For many customers, it's a challenge to understand which innovations are honest attempts to make a brand more sustainable and which are pure greenwashing.
Sure, many measures could be the first step towards a better future. For example, replacing polyester with bio-based products or introducing a new, green packaging concept. You have to start somewhere, right?
Unfortunately, this first step is already the end of the road for many big sports brands. If you recognise some of the following moves in your favorite brand's behavior, it might be worth questioning a few things:
1. Sustainable Materials in a Supporting Role
Many brands love to label their collections with tags like "made from sustainable materials", "bio-based" or "recycled". But if you check the true composition of their fabrics and compounds, you may find that these materials only complement conventional materials. Sometimes there's no way around it - high-tech midsole foams still can't do without a petroleum-based component to provide high-performance cushioning for a shoe. But if your sports shirt contains 10% hemp and 90% polyester, it may be bio-based, but it's definitely not sustainable.
2. Eco-friendly Material from Problematic Production
Recycled or natural materials always sound like a sustainable solution. But what if the bottle collectors or the cotton pickers are badly paid? What if water was wasted or if the dyeing process was toxic? Bamboo, for example, is becoming an increasingly popular textile material - but while lyocell bamboo uses organic solvents, viscose bamboo relies on harmful corrosive chemicals like sodium hydroxide to dissolve the plant's pulp.
3. Sustainable Production but Harmful Materials
Or vice versa. Many brands like to tell stories about social projects they finance. Or they write about efficient, water-saving, maybe even local manufacturing. But when you look at the materials used, suddenly the product is far from being "green". Just as an environmentally friendly material cannot compensate for problematic production, good production without sustainable materials is not particularly helpful.
4. Local Assembly but Global Sourcing
Customers love local products. And brands know that. They often place the last stop of their supply chain in their immediate proximity, perhaps even in their home town. This way, they can claim that their products are made locally - Made in EU or Made in USA. But what if all the used components and materials have to be flown in or shipped from far away? In fact, a production process can very often be more environmentally friendly if the product is manufactured close to the sources of its raw materials, in Asia or South America, for example, and then imported as a finished item to a central or regional warehouse.
5. Local Production but Poor Conditions
But even if a brand sources and produces its products locally, this does not mean that it does so in a sustainable way. While shipping is responsible for a maximum of 5-10% of a product's CO2 emissions, the actual production process can account for up to 50% or more, depending on the category. For example, a sports bag made in a modern Taiwanese factory and shipped to a central warehouse in France may have a much greener footprint than a Portuguese bag made with old machinery.
6. Promise upon Promise
Promises are cheap and unverifiable at first glance. That's why the sustainability reports of all the big sports brands are full of them. "Yes, we may be polluting like world champions right now. But we hereby solemnly declare the following ambitious goals..." A first step? Maybe. But unfortunately, this trick is repeated over and over again. It is easy to claim that one will only use green energy from 2025 on or that the company will be climate neutral in 2050. No one can prove otherwise in 2021. So don't just read the latest reports, look at what your favorite brand promised ten years ago and hold them accountable.
7. It's All About Packaging
Many brands like to talk about their recyclable or maybe even compostable packaging. Some a little too much. Because it might be the only thing about (or around) their product that is made in any sustainable way. Sure, getting the packaging right can be a challenge and every year the sports industry produces millions of tonnes of packaging waste. But eco-friendly packaging should only be one part of a brand's sustainability concept.
8. Irrelevant Collections and Prototypes
Probably the lousiest trick is to promote collections or even single products that are as green as can be, but ultimately represent only a measly proportion (or rather an exception) of the portfolio. Although they are promoted with all the brand's marketing power, the actual production figures of these items hardly play a role in the brand's overall sales - because the money continues to be earned with conventional plastic stuff. Some products are not even produced and remain pretty studies or prototypes.
9. Right Materials but Unrecyclable
This point is the hardest to judge - but still useful to consider. If you have made a product from many different recyclable or biodegradable materials, it is extremely difficult to recycle or biodegrade it... at least for you as a customer. Different materials require different treatments, often industrial composting or anaerobic digestion. In fact, the most sustainable product would only be made from one fully recyclable and compostable material - but such a material currently often limits the product's performance. Fair manufacturers therefore take care of the disposal of your product and assist with its recycling process.
10. Sustainable but Useless
But even if all of the above don't apply, consider whether the product you want to buy really delivers. It's pretty easy to make a shoe out of recycled paper. But first, you won't be able to walk properly in it, and second, you'll need a new shoe tomorrow already because your new kicks might have fallen apart during their first run. Many companies launch ecological products that unfortunately do not meet the expectations of ambitious athletes and therefore end up on a landfill far too soon. Frankly, it would be more important for such products to last a long time and be repairable in order to avoid unnecessary production of a new piece.
