Fast track: Champion, Decathlon and Puma at the forefront of sustainable change

Fast track: Champion, Decathlon and Puma at the forefront of sustainable change

Sportswear brand Puma has come out top in two reports on the world’s biggest fashion brands and retailers for its far-reaching sustainability initiatives. However, it is closely followed by two of its largest competitors, namely Champion and Decathlon. In the report “World’s Most Sustainable Companies of 2024”, published by Time magazine and online data platform Statista, Puma was recognised as the highest ranked company out of the 12 companies listed in the category of Apparel, Footwear & Sporting Goods. Also, it was ranked first in the apparel industry-specific report “What Fuels Fashion?”, compiled by the activism movement Fashion Revolution. By comparison, Champion was ranked fourth and Decathlon ninth. The “What Fuels Fashion?” report analyses and ranks 250 of the world’s biggest fashion brands and retailers with a turnover of US$400 mn or more each, based on their public disclosure of climate-related and energy-related actions. A key factor in what are relatively high overall scores given to Champion, Decathlon and Puma in the report is the willingness of these companies to take positive action to reduce Scope 3 emissions in the supply chain. And yet, the report also revealed a number of shortcomings. For example, it asserts that the emissions reduction targets of the three companies are not ambitious enough to help meet the goal of limiting the global rise in temperature to 1.5°C above pre-industrial levels. Also, it claims that the companies are shifting the costs of decarbonisation on to the factories they work with and burdening workers and communities with fixing a problem they did not create.