The upscaling builds on the 46,000 RE:FIBRE jerseys produced in 2023 and seeks to not only reduce textile waste, but also to create less reliance on plastic bottles to produce recycled polyester products. To make the upscaling possible, PUMA is exploring diversified ways to recycle polyester – such as thermo-mechanical and chemical recycling techniques enabling PUMA to significantly increase its capacity to recycle textile waste.

“RE:FIBRE gives football fans a tangible example of how PUMA is working towards creating a Forever Better,” said Anne-Laure Descours, Chief Sourcing Officer at PUMA. “Our wish is to have 100% of our polyester products created from textile waste. Rethinking how we produce and moving towards a more circular business model is important and RE: FIBRE is central to that.”
 

To celebrate this milestone, PUMA will hold a weekend of activities in the New York flagship store, timed to coincide with the launch of the AC Milan and Manchester City home replica kits and ahead of the two PUMA football teams playing in New York City.  Fans of PUMA, AC Milan and Manchester City are welcome to get involved and celebrate PUMA’s RE:FIBRE journey in store.

Saturday 20th July 2024
One hundred limited edition badges upcycled from match worn jerseys by Jack Grealish and Christian Pulisic will be up for grabs in-store. The badges have been designed by US upcycler and PUMA Voice of a RE:Generation Andrew Burgess, to commemorate the expansion of PUMA RE:FIBRE.

Sunday 21st July
Andrew Burgess will host three upcycling workshops to educate fashion-curious consumers on the techniques for customising and upcycling clothing to extend their lifespan. Leaning into the crossover between sport and fashion, consumers will have the chance to take a RE:FIBRE t-shirt and turn it into a sportstyle inspired garment.
 

More information on this can be found here.

 

This was made possible by its core suppliers doubling their use of renewable energy in 2023 compared to the previous year, increasing the use of less carbon intensive materials in its products, the introduction of low carbon shipment tariffs by PUMA’s logistics partner Maersk, by using renewable electricity or  purchasing renewable energy certificates at its own operations and by investing in electric vehicles in its car fleet. Compared with the 2017 baseline, this means an absolute greenhouse gas emission reduction of 29%.

“We are very proud of the progress we have achieved on our sustainability journey in 2023, particularly when it comes to the reduction of greenhouse gases,” said Anne-Laure Descours, Chief Sourcing Officer at PUMA. “We will not stop there, however, and continue to execute our FOREVER.BETTER. sustainability strategy and our 10FOR25 targets.”

With an 85% reduction of own emissions and a 65% reduction of supply chain emissions relative to sales, PUMA achieved its first science-based greenhouse gas reduction target in 2023, seven years ahead of the target year 2030. PUMA’s new climate goals, which were approved by the Science Based Targets Initiative (SBTi), aim to reduce PUMA’s emissions by what scientists say is necessary to keep global warming below 1.5 degrees. By 2030, PUMA aims to reduce its absolute Scope 1 and 2 GHG emissions by 90% from a 2017 baseline year. The SBTi has classified PUMA Scope 1 and 2 targets as in line with a 1.5-degree trajectory. By 2030, PUMA also commits to reduce absolute Scope 3 GHG emissions from its supply chain and logistics by 33% compared to 2017. 

Apart from increasing its climate ambitions, PUMA also made progress with its other 10FOR25 sustainability targets, reaching two out of ten targets ahead of schedule. 

PUMA met its Plastics and the Oceans target by eliminating plastic carrier bags from its owned and operated stores and through researching biodegradable plastic options.  An important part of this target was PUMA’s successful RE:SUEDE experiment, where it turned an experimental version of its classic Suede sneaker into compost under controlled industrial conditions. A commercial version will be launched in April 2024.

It also achieved its Human Rights target by training more than 220,000 factory workers on women’s empowerment and completely mapping subcontractors and Tier 2 suppliers for human rights risks. In addition, PUMA employees donated over 57,000 of community engagement hours.

Other progress included scaling up the use of recycled materials in 2023, producing 8 out of 10 products with a significant part of recycled or certified materials. Starting 2024, all* of PUMA’s replica football jerseys will be made using PUMA’s RE:FIBRE recycling technology which focuses on polyester textile waste as the primary source of material. 

