BoF Daily Newsletter: Learning from Puma’s Reduced Environmental Paw Print

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Learning from Puma’s Reduced Environmental Paw Print Posted: 21 Apr 2010 04:56 PM PDT LONDON, United Kingdom — When global sport and lifestyle company Puma decided to redesign its trademark shoe box, it turned to Yves Béhar, industrial designer and founder of fuseproject, a San Francisco-based design and branding firm behind the hundred-dollar Xo laptop and Jawbone headset After 21 months, an evaluation of 40 prototypes, and visits to distribution centres, manufacturing plants, storage facilities and retail points across Europe and Asia, the result was revealed to The Business of Fashion and other members of the international media last week at London's Design Museum: a re-usable, recyclable, non-woven plastic bag that holds a single, unprinted sheet of 100% recycled cardboard in place. Known as the "Clever Little Bag," the design allows Puma to save 8,500 tons of paper, 20 million megajoules of electricity, 1 million liters of fuel oil and water, and 500,000 litres of diesel every year. It's part of Puma's ambition to make all of its packaging materials fully sustainable by 2015, an objective set by "PUMAVision," the company's narrative for an improved future. However imperfect, Puma's attempts at sustainability bear semblance to the spirit of architect William McDonough and chemist Michael Braungart's Cradle-to-Cradle manifesto, a support strategy aimed to propel industries into a better, greener industrial revolution. The idea is to “be research-minded and ambitious… It is not about competition or controlling your neighbor," Braungart writes. It's a point echoed by Béhar: "The goal here is not to capture business and to hold it tight and keep it to yourself.” Indeed, Puma's sustainability index, or "S-Index," was made publicly available to other companies in order to help set global standards of compliance for defining the sustainability of a product. But what does this initiative mean in terms of bottom line? According to Puma CEO Jochen Zeitz, the costs associated with realizing these goals will initially have a "slightly negative effect, which we've already factored into our product development costs." But "in terms of net savings in the mid- to longer term, we hope that the cost effects will be neutral," continued Mr. Zeitz. Perhaps most importantly, Zeitz is also cognisant of an underlying shift in consumer expectations: "they are becoming increasingly discerning in their purchasing choices." When it comes to sustainability, PUMAVision and its Puma's S-Index standard "offer a seal of assurance," he said Indeed, as consumer expectations continue to evolve, the rest of the apparel and fashion industry—high fashion and luxury goods included—is not exempt from the call for smarter design and sustainable innovation. The fashion industry needs to "deliver something their customers want… not just to promote great lifestyles, but also to promote healthy ways of living and consuming," said Béhar, who has collaborated with Swarovski, Hussein Chalayan, and most recently, Issey Miyake to design intelligent products. He believes this kind of change is obligatory: "Realistically, these 21st century issues are not only here to stay, they're here to make or break any business in the near future… if you're not doing it, you're a dinosaur and you're on the way to extinction." Elizabeth Peng, an M.A. student in Fashion Journalism at Central St Martins, is an editorial intern at The Business of Fashion. This posting includes an audio/video/photo media file: Download Now

BoF Daily Digest | Coach goes global, High Street retail rebounds, Archs out from Ungaro, ASOS’ lofty goals, Isabel Marant’s SoHo chic Posted: 21 Apr 2010 05:41 AM PDT Coach Spring/Summer 2009 Featuring Ali Michael | Source: Coach Coach Doubles Dividend as Earnings Top Estimates (BusinessWeek) “Coach Inc., the largest U.S. maker of luxury leather handbags, doubled its dividend and announced an expansion in Europe … The company said it planned to open at least 14 stores in France … with Printemps, the French department-store chain. Coach has also agreed in principle to create a joint venture with Hackett Ltd. to open stores in the U.K., Spain, Portugal and Ireland.” High street retailers show their resilience (Independent) “Burberry, the fashion giant, said its sales had risen by 6 per cent during the first half of its year, adding that profits were now likely to come in above previous expectations of around £200m. Meanwhile, Primark, said it was also seeing strong demand continuing, with profits up 18 per cent during the first half to £144m.” Estrella Out (Vogue) “The Ungaro plot grows thicker today with the announcement that head designer Estrella Archs has left her position at the French house.” Asos aims for £1bn global operation (Times) “The online fashion retailer reported a sales rise of 38 per cent in the year to the end of March, a slower rate than previously, but insisted that its international expansion meant that it could quadruple in size by 2015.” What's in a Label? Say It in French (NY Times) “The environment of Ms. Marant's new SoHo store is reflective of the finished-yet-unpolished look of her clothing: artsy structures in raw wood; acoustic French folk music.”

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