Biodiversity

TARGET DESCRIPTION:

• Support the industry in setting a science-based target for biodiversity
• 100% cotton, leather and down procured from certified sources (shared target)
• Zero use of exotic skins and hides

Relates to United Nations Sustainable Development Goals 14 and 15

The world’s biodiversity experts agreed to conserve 30% of the world’s land and oceans by 2030. Biodiversity is also inextricably linked to climate change.

Consequently, we have dedicated one of our 10FOR25 sustainability target areas to biodiversity. Most of PUMA’s biodiversity impact is based in the supply chain, particularly to the usage of agricultural raw materials. However, we also include biodiversity checks in our annual environmental data collection for our own offices, stores and warehouses around the globe.

BIODIVERSITY POLICY

As part of the Fashion Pact, we are committed to supporting the development of science-based targets related to biodiversity.

In 2021 we published the PUMA biodiversity policy and animal welfare policy- signed off by our Board of Management- to create a framework for our approach to biodiversity and animal welfare. These policies are available for download on our website.

This includes our commitments:

• as a supporting partner of the CanopyStyle initiative, to only source our viscose from Green Shirt-rated suppliers in order to protect endangered forests and species.
• to source the leather used in PUMA products solely from manufacturers who implement industry best practice standards of environmental management and traceability, such as the leather working group.
• to source all our paper and paper-based packaging from recycled sources and/or Forest Stewardship Council-certified sources. PUMA acted as a partner of Canopy’s Pack4Good initiative to collectively reduce any risk of sourcing from ancient and endangered forests by 2022 and promoting next-generation solutions.

At PUMA we care for the welfare of animals. We do not use animal products which originate from animals that have been treated inhumanely. Therefore, we aim to implement high welfare and traceability standards and have published an Animal Welfare Policy. PUMA consults animal protection organisations on a regular basis to review our policies and actions. As a sign of our commitment to animal welfare, we joined the Fur Free Retailer programme and phased out the use of kangaroo leather in 2023.

BIODIVERSITY IN OUR OWN OPERATION

We checked via our annual environmental reporting campaign and confirmed that none of our PUMA sites are located within a protected area. We have identified one site in South Africa, as being located next to a protected area, which holds a rare species of the plant, Renosterveld Finbos. This site is an office location, and is fenced off from the protected area, so any negative impact on these plants can be ruled out.

There are green roofs which offer additional habitats for insects as well as wildflower meadows and beehives on our headquarters in Herzogenaurach, as well as on our (outsourced) German central logistics centre.

BIODIVERSITY IN OUR SUPPLY CHAIN

Many species, including plants, animals, bacteria and fungi are being threatened with extinction due to human activities such as deforestation, putting Earth’s biodiversity at risk. Apparel supply chains are directly linked to soil degradation, conversion of natural ecosystems and waterway pollution. Two-thirds of apparel shoppers say that limiting the impact on climate change is now more important to them now than before COVID-19 (McKinsey: Biodiversity – The next frontier in sustainable fashion).

PUMA is a signatory to the Fashion Pact, a global initiative of companies in the fashion and textile industry (ready-to-wear, sport, lifestyle and luxury), all committed to a common core of key environmental goals in three areas mitigating global warming, restoring biodiversity and protecting the oceans.

Biodiversity loss and climate change are interdependent and mutually reinforcing. For example, protecting forests could help reduce greenhouse gas emissions. In turn, the rise of global temperatures increases the risk of species becoming extinct. In 2019 PUMA published its science-based emissions target (SBT) with the SBT Coalition and joined the Fashion Pact. In 2023 an updated and 1.5 degree aligned science-based emissions target was approved for Scope 1 and 2 by SBT Coalition.

Please see the Climate section of this report to find out about our climate action and progress.

* Including trims and excluding licensee production

** Better Cotton Initiative (BCI) principle: Biodiversity and Land Use is one of the seven Better Cotton Principles and Criteria. Management practices address identifying and mapping biodiversity resources, identifying and restoring degraded areas, enhancing populations of beneficial insects, ensuring crop rotation and protecting riparian areas.

