PUMA’s commitment to improving conditions in the workplace goes beyond auditing and brand collaboration. We realize that finding solutions and making improvements requires identifying and addressing the problem, rather than merely treating the symptoms. We go to the heart of production to address factory issues and problems, making capacity-building a top priority. Our puma.safe capacity building initiatives and programs alert management to operational weak points, then offering training programs that will enable them to independently implement the necessary improvements.

In 2005, PUMA initiated its first capacity building program. Vietnam, China, Thailand, Romania and Bulgaria were the first countries where suppliers participated in our capacity building projects. These initiatives involve raising awareness of general social standards, compliance to fair labor practices such as reasonable work hours, open dialogue about freedom of association, implementing and improving human resource management systems, and employee training on the PUMA Code of Conduct and local labor laws. Other capacity building projects were implemented the following year in Turkey and El Salvador addressing similar topics while also introducing trainings on wage compensation and gender equality. Another capacity-building program—the suppliers’ training on Restricted Substances List testing—was started in 2006 and ongoing in all countries.

The latest programs are run in China, Vietnam, Turkey and South Africa.

Sportlifestyle company PUMA and the Global Reporting Initiative (GRI) today announced that PUMA has become the first member of its Global Action Network for Transparency in the Supply Chain (“The Network”).

The central purpose of The Network is for large companies to provide support to their Small and Medium Enterprise (SME) suppliers in measuring and reporting on their economic, environmental and social performance – known as sustainability reporting.

Through PUMA’s membership of the Network, its suppliers will benefit from capacity building through GRI certified training to prepare a GRI sustainability report. PUMA has nominated five suppliers in Portugal, Turkey and Pakistan to receive training on the transparent measurement and reporting on their sustainability performance using the GRI G3 Guidelines – the world’s most widely-used framework for sustainability reporting.

“We are pleased that GRI provides another opportunity for PUMA to increase capacity building in our global supply chain through its Global Action Network,” said Reiner Hengstmann, Global Head Environmental and Social Affairs at PUMA. “Through our participation in a previous GRI sustainability reporting project, we enhanced the understanding of and commitment to sustainability at PUMA suppliers in South Africa significantly with one supplier even winning an award for their first sustainability report.”

The Global Action Network for Transparency in the Supply Chain is based upon the success of a recent project in which GRI partnered with the German Development Agency (GTZ) and the German Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ). The project brought four multinational companies – including PUMA – together with twelve of their suppliers across five countries to teach the suppliers to understand, monitor and report on their sustainability impacts.

Gregory Elders, SME and Supply Chain Program Manager at GRI said: “We are delighted that PUMA has become the first member of The Network and has taken this bold step in embedding the practice of sustainability reporting within companies in its supply chain. The process of sustainability reporting is an essential step in enabling companies – large or small – to take ownership of their economic, environmental and social performance. Since small and medium enterprises – often within the supply chain of larger firms – provide the majority of employment globally: it is crucial that they measure and manage their sustainability impacts”

GRI has a strong track record in working with both multinational enterprises and smaller firms in driving the sustainability agenda forward through transparent public reporting.

“We are pleased to welcome PUMA back to build upon the success of the previous project, through which the company supported apparel suppliers from South Africa through the sustainability reporting journey,” added Elders.

Three PUMA suppliers in South Africa participated in an earlier pilot of the project. Impahla, one of the suppliers that participated in the pilot, has made sustainability reporting an annual activity.  The South African suppliers were supported by SustainabilityServices.co.za  for ellaborating their reports.  Our suppliers’ GRI / GTZ reports can be downloaded here:

Impahla Clothing 2007
Impahla Clothing 2008
Vimal Clothing Enterprise C. C.  2007

Since 2006, PUMA has been participating in the Multi-brand Human Resources Management Systems (HRMS) Project, which aims at improving HR structures and processes at an operational level in the suppliers’ factories to enhance manpower participation and productivity—which will ultimately lead to an increased capability of the suppliers to comply with the brands’ Codes of Conduct.

Deciding to implement HRMS projects in a number of their factories came from PUMA’s and other multi-national companies’ realization that a lack of proper management systems at the production facilities of many contracted manufacturers has traditionally been the reason for many issues of non-compliance and inefficiency. Ineffective management of human resources, inconsistent compliance with the companies’ labor, health and safety, as well as their environmental standards, and limited implementation of high performance work systems and production processes were all traced back to an absence of efficient management systems.

Through classroom-based consultant and peer learning, project assignments and inter-department committees within the factories, these various learning methodologies help participating factories improve their HR practices through instituting systemic improvements in internal management systems. Participating factories undergo one year of training on various HR topics such as recruitment, HR planning, compensation design, etc. Currently being conducted in China and Vietnam, PUMA is committed to systematically introducing HRMS requirements with all key suppliers, partnering with other brands and organizing country projects together.

At the end of 2008, PUMA trained female workers at its supplier Milteks in Istanbul on the rights they have as women at work and in general. The four-week training course covered issues such as how to use the rights and guarantees granted by the New Turkish Civil Code, female health issues, child education, combating violence against women in the family, combating sexual harassment at the workplace, methods for better communication within the family, workplace and public life and managing the double burden of work and family lives.

