Nature is always generous with humans, bestowing us with extremely rich natural resources. Now, society must respond by doing its best to protect the environment. The sporting goods brand DECATHLON, with a mission to move people through the wonders of sport, sustainably, is making efforts to lessen the environmental impact generated by its products by eco-designing. Currently, the company offers 2,175 eco-design models in its Indian line-up, 600 of which are ‘Make in India’ models. At DECATHLON, a product is called ‘Eco-designed’ if it minimises its impact on the following metrics by at least 10% (compared to the prior model): climate change, air pollution, water pollution, and resource depletion.
Given the concerns of climate change and overconsumption of natural