Industry giant PUMA formally announced its InCycle collection of apparel, shoes, and gear. After a long, happy, useful life with their delighted purchasers, these amazing products will return safely to nature or industry. PUMA product designers worked closely with Cradle to Cradle® experts at EPEA to develop products that meet the requirements for Cradle to Cradle CertifiedCM „BASIC“, the first step on a path of continuous improvement.
Products pursuing this path are aiming at a world where nothing humans make puts hazardous materials into the environment and where nothing humans make winds up in incinerators or landfills.
Instead, InCycle products are themselves made of spaceage material innovations like APINATbio© biodegradable plastic (pictured above) or from recyclable materials like PET. Also in accordance with Cradle to Cradle Certified guidance, PUMA has established its landmark „Bring Me Back“ system, developed with our friends at I:CO , to provide consumers with an easy way to return recyclable materials into endless incarnations of cool products.
The big story here is that PUMA, a global leader, began looking externally through their Environmental Profit and Loss accounting and asked how they could design their products and systems to reduce their negative environmental footprint and increase their positive environmental footprint. All while they keep making money. Bravo!
NOTHING LEFT BEHIND
“While we have already implemented numerous initiatives to reduce Puma’s footprint on our mission to become the most desirable and sustainable sport-lifestyle company, the Puma InCycle collection is the first step to help reduce the amounts of garbage that consumer products cause at the end of their lives,” Koch says in a statement. “We feel that we are responsible for the environmental impact our products cause and this innovative concept in sustainability is a first step towards our long-term vision of using innovative materials and design concepts for Puma products that can be recycled in technical processes or composted in biological cycles.”
Puma’s 2010 profit-and-loss statement linked 57 percent of its impact with the production of raw materials.
The PUMA InCycle collection will debut in Puma stores worldwide in February.
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