PUMA aims to be first carbon neutral Sportlifestyle company

23 Apr '10

4 min read

Sportlifestyle company PUMA will completely offset its own global CO2 emissions to become the first carbon neutral company within the sportlifestyle industry, PUMA announced on Thursday at 'The Business for the Environment Summit' (B4E) in Seoul. In addition, PUMA will offset emissions deriving from international travel of the PUMA-sponsored national football teams taking part in the Football World Cup this summer in South Africa.

"To be the first carbon neutral Sportlifestyle company is the next logical step in our mission to become the most desirable and sustainable Sportlifestyle company in the world," said Jochen Zeitz, Chairman and CEO of PUMA. "We also took UNEP's challenge to offset our football teams' international travels to South Africa very seriously. Our commitment to the environment partnered with our long-standing collaboration with African football made it a foregone conclusion to support their initiative, and we hope in doing so that we inspire other stakeholders in the FIFA World Cup 2010 to follow suit."

PUMA will compensate the company's direct and indirect CO2 emissions through offsetting projects in Africa that also take the needs of local communities and the conservation of biodiversity and CSR programs into account. The portfolio of offsetting projects in Africa is being verified by an internationally recognized auditing company according to internationally accepted standards such as the Clean Development Mechanism (CDM), the Gold Standard and Voluntary Emission Reduction standards. PUMA's total carbon footprint is externally verified utilizing similar methodology applied to the company's carbon neutral headquarters.

Due to PUMA's target of its long-term sustainability program to reduce its energy and water consumption, waste and CO2 emissions by 25% by 2015; the amount of CO2 emissions to be offset will decline on an annual basis. However, more than only saving energy, PUMA will require its local offices, stores and warehouses to switch to electricity from renewable sources wherever feasible - in line with its PUMAVision Headquarters in Germany, thus significantly reducing the building's carbon footprint. To offset the headquarters' remaining CO2 emissions, PUMA actively supports a wind farm in Turkey as an offsetting project. Through this, PUMAVision Headquarters became the first carbon neutral company head office in the sportlifestyle and sporting goods industry.

PUMA has started to deeply embed its long-term sustainability program into the company's operations and product cycle, making it an integral part of PUMA's DNA. With football being a core business of the sportlifestyle company, it is only natural that PUMA responded to the United Nations Environment Programme's (UNEP) petition that all Football Federations participating in the FIFA World Cup 2010 in South Africa offset their teams' international travels. Therefore, PUMA will offset the carbon footprint of its football teams - a total of 336 players and officials. The PUMA teams that qualified for the World Cup include: Algeria, Cameroon, Ivory Coast, Ghana, Italy, Switzerland and Uruguay. To further illustrate the importance of UNEP's `call to action', PUMA has decided to go one step beyond and offset all local travel and accommodation as well.

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