*** Including outer cardboard

Most of the negative impact on biodiversity comes from three stages in the value chain – raw material production, material preparation and processing, and end of life.

To mitigate the risk of biodiversity loss due to the production process, we address environmental pollution risk through our targets and supplier programmes related to climate, chemicals, water and air.

In 2021 we developed roadmaps for water and waste, which can be found in the Water and Air, and Circularity sections of this report. In 2022 we developed a biodiversity roadmap using the Fashion Pact Biodiversity Strategy Tool Navigator that is in line with SBTN recommendations.

At cotton farming level, Regenerative Agriculture practices aim to reduce the impact of production on soils and promotes soil health by restoring the soil’s organic carbon. Through our partnership with Better Cotton, we support regenerative cotton farming practices. BCI farmers have to follow these two principles, among others:

• Care for the health of soil: This principle requires farmers to develop a Soil Management Plan. The plan should include practices that contribute to maintaining and enhancing soil structure and soil fertility, and continuously improving nutrient cycling.
• Enhance biodiversity and use land responsibly: This principle requires Better Cotton farmers to adopt a Biodiversity Management Plan to conserve biodiversity on and around their farm. This plan includes regenerative farming practices such as ensuring crop rotation, which helps with soil regeneration.

BIODIVERSITY ROADMAP

Scope: Cotton, Leather, Rubber, Paper, MMCF, Synthetics, Wool

Below are some key focus areas for the coming years. Some measures were implemented in 2022 and 2023 and are covered in this report.

• Raise awareness: We see the need to raise awareness internally and will be developing an e-learning on biodiversity for our staff. We also see the need to increase the awareness of our consumers. We aim to maintain transparency to keep a strong relationship with stakeholders while providing information about biodiversity actions. In 2022, PUMA sponsored the Biodiversity Landscape Analysis Report as an opportunity to foster collaboration and knowledge-sharing in biodiversity. Together with Textile Exchange, Conservation International and the Fashion Pact, the Biodiversity Landscape Analysis Reportaims to provide a common reference point on the topic of biodiversity in the textile industry, and to offer concrete pathways for brands and retailers to deepen their engagement. The report, which was published in 2023 intends to help companies of all sizes and maturities to begin or continue their biodiversity journey.
• Knowledge of impact: We will explore traceability tools and conduct impact assessments, starting with leather and rubber. We collect material and packaging consumption data on an annual basis for the country of origin. For example,only a small percentage of the total leather used in PUMA products originates from South America, where deforestation is occurring at a rapid pace. Our EP&L identifies how the environmental impact is distributed along our value chain, for example, land use change per country, material type and tier level. The potential financial impact on land use was estimated to be approximately € 100 million in our 2023 EP&L.
• Internal action: We will define a KPI to be included in a supplier scorecard (environmental and chemical) and set biodiversity targets as well as traceability targets, starting with leather. We set goals to reach 100% cotton, leather, viscose, paper packaging and down-procured from certified sources in 2025. Both cotton farming and cattle ranching require extensive land use and are known to reduce biodiversity, 99.2% of cotton used in PUMA products is BCI or recycled cotton. 99.7% of the leather used in our footwear is sourced from Leather Working Group (LWG) medal-rated tanneries. Leather traceability is a first step towards reducing deforestation. We monitor our LWG medal-rated tanneries' traceability performance and have joined the LWG Traceability working group. We partner with the NGO, Canopy, a Canadian non-profit organisation with the mission to protect the world’s forests, species and climate, and to help advance indigenous communities’ rights. We aim to ensure that our sourcing of man-made cellulosic materials (such as viscose) as well as paper and cardboard, does not contribute to deforestation. 99.4% of our paper packaging is either recycled and/or FSC-certified. We commit to sourcing 100% of our viscose from suppliers committed to reducing the risk of sourcing from ancient and endangered forests. In 2023, 84% of viscose was sourced from Green Shirt-rated suppliers. We hardly used wool (6,566 kg in 2023), but we have initiated Responsible Wool Standards certification. We aim to reach 100% certified responsible wool by 2025.
• Collaboration and partnership: PUMA joined the Fashion Pact, a global coalition of companies in the fashion and textile industry that is committed to stopping global warming, restoring biodiversity and protecting the oceans. PUMA joined the Fashion Charter, and committed to sourcing 100% of priority materials as preferred materials by 2030 (material for which no natural ecosystems are converted or deforested). In 2021 we engaged with Canopy, who helped us develop our policy on forest protection. We also engaged with Canopy‘s initiatives: CanopyStyle and Pack4good. Through these initiatives, we started investigating the next generation of raw materials with a focus on biobased materials, such as wheat straw, as a partial substitute for paper in our shopping paper bags.