PUMA implemented this training in one of their key Turkish factories in order to empower these female employees with knowledge about their rights and entitlement to education. The local puma.safe auditor, who organized the training, was initially concerned with whether the women would be willing to participate in the training at all. However, the training turned out to be a success, increasing the self-esteem, self-confidence and, most importantly, the knowledge of the participants. The training evaluation report can be downloaded here.

Here is what some of the women had to say:

“The training was successful. I learned lots of things that I did not know before. For some issues, lawyers came here to give seminars. That was great. I learned a lot of things especially with regard to women’s health and rights of workers. Before I did not know those things, I did not know what to do, where to go. Most important is that I did not know how to act in the factory. I learned all those issues. My mother also works here and she participated in the training, too. When we went home after the training we kept on talking and discussing. We started to share lots of things that we did not speak about before. For example during the training, one day I told about discrimination. After the training I discussed it for a long time with my mother. In addition, we told other women around us about these issues, our friends or relatives. We tried to share the positive energy we got from the training with other women.”
- Elvan Demircioğlu, Assistant of Pattern Maker

“When I first heard about the training, I thought that it was ridiculous. But after the training started, day by day, I learned that I have lots of rights. I learned things about my own health. In fact, I learned that I am a human, an individual who has rights. Of course everything around me is not changing so quickly, but I realized that it is changing step by step.”
- Gülsen Keskin, Quality Controller

“Lots of things have been changed here after the training. At the beginning you made a survey and you asked some questions like: ‘Can a woman come home late at night?’ or ‘Should a woman get her husband’s permission to work?’ Lots of women answered that women cannot go home late and need her husband’s permission to work. Now they say: ‘No, women can do it.’ ”
- Ayfer Kurnaz, Quality Controller

The project is currently continued SLN Tekstil, another strategic PUMA partner in Turkey.

PUMA’s commitment to improving conditions in the workplace goes far beyond regular auditing. It’s very important to us to go to the heart of the problems in the factories and not merely to deal with their symptoms. Building capacity is therefore a priority for us. The aim of these “Capacity Building“ projects is to alert management to weak points in their operations by offering training programmes and enabling them to make improvements independently.

Our suppliers may have a very good infrastructure but also have areas that indicate potential for improvement. There is no single solution to these problems as every supplier is different and the challenges can be diverse. Ineffective complaints procedures as well as a heavy workload have shown themselves to be crucial in the supply chain.

Working on a one-to-one basis with our suppliers and in partnership with other stakeholders we devise possible solutions, with the problems themselves as our starting point. PUMA has faith in its suppliers’ ability to solve problems and demonstrate transparency as they move forward.

In collaboration with the Gesellschaft für Technische Zusammenarbeit (GTZ) and the Global Reporting Initiative, PUMA has been taking part in a pilot project in South Africa which aims to create transparency in the supply chain. Through this project we support small and medium-sized suppliers in producing their own sustainability reports, thus encouraging them to take on social responsibility for themselves.

Two key PUMA suppliers in Cape Town (Impahla) and in Durban (Vimal) produced their own reports.  They were supported by external advisers who are experts in reporting on sustainability and familiar with GRI guidelines for small and medium-sized companies (KMUs). Supporting small and medium-sized companies in the supply chain with training, workshops and resources enables the KMUs to start the report-writing process which will markedly improve management of and commitment to sustainability.

Outside support through this project is excellent preparation for our manufacturers to be able to document and demonstrate their commitment to sustainability independently during the football World Cup in South Africa in 2010. In addition, the effectiveness of other “rules of the game“ can also be tested. In supply-chain audits of the past the purchaser has tended to monitor affairs from his own side. With this project the manufacturer takes the initiative.

The project is in line with PUMA’s strategy of strengthening the manufacturing structure in Africa, where a new sales office was opened at the beginning of 2008 in Cape Town. The project also builds on PUMA’s past and present social involvement in Africa.

In spring 2008, China Labor Watch (CLW)—a New York based independent non-profit organization which realizes and defends labor rights in China—issued two reports which criticized workplace conditions in the production facilities of two key PUMA suppliers. Allegations concerned, among other issues, were excessive overtime hours, minor quality of food in the workers’ canteen and inadequate communication within the factory.

PUMA took the allegations very seriously and launched investigations throughout 2008, looking into the claims and problems reported in the following months. We found out that many allegations were either exaggerated by the workers or simply untrue. However, some of the issues raised were valid and we invited representatives of China Labor Watch to visit our factories again and engage in discussions with the factory management about how the issues could be remediated.

The discussions brought to light that communication between workers and management was inefficient. If workers had complaints or problems, most of them did not know how to get help, although the factory had many channels for grievance reporting or improvement suggestions. We agreed with China Labor Watch to improve the communication between the workers and the factory management through training programs. This one-year training project commenced in January 2009 and aims at making workers familiar with complaint procedures, such as the PUMA Hotline and complaint boxes.

For more about China Labor Watch, click here.