In today’s world, being ‘green’ and caring for the environment is a must for every apparel producer (let’s recall the efforts by the Sustainable Apparel Coalition, Levi’s WaterLess production lines). adidas Group is not lagging behind either: on March 22, the brand announced a new Environmental Strategy which represents a five-year plan to re-work the company’s approach to environmental management.

Image: www.adidas-group.com

One of the key points of the strategy includes using 40% Better Cotton by 2015 and 100% by 2018. By ‘better cotton’ the brand means the cotton produced in course of implementation of its Better Cotton Initiative aimed at reducing water consumption and pesticide use in the process of cotton farming and production.

Herbert Hainer, adidas Group CEO, comments on this important step, «By supporting the Better Cotton Initiative, we want to contribute to making global cotton production better for the people who produce it, better for the environment it grows in and better for our consumers. Our goal is to use 100% Better Cotton in our products by 2018 and we are excited to work closely with the Better Cotton Initiative towards achieving this ambitious goal».

Another guideline of the Environmental Strategy is based on the Green Company initiative introduced by the brand in 2010. Last year, 5 regional offices located in North America and Germany-based headquarters of the company worked together on developing responsible management system certified to ISO 14001. So, the document looks into ways of implementing the newly-introduced system, which allows global target-setting and management at HQ as well as a standardized approach to day-to-day environmental management at site level.

To view the full version of the Environmental Strategy of adidas Group, please click here.