BIODIVERSITY RISK ASSESSMENT

In 2023, we conducted a biodiversity risk assessment for our key raw materials such as cotton, polyester and leather. For cotton and polyester, we used the Materials Impact Explorer tool provided by Textile Exchange.  For leather, we used the Biodiversity Risk and Impact Dashboard of Fashion Pact. PUMA is currently taking steps to mitigate biodiversity risks and address environmental pollution risks through our targets and supplier programmes related to the climate, chemicals, water and air. 

We evaluated the environmental risk of rubber using the EiQ platform from Elevate. EiQ is a data-driven supply chain Environmental, Social, and Governance (ESG) due diligence platform used by businesses to enhance ESG risk management. The environmental risk encompasses water use, non-GHG air pollutants, terrestrial ecosystem use, soil pollutants, solid waste and water pollutants. We also mapped our sourcing of these materials by country.​

For cotton and polyester, we mapped our material consumption by country of origin using the Materials Impact Explorer tool to evaluate the potential impact on biodiversity in terms of changes in the state of nature (quality or quantity) which may result in changes to the capacity of nature to sustain social and economic functions. We also evaluated the risk of dependency in terms of environmental assets and ecosystem services that an organisation relies on to function. The dependency risk rating for recycled cotton and recycled polyester is not applicable as per the tool used. The outcome of the assessment is summarised below. The risk profile of a few countries from which PUMA is sourcing cotton and polyester is not available in the tool. However, such countries represent less than 5% of our sourcing volume for cotton and 13% for polyester.  ​

As a next step, we will look at a collaborative approach and join programmes with third-party initiatives to understand governance challenges.​

Cotton: In 2023, we sourced 63% of cotton from the USA, followed by Brazil (15%) and Australia (8%). These three countries have high a risk rating for potential impact. 4% of cotton is sourced from India which a very high-risk country.

In terms of dependency risk, the USA, Brazil and Australia are categorised as high-risk countries, whereas India is categorised as a very high-risk country.

We have required our suppliers to source only cotton grown in farms that are licensed as having good farming and human rights standards or recycled cotton from factories that are either Global Recycled Standard (GRS) or Recycled Claim Standard (RCS) certified in 2025. 

PUMA is taking steps to mitigate the biodiversity risks associated with the cotton sourcing. These include the adoption of BCI cotton, increased usage of recycled cotton, focusing on innovation to increase the share of recycled cotton in our products, conducting Life Cycle Assessment of products and materials to evaluate environmental impact in different lifecycle stages and engaging with textile exchange to stay informed on industry best practices. 

We collect material consumption data on an annual basis along with the country of origin and require our suppliers to keep all the supportive documentation at disposal. We have also established an on-going due diligence programme with our partner laboratory in Germany where we regularly test samples of cotton finished garments before shipment. This further strengthens traceability and control across our supply chain, from the raw material to the finished products.