PUMA’s sustainability report is available at https://about.puma.com/en/sustainability/reporting

*excluding any locally sourced kits and replicas for Al Hilal, Galatasaray SK, Fenerbahce, Shakhtar Donetsk
 

Based on data reported through CDP’s 2023 Climate Change questionnaire, PUMA is one of a small number of companies that achieved an ‘A’ - out of 23,000 companies which responded. PUMA made the ‘A List’ for the second year in a row. 

“Reducing our CO2 emissions is a priority for PUMA, both in the supply chain and in our own offices, stores and warehouses,” said Anne Laure Descours Chief Sourcing Officer at PUMA. “Being placed on the CDP ‘A List’ is a great recognition of our efforts, but we will not be complacent and continue to sharpen our decarbonization goals.”

PUMA aims to reduce CO2 emissions along its entire value chain. This includes the sourcing of raw materials, the production of fabrics and finished goods, logistics, the energy supply of PUMA’s warehouses, stores and offices and the even its corporate car fleet.

“For signatories of the Fashion Industry Charter for Climate Action, disclosing data to CDP is a fundamental requirement, as transparency is essential to the analysis and understanding of climate action and progress,” said Lindita Xhaferi-Salihu, Sector Engagement Lead with UN Climate Change. “We congratulate PUMA on making CDP’s A-List for the second year in a row and thank the company for its continued leadership in this space.”

In 2023, PUMA’s core Tier 1 Suppliers, which produce finished goods, increased their use of renewable energy to 23.1%, while the share of renewable energy among PUMA’s core Tier 2 Suppliers, which make materials, rose to 21.7%. PUMA sources 100% renewable energy, including renewable energy attribute certificates, for its own entities. 

Last year, PUMA only shipped 0.3% of its products by air and switched to low-emissions shipping with its logistics partner Maersk. PUMA’s corporate car fleet now consists of 35% zero or low-emission vehicles.

Since the launch of the pilot in 2022, which saw PUMA produce recycled training jerseys for their sponsored football clubs, RE:FIBRE technology has been used to create Switzerland and Morocco replica kits for the Women’s World Cup as well as Girona’s 2023/24 season Third kit. In 2024, official PUMA football replica jerseys* including those for the Euro and Copa América tournaments will be manufactured using RE:FIBRE recycled materials that were made of old garments and factory waste rather than only recycled plastic bottles. 

Through the RE:FIBRE program, PUMA is keen to address the challenge of textile waste via a long-term solution for recycling. The technology also looks to diversify the fashion industry’s main source of recycled polyester in garments from being less reliant on clear plastic bottles.

The RE:FIBRE process uses any polyester material – from factory offcuts, faulty goods to pre-loved clothes which allows new garments to be recycled from any colour textile to any colour desired. 

The four-step process of RE:FIBRE sees:

•          Collect and Sort: Collecting and sorting textile waste and other previously wasteful materials.

•          Shred and Mix: Shredding and mixing the collected materials down to the minimum.

•          Dissolve, Filter and Polymerize: Melting down the shredded polyester and ridding them of previous dyes through a chemical recycling process.

•          Melt, Spin, Knit and Sew: The melting allows the newly produced polymers to become ready to be spun and sewn into shape to create good as new RE:FIBRE fabric which can be recycled again and again. 

Managing waste has today become a necessity, which is why PUMA is ramping up its investment into resource-efficient manufacturing processes in a move to reduce textile waste. 

“Our wish is to have 100% of product polyester coming from textile waste,” said Anne-Laure Descours, Chief Sourcing Officer at PUMA. “Textile waste build-up in landfills is an environmental risk. Rethinking the way we produce and moving towards a more circular business model is one of the main priorities of our sustainability strategy.”

To help make the technical process of RE:FIBRE more digestible for the everyday consumer who wants to know more, PUMA has harnessed the storytelling power of Computer Generated Imagery to take viewers through the RE:FIBRE process, right down to the molecular chemistry at work. View the video here.

