By Rob Starr, Content Manager, Big4.com

PUMA, with the support of PwC and Trucost, today launched the results of its first product level Environmental Profit & Loss (E P&L) accounts which value the environmental impacts of products in euros and cents.

“By putting a value on even one product’s environmental impacts, it brings into sharp focus the debates over commodity pricing, natural resource security and supply. Even as an emerging methodology, it challenges conventional business thinking – and consumers’ views – on how we measure and monitor the embedded environmental value and impacts of what we buy,” said Alan McGill, partner, PwC.

The results compare the environmental impacts from cradle to grave of a conventional shoe and T-shirt with more sustainable alternatives and illustrate how a sustainable approach to production reduces the impact on the environment by a third compared to conventional products.

The analysis focused on the environmental impacts caused by greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, waste and air pollution, as well as the use of natural resources such as water and land along the entire value chain from the generation of raw materials and production processes to the consumer phase when customers use, wash, dry, iron and finally dispose of the products.