Introduction 3
Executive Summary 3
Ethical Policies of the Company 4
Environmental Policies of the Company 4
Credibility of Ethical and Environmental Claims 6
Conclusion 6
Reference List 8
Introduction
Adidas AG is a German global corporation that designs, produces and sells sport goods, including clothing, shoes, and various accessories. This company operates in more than 160 hundreds of countries and employs more than 53 thousand people, generating sales of more than €14 billion (Adidas-group.com, n.d.). The company is known to design clothes that have three parallel bars, which is a typical logo of the company. Adidas was founded in 1924, and today it is one of the largest companies in the world that produce sportswear. This company was founded by one of Dassler brothers, Adolf, while Rudolf, an older brother, founded Puma, one of the main competitors of Adidas Company.
As Adidas AG operates in many countries, it has to abide by many laws that differ from country to country. Sometimes, the company is reported to violate some of ethical standards or environmental laws, which will be review in this paper.
Executive Summary
As the company’s headquarters and factories are located in many countries around the world, it has to follow all the commitments it has, ensure a healthy ethical business behavior and protection of employees’ rights. Moreover, the company has to ensure that all suppliers from foreign countries abide by the rules set within the Adidas company, which is hard to do as the suppliers are located in the countries with a low level of labor rights protection.
In addition, Adidas company manufacturers sportswear, and there is no way it can avoid leaving an environmental footprint. Thus, it is of the greatest importance for the company to establish effective standards and rules to make sure that its business solutions are sustainable.
Ethical Policies of the Company
While carrying out their duties, employees are expected to follow all relevant laws and regulations, and are supposed to act responsively and with fairness.
A Group Code of Conduct that Adidas has adopted is the main guide that defines all rules that employees have to follow when interacting with other workers, business partners, and other parties. Also, the company provides online training that is aimed at promoting compliance with social and ethical behavior standards, and raising awareness about all ethical standards that exist with the company. This online training is mandatory for all employees working in Adidas AG, and it is provided in ten languages (Adidas-group.com, n.d.).
The company has adopted Workplace Standards, which cover labor rights and requirements for health and safety at workplace. These Workplace Standards serve as a guide how to create workplace conditions for employees both for the own sites of Adidas company, and for the factories of supplying companies (Adidas-group.com, n.d.).
Environmental Policies of the Company
Adidas Group has established an environmental approach that is based on holding responsibility for environment protection and doing everything possible to minimize the company’s harmful impact on nature and preserve it for future generations. The company has implemented an Environmental Strategy that is aimed at reducing environmental footprint. This Strategy includes various targets that the company is going to achieve to turn into a highly sustainable business. Adidas Group tries to modernize its all activities starting from product manufacturing to its sale point (Adidas-group.com, n.d.).
Adidas also has a Green Company Initiative, the main goal of which is to improve all practices that impact environmental performance of the company, and the overall vision of Adidas is to become with help of innovations a zero-emission corporation (Adidas-group.com, n.d.). Moreover, Adidas has established the greenENERGY Fund, which has a certain budget, and this money is used to launch various carbon and energy reduction projects.
The company’s environmental strategy is also aimed at making its stores more nature-friendly. For example, Adidas implemented an energy-efficient plan for lightening, and now stores have decreased their energy consumption by 20-50%, depending on their sizes. This is a big step for becoming a sustainable company, as about a half of all energy consumption of Adidas stores came from lightening (Adidas-group.com, n.d.).
It should also be mentioned that Adidas uses the DryDye technology, that helps the company to use 50% less energy, 50% less chemicals, and no water in its polyester fabric dyeing processes (Adidas-group.com, n.d.). Earlier, it took about 25 liters of water to dye one t-shirt, but with this innovative technology, no water is needed at all, and it also helps to protect the environment. Thus, it can be concluded that Adidas company takes many steps to protect the environment and reduce its environment-related negative impact.
Credibility of Ethical and Environmental Claims
Recently, Adidas did not face serious allegations of its failure to follow international ethical norms and standards. However, earlier the company was accused of providing poor working conditions for the employees working at the factories located in Indonesia. Adidas company was accused of not managing to ensure proper working conditions and compensation packages for the workers. It has been reported that some workers at Indonesian factories worked 65 hours per week and received about $0.55 per hour, which is a clear violation of all workplace norms and standards (Sports.inquirer.net, 2012). Adidas assured that it would investigate this issue, and this issue has never been on the news since then.
Definitely, Adidas company causes some environmental damage as it produces apparel, but the company is known for its efforts to minimize the negative impact it has on environment. Indeed, Adidas takes many green initiatives, and many of them are rather successful. Lately, Adidas representatives promised that the company is going to become a leading example in reducing negative impact of its business operations on environment and tackling climate change by reducing carbon emissions (Jervell, 2016). Many experts support this initiative, but they also question whether this initiative has a real impact.
Conclusion
Adidas Corporation is a group of companies that produce sportswear, including shoes and apparel. All companies operating in the textile industry cause environmental damage, but Adidas company tries to minimize it and takes many steps towards becoming a green and a zero-emission company. It has become one of the global companies that launch many green initiatives to show that they care about the future generations. Also, the company has implemented many rules and standards of ethical behavior, and all employees are obliged to behave in accordance to these norms. Moreover, the suppliers of Adidas company are also obliged to follow all ethical rules and standards that exist in Adidas AG in regard to the workplace conditions. The company is known for its green initiatives and this is greatly appreciated by millions of its customers, but the question whether these initiatives are effective still remains.
Reference List
Adidas-group.com. (n.d.). Climate Change. [online] Available at: http://www.adidas-group.com/en/sustainability/planet/climate-change/#/an-unseren-eigenen-standorten/ [Accessed 23 May 2016].
Adidas-group.com. (n.d.). Company Profile. [online] Available at: http://www.adidas-group.com/en/group/profile/ [Accessed 23 May 2016].
Adidas-group.com. (n.d.). Environmental Approach. [online] Available at: http://www.adidas-group.com/en/ sustainability/planet/environmental-approach/ [Accessed 23 May 2016].
Adidas-group.com. (n.d.). Rights and Rules. [online] Available at: http://www.adidas-group.com/en/sustainability/employees/rights-and-rules/ [Accessed 23 May 2016].
Adidas-group.com. (n.d.). Standards and Policies. [online] Available at: http://www.adidas-group.com/en/sustainability/supply-chain/standards-and-policies/ [Accessed 23 May 2016].
Adidas-group.com. (n.d.). Stores and Retail. [online] Available at: http://www.adidas-group.com/en/sustainability/planet/stores-and-retail/ [Accessed 23 May 2016].
Jervell, E. (2015). Adidas Moves to Address Environmental Worries. [online] WSJ. Available at: http://www.wsj.com/articles/adidas-moves-to-address-environmental-worries-1443075134 [Accessed 23 May 2016].
Sports.inquirer.net. (2012). Adidas ‘sweatshop’ report concerns London Olympics. [online] Available at: http://sports.inquirer.net/40261/adidas-sweatshop-report-concerns-london-olympics [Accessed 23 May 2016].