The video builds on the brand’s ongoing commitment to ensure PUMA’s sustainability initiatives are simplified for everyone to engage with. This comes after research conducted by PUMA found that 71% of young people felt their voices were not being heard when it comes to the environment and would like to see brands making more commitments (49%), communicating their goals better (40%) and being more transparent (34%). 

As part of this commitment to communicate better, PUMA released The RE:GEN REPORTS podcast in June 2023. Making dense information in their Sustainability Report more accessible and tailored to a Gen Z audience.

PUMA’s ongoing efforts in sustainability has shown the brand improving its rankings on Corporate Knight’s Global 100 Sustainability Index from 77th to 47th, and the journey is not over. You can read further on PUMA’s sustainability targets and RE:FIBRE on foreverbetter.com.

*excluding locally replicas for Fenerbahçe SK, Shakhtar Donetsk and locally sourced kits. 

In 2021, PUMA created 500 pairs of the experimental RE:SUEDE, using Zeology tanned suede, a TPE outsole and hemp fibres. The RE:SUEDEs were worn for half a year by volunteers in Germany to test the comfort and durability of the shoes before PUMA sent them to a specially equipped industrial composting area operated by its partner Ortessa Group in the Netherlands.

A special procedure had to be established to turn the shoes into compost. First, they were shredded and mixed with other green household waste and placed into a composting tunnel. They were then sprayed with leaching-water from earlier composting that contains nutrients and naturally heated due to the biological activity and controlled air circulation in the tunnel. After approximately 3.5 months, the materials that were small enough (<10mm) to pass through a sieve were sold as Grade A compost for agricultural use (within the standards of the Netherlands), while the remaining materials were returned to the composting tunnel until they too had broken down to the desired level (<10mm). Ortessa Group adhered to all legal requirements for compost applicable at their facilities in the Netherlands during this process.

“While the RE:SUEDE could not be processed under the standard operating procedures for industrial composting, the shoes did eventually turn into compost,” said Anne-Laure Descours, Chief Sourcing Officer at PUMA. “We will continue to innovate with our partners to determine the infrastructure and technologies needed to make the process viable for a commercial version of the RE:SUEDE, including a takeback scheme, in 2024.”

Transparency is another important pillar of the RE:SUEDE experiment, as PUMA will share its insights in a detailed report, so its peers and other interested stakeholders can learn from the experiment and apply the learnings to their own initiatives.

“We learned a lot during the RE:SUEDE trial and how to streamline our industrial composting process to include items that need longer to turn into compost,” said Marthien van Eersel Manager Materials & Innovations at Ortessa. “While all RE:SUEDE materials can decompose, the sole of the RE:SUEDE required more pre-processing and additional time in the composting tunnel to completely break down.”

As a result of the feedback received from the people who wore the RE:SUEDE for half a year, PUMA will improve the comfort of future versions of the shoes by enhancing the overall fit by using a new material pattern for the upper and the sock liner.

The RE:SUEDE experiment was the first programme, together with the novel polyester recycling programme RE:FIBRE, to launch as part of PUMA’s “Circular Lab”, an innovation hub led by PUMA’s innovation and design experts with the aim to create the future of the company’s circularity programmes. 
 

Aishwarya joins PUMA’s roster of next-gen thinkers as part of its year-long project to advance its sustainability efforts by collaborating with young environmentalists. Based in Delhi, India, Aishwarya is passionate about driving change towards a more sustainable fashion industry and has made a name for herself for her beliefs around women's rights, fashion, social media and climate change at events such as COP27.

Launched in April this year, PUMA’s initiative empowers a cohort of Young Voices to help the brand identify key areas for improvement by giving them a voice alongside leading stakeholders. To date, PUMA’s Young Voices have met with key players at PUMA to discuss the brand’s progress and challenges surrounding its FOREVER.BETTER Sustainability Strategy - and produced PUMA RE:GEN Reports; a podcast series to engage younger generations around sustainability and PUMA’s 10FOR25 target areas. The podcast was created in response to consumer feedback, gathered at PUMA’s Conference of the People event in 2022, which revealed that current sustainability communications were not engaging the next generation.

