Puma, the world’s third-largest sportswear brand, pledged to eliminate all releases of hazardous chemicals across its global supply chain by 2020.
The announcement comes less than two weeks after Greenpeace released its "Dirty Laundry" report, which points to links between major clothing brands – including Nike, Adidas and Puma – and suppliers responsible for releasing hazardous and hormone-disrupting chemicals into Chinese rivers.
Puma’s statement incorporates many elements determined by Greenpeace as crucial to bringing about systematic change in the textile industry:
- a precautionary approach to chemicals management
- a clear timeline for reaching zero discharge
- elimination of all discharges of hazardous chemicals throughout the supply chain and product lifecycle – including those from polluting manufacturing activities such as wet processing.
Puma says it will publish an action plan within the next eight weeks which will detail how it intends to deliver on its commitment.
Greenpeace lauded Puma for taking on the challenge and called on Nike and Adidas to do the same. "Greenpeace is calling on all three companies to show leadership by becoming more transparent about the hazardous chemicals currently released during the manufacture of their products," says Martin Hojsik, Coordinator of the Toxic Water campaign for Greenpeace International.
In May, Puma released initial results from its groundbreaking effort to develop an Environmental Profit & Loss statement.
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