001 certification and its relevance for the adidas Group’s overall Environmental Strategy.

A joint approach to reach zero discharge

Karin EkbergNovember 22, 2011 11:58 amSustainability Aspects

Earlier this year Greenpeace challenged the largest players in the sporting goods industry to ‘detox’. Greenpeace published two reports called ‘Dirty Laundry 1 and 2’ where the discharge of hazardous chemicals was criticized. Although the concentrations measured in the reports – in waste water and in the final products – were below any standards or legal limit values, Greenpeace argued that these reports show that some of the hazardous chemicals are actually used in the manufacturing processes.

We responded by looking beyond the actual facts of the reports, towards the underlying challenge of managing the input of hazardous chemicals into the supply chain and manufacturing processes (see the detailed announcements and updates here: 18. November, 26. August, 22. July, 14. July). The challenge lies not only directly in the discharge of hazardous chemicals, but also in the input and use of hazardous chemicals.