German sportswear group Adidas made a commitment to using more sustainable cotton on Tuesday, as part of a new five-year environmental management strategy.
 
By 2018, the company aims to use only cotton produced by farms that practice techniques for water conservation and pesticide reduction. Adidas also set a midpoint goal for what is being called "Better Cotton" of 40 percent by 2015.
 
Another initiative evolving from the environmental management strategy looks at the facilities of the Adidas Group. During 2010, the Group's headquarters in Germany and five North American sites worked together to create a shared environmental management system, certified to ISO 14001.
 
The strategy was published with Adidas' 2010 sustainability report. It also calls for extending existing programs to deliver process efficiencies product design, development and sourcing, logistics, facilities and IT systems. Adidas said greater efficiencies will allow the company to offer more sustainable products to consumers while aiming to reduce its environmental footprint 15 percent by 2015.
 
Individual targets in the plan include a 20 percent relative reduction in energy consumption, 20 percent increase in water savings per employee, 30 percent relative cut in carbon emissions, and 25 percent reduction in waste per employee.

Photo by Rodrigo Senna/flickr/Creative Commons

Reprinted with permission from Sustainable Life Media