Through our partnership with Better Cotton, we support regenerative cotton farming practices. Better Cotton Soil Health principles require farmers to develop a Soil Management Plan. The plan should include practices that contribute to maintaining and enhancing soil structure and soil fertility, and continuously improving nutrient cycling.

Better Cotton Biodiversity principles require Better Cotton farmers to adopt a Biodiversity Management Plan to conserve biodiversity on and around their farms. This Plan includes regenerative farming practices such as ensuring crop rotation, which helps with soil regeneration. Biodiversity loss and climate change are interdependent and mutually reinforcing. Protecting forests, for example, could help reduce greenhouse gas emissions.

Through our partnership with Better Cotton, we also support cotton farmer producers for climate-friendly practices, Better Cotton has set the goal of reducing greenhouse gas emissions by 50% per ton of Better Cotton lint produced by the end of the decade.

In 2023, the share of BCI cotton was 90% and recycled cotton made up 8.6% of all cotton sourced by PUMA.​

Polyester: We sourced 79% of our polyester from China in 2023, followed by Taiwan 9.2% and Vietnam 7.4%. We sourced both virgin polyester and recycled polyester from China, whereas we sourced only recycled polyester from Taiwan and Vietnam. China has a very high-risk rating in terms of the potential impact of virgin polyester. Recycled polyester is rated as medium risk irrespective of country of origin by the Textile Exchange tool.

In terms of risk related to dependency, China, Turkey, South Korea, Japan and Indonesia are rated as very high-risk countries for virgin polyester whereas the USA and Germany are considered as high-risk countries. However, apart from China, we source a negligible volume (around 1%) from high, and very high-risk countries.

We have required our suppliers to source only polyester-certified to Bluesign/ Oekotex, or recycled polyester from factories that are either Global Recycled Standard (GRS) or Recycled Claim Standard (RCS) certified in 2025.  PUMA has joined the Textile Exchange polyester challenge, since our 2025 goal of 75% recycled polyester is aligned with this challenge. While most of our recycled polyester to date has been made from PET bottles, PUMA launched the innovative RE:FIBRE programme, and can repurpose collected textile waste and other used materials to create new textiles. We engaged our core fabric manufacturing plants in energy efficiency programmes and are helping them to transition to 25% renewable energy processing in 2025. We monitor and report chemical discharges, and work to eliminate pollutant chemicals. ​

In 2023, we sourced a bio-based, high-performance polyester fibre known as Sorona, which constitutes 0.11% of our total polyester consumption. Sorona contains over 20% bio-based carbon, which helps reduce the environmental impact without sacrificing quality and performance. Sorona is produced using a fermentation process which utilizes corn sugar as the main ingredient. 

Leather: The Fashion Pact Dashboard allows us to assess overall risk in terms of biodiversity loss and land use area. However, biodiversity risk specific to leather usage by a brand or company cannot be evaluated by using this dashboard. We plan to explore a more specific tool for leather in future. ​

In 2023, we sourced 61% of our leather from the USA, followed by Argentina (27%), Australia (6%) and Brazil (5%). The risk assessment indicates that the USA has a risk rating of very high for land use impact and high risk for biodiversity loss, while Argentina has a very high-risk rating for land use impact and a medium risk rating for biodiversity loss. Australia has a medium-risk rating for both impact categories while Brazil has very high-risk rating for both impact areas. ​

PUMA is taking several steps to mitigate the biodiversity risks associated with leather sourcing. These include sourcing leather from LWG-rated tanneries, setting goals for sourcing deforestation-free leather, and focusing on innovation in the development of recycled and other bio-based alternatives. We engage with Fashion Pact, Textile Exchange and the Leather Working Group to remain updated about industry best practices. ​

We have committed to sourcing all the bovine leather used in our products from verified deforestation-free supply chains by 2030 or earlier launched by global non-profits Textile Exchange and the Leather Working Group. The initiative aims to create equitable, transparent, and deforestation-free leather supply chains. The cross-sector initiative is aimed at galvanizing brands into action to end the deforestation and conversion of natural ecosystems linked to leather sourcing. In doing so, it looks to protect wildlife habitats and biodiversity, preserve carbon stocks to mitigate climate change, and protect human rights.​

