French luxury and sporting goods group PPR has revealed the first full set of green accounts for Puma - and says it now plans to roll out environmental profit and loss (EP&L) statements across all of its brands by 2015.

The company, whose line-up includes Gucci, Stella McCartney, Yves Saint Laurent and Alexander McQueen, today (16 November) said it will expand the initiative, which was spearheaded by Puma earlier this year.

The move will see it provide a monetary valuation of the environmental impacts throughout its business operations and supply chain. It believes the approach has never been applied before across global brands, and will serve as a catalyst to develop a more sustainable business model for the group.

"An EP&L will help us pinpoint and understand issues whereby we can set clear targets to operate on a more sustainable level across all areas of the business," says Jochen Zeitz, chief sustainability officer and CEO of PPR's sport and lifestyle group.

Puma EP&L results
He was speaking as Puma released the results of its completed EP&L, expanding on the first phase which was announced in May this year. The findings showed the environmental impact for greenhouse gas emissions, water use, land use, air pollution and waste generated through the brand's operations and supply chain was valued at EUR145m in 2010.

The report also discovered the company's supply chain is responsible for 94% of its total environmental impact, with over half (57%) of the total linked to the production of raw materials. Meanwhile, only 6% comes from Puma's core operations, such as offices, warehouses, stores and logistics.

Zeitz says the company is looking at using more sustainable materials, highlighting the success of its Re Suede shoe, which uses more sustainable materials.

With raw materials and leather accounting for the lion's share of the company's land use environmental impact, Zeiz says the company will look at which countries it sources its raw materials from - highlighting the difference in environmental impact from sourcing leather from a country such as Brazil that is likely to have to clear rainforest to graze cattle, versus those with a lesser environmental impact.

He wouldn't be drawn on a timeline, or by how much the company wants to reduce its EP&L. But Zeitz says the company will set clear standards for its suppliers and is working on how it defines sustainable cotton, leather and rubber.

Reduced environmental footprint
At the same time as working to understand its environmental footprint, Puma is also trying to reduce it. Zeitz told just-style the company's headquarters in Germany are carbon neutral, and says it is working with suppliers to cut waste and introduce technology to help reduce their footprint.

Indeed, incentives for senior management are partially based on their contribution to building a more sustainable company.

These steps will play a key role in the firm's goal of ensuring that around half of its international collections are manufactured using more sustainable materials by 2015.

Zeitz says the sustainability measures will not provide a massive shift in how the company interacts with its third-party suppliers, explaining that "they don't care what materials they use, only that we're using them".

As part of the EP&L initiative, the company has increased the size of its Puma.Safe team, with five more environmental and social auditors to join the existing 13. It is also hiring a chemical engineer to identify more sustainable materials and help the brand to phase out harmful substances from within the supply chain.

Speaking about how these steps will be communicated to consumers, Zeitz says it will focus on the results rather than the EP&L released today. As well as the Re Suede shoe there is its clever little bag - which uses 65% less paper and reduces the energy used in manufacturing by over 60% a year.