Today, I would like to talk about Adidas. No, I do not want to talk about its exclusive Valentine’s Day footwear or its new maternity activewear. Instead, let’s dig into Adidas’s CSP (corporate social responsibility) practices.
Taking a more in-depth look into why this famous brand has fallen under the line in terms of sustainability, I wanted to understand what the company could do to better its chances of getting back on the list.
In 2018, Adidas produced more than five million pairs of shoes containing recycled plastic waste.
Today if you visit the Adidas website, the brand advertises a plastic waste issue. Illustrating how they use plastic found in the sea, melt it down and produce materials for its apparel, I found this promotion method to be effective. These recyclable materials proved to me that the organization is practicing material sustainability. Not only saying they are improving the environment but also implementing it in the brand’s gear shows me how serious Adidas is about this issue. Being aware of the large waste pollution, Adidas does a great job of informing its customers of the problem as well.
“Plastic today. A problem tomorrow. As we continue to address our overall carbon footprint, we’re shifting to using 100% recycled polyester in our products by 2024. This is bigger than sports, this is for our future. — Adidas”
Adidas also has significant plans set to instill the other areas of sustainability within the brand. From its product to its marketing theme, Adidas has genuine and respectful strategies. See the picture below to review Adidas’s plans.
With the future promising more ways to practice sustainability, Adidas plans to start packaging used to transport products from the manufacturing countries to the store shelves will also be made from recycled materials. At the same time, Adidas is testing a recycling loop for transport packaging. Read more about Adidas plans for 2021 through the last sentence’s link.
On Adidas’s Sustainability page, diversity and inclusion has their very own tab. The company prides itself on making diversity one of its main priorities. However, on June 9th, 2020, Adidas announced that 30 percent of new hires would be black or Latino and pledged to invest in scholarships for black students and programs that benefited the black community, but omitted any references to internal discrimination, angering many employees. And in worse news, Adidas refused to comment more outside of this comment.
In my opinion, I believe Adidas is producing great methods of sustainability for their products but need to work a lot harder to sustain their diversity and inclusion within the organization. While focusing more on taking care of the environment through recycling and promoting, Adidas needs to make harder efforts to better the workplace for its employees. I now understand why Adidas is no longer on the Dow Jones Sustainability Index list; they are missing some severe employee equality.
Let me know in the comments which organization you think has a better corporate social responsibility.
Living like Liz 