Close to 100% of the leather that PUMA currently sources comes from Leather Working Group-certified tanneries. This means that the leather used in PUMA products comes from manufacturers who are working to implement industry best practices of environmental management and traceability. PUMA currently monitors its LWG medal-rated tanneries’ upstream traceability performance.​

However, around 76% of the leather used at PUMA is suede, a byproduct of the full-grain leather business. The challenge faced currently by PUMA and others in the industry is that most suede tanneries work with agents and intermediaries alongside direct tanneries, to guarantee a stable supply which creates a challenge to have full traceability at the cattle ranch level.​

Our innovation team has worked to address the technological limitations of a shoe designed for composting and launched the RE:SUEDE experiment. In 2022, 500 participants were asked to wear their RE:SUEDEs for six months before returning them to PUMA for the next stage of the experiment. A total of 412 pairs of worn RE:SUEDEs were returned to PUMA and sent to our industrial composting partner Valor Composting – a family business that takes a different approach to waste. We discovered that it is possible to turn the RE:SUEDE into Grade A compost under specific industrial conditions provided by Ortessa. RE:SUEDE is mainly made up of zeolite-tanned suede leather, hemp fibres, biodegradable TPE and organic cotton. The zeolite tanning process is an innovative approach to in tanning chemicals, which use mineral zeolite and is free from toxic substances such as chrome, heavy metal and aldehyde. 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 take-back scheme, in 2024​.

Synthetic Rubber: We sourced, 74% of our synthetic rubber from China, followed by Vietnam 14% and South Korea 4%. China and South Korea are high-risk countries, while the risk profile for synthetic rubber from Vietnam is not available on the EiQ platform. High risks are Greenhouse Gas emissions, water use and solid waste.

We have not yet mapped the manufacturing plants supplying synthetic rubber to our outsole manufacturers. As part of our 10FOR25, we work on developing recycled materials as alternatives to rubber. In 2023, 5% of synthetic rubber was recycled.  We engage our strategic outsole suppliers in Higg FEM (environmental performance tool measurement which includes energy use and greenhouse gas emissions, water use, wastewater, emissions to air and waste management) and work with them to eliminate pollutant chemicals.

Natural Rubber: In 2023, we sourced 29% of natural rubber from Vietnam, followed by Brazil 25%, Pakistan 13%, and Thailand 5%. Vietnam is categorised as an extreme risk country, while risk profiles for natural rubber from Brazil, Pakistan and Thailand are not available on the EiQ platform. The main high risks are water use and impact on ecosystem.​ In 2023, only 2% of the rubber used in our products was natural rubber. We aim in future to only source FSC certified rubber. FSC certification include adopting standards to maintain, conserve, and/or restore the ecosystem and environmental values of managed forests and avoid, repair, or mitigate negative environmental impacts.​

PUMA’s CDP Forestry score improved from C in 2021 to B- in 2022. Until the end of January, 2024, we retained our B-score. PUMA’s rating is better than the average performance of the sector (textile and fabric goods) which has an average rating of C. The overall global average rating stands at C. For more information, please visit theCDP website. 

* Including paper bags, office paper and cardboard consumption

** Including outer cardboard boxes

1 PUMA figures include PUMA owned or operated offices, warehouses and stores. Includes our own production sites in Argentina. All other production is outsourced to independent supplier factories, some warehouse operations are outsourced to independent logistics providers. Franchised stores are excluded.

2 PUMA production figures include core Tier 1 supplier factories, Apparel, Footwear & Accessories (54 factories) and core Tier 2 supplier factories, Leather, PU and Textiles (40 factories).

3 Data includes extrapolations or estimates where no real data could be provided.

4 Methodological changes over the last three years have influenced results.