The final episode of PUMA’s RE:GEN REPORTS is now available to stream: ‘When it comes to Health and Safety, does the West know best?’. In this episode, hosted by the Head of Knowledge Exchange at the Centre for Sustainable Fashion, Monica Buchan-Ng, PUMA’s Chief Sourcing Officer, Anne-Laure Descours, reminds audiences that it’s important for people in the North to “recognize how much people on the ground are trying to improve [factory working conditions].”

The podcast series aims to make PUMA’s 2022 Sustainability Report more accessible to a wider and younger audience. This came after research conducted last year which found that young people want brands to be more transparent with consumers when it comes to the environment and sustainability (34%) and to communicate their goals better (40%).

In 2022 PUMA hosted Conference of the People, where Gen Z representatives, PUMA’s industry peers, activists, NGOs, experts, ambassadors, and consumers met to discuss some of the fashion industry’s sustainability challenges. The conference also highlighted the need for PUMA to improve on how it was communicating sustainability goals, actions, and progress.

RE:GEN REPORTS is hosted by 10 next-generation thinkers from six countries, distilling the content of the brand’s sustainability report into 10 episodes. Each host was tasked with breaking down the complex topics into digestible pieces. Focusing on PUMA’s sustainability strategy FOREVER.BETTER. 10FOR25 sustainability targets, the podcasts were created to eliminate barriers of traditional sustainability language, explaining why the specific targets were a focus for the business. Episodes discuss progress that has been made, whilst acknowledging areas where there is still work to be done.

From a 147-page report and over thirty hours of recording came this 163-minute series of clear and relatable sustainability information. As well as the final episode on health and safety, young people guided audiences through episodes about: human rights, hosted by Award-winning activist, model, and social entrepreneur Anya Dillard from the USA; chemicals, hosted by sustainable and healthy living vlogger Luke Jaque-Rodney from Germany; circularity, hosted by USA-based upcycler Andrew Burgess; fair wages, hosted by Fair Labor Association student committee member Amina Shakeel; climate action, hosted by Earthero Project co-founder Bertha Shum from Hong Kong; biodiversity hosted by India based environmental activist Ripudaman Bevli; plastic & oceans, hosted by Singapore sustainable bag company Peco Bag founder Yumika Hoskin; product, hosted by intersectional environmentalist Diandra Marizet from the US and water and air, hosted by Malaysian based eco-conscious Earth Day Ambassador Melissa Tan .

As well as PUMA spokespeople, the young hosts also interviewed representatives from industry bodies, businesses, and NGOs in discussions around the implementation and monitoring of more sustainable practices. Guests included Fair Labor Association’s Chief of Staff, Shelly Han; UNFCCC’s Sector’s Engagement in Climate Action Lead, Lindita Xhaferi-Salihu; Canopy’s Founder and Executive Director, Nicole Rycroft; ZDHC Implementation Director, Klass Nuttbohm; Apparel Impact Institute’s Chief Impact Officer, Kurt Kipka; and Leather Working Group’s Traceability Manager, Vanessa Brain.

“Transparency is critical to our sustainability strategy at PUMA,” says Anne-Laure Descours, Chief Sourcing Officer at PUMA. “We are committed to improving our practices and equally acknowledging where there is still a way for us to go. We invited these next generation thinkers to interview us and our partners on our FOREVER.BETTER. sustainability strategy 10FOR25 targets to push us to be better, to do better, and get into the detail in a way that more people can access and understand. It’s easy to hide areas where you’re not making progress as quickly as you’d like, but change requires collaboration and openness and with RE:GEN REPORTS we have and will continue to welcome both of those things.”

PUMA’s sustainability efforts have been recognized several times. In 2022, the brand topped the Business of Fashion sustainability ranking, the platform on living wage financials ranking, and the FTSE4Good ranking within its sectors. It was included in the Corporate Knights global top 100 most sustainable companies ranking, maintained its triple-A ranking with MSCI and its prime status with ISS; two leading sustainability rating agencies. Reuters also ranked it as number two within its sector and, in S&P sustainability benchmarking, PUMA outperformed all other sports brands for the first time since 2010. Although these rankings help confirm that PUMA is headed in the right direction with its FOREVER.BETTER. sustainability strategy, the brand recognizes that it still has a long way to go. PUMA’s full 2022 Sustainability Report can be accessed here.