Seoul, Republic of Korea – PUMA, the first major sportswear company to join the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP)’s Climate Neutral Network, announced plans on Thursday to offset the CO2 footprint of PUMA-sponsored national football teams taking part in the Football World Cup this summer in South Africa – a total of 336 players and officials.
The announcement was made in front of hundreds of top business and environment leaders attending the Business for the Environment (B4E) Summit in Seoul, Republic of Korea.
This offsetting initiative marks an important step towards meeting the company’s commitment to becoming the first carbon neutral sports-lifestyle company.
“We took UNEP’s challenge to offset our football teams’ international travels to South Africa very seriously. Our commitment to the environment partnered with our long-standing collaboration with African football made it a foregone conclusion to support their initiative, and we hope in doing so that we inspire other stakeholders in the FIFA World Cup 2010 to follow suit,” said Jochen Zeitz, Chairman and CEO of PUMA.
PUMA will compensate the company’s direct and indirect CO2 emissions through offsetting projects in Africa that also take the needs of local communities and the conservation of biodiversity and CSR programs into account.
The portfolio of offsetting projects in Africa is being verified by an internationally recognized auditing company according to internationally accepted standards such as the Clean Development Mechanism (CDM), the Gold Standard and Voluntary Emission Reduction standards. PUMA’s total carbon footprint is externally verified utilizing similar methodology applied to the company’s carbon-neutral headquarters.
This bold initiative was in response to UNEP’s proposal that all Football Federations participating in the FIFA World Cup 2010 in South Africa offset their teams’ international travels.
PUMA-sponsored teams that have qualified for the World Cup include: Algeria, Cameroon, Ivory Coast, Ghana, Italy, Switzerland and Uruguay. To further illustrate the importance of UNEP’s ‘Call to Action’, PUMA has decided to go one step further and offset all local travel and accommodation as well.
Source: UNEP, April 23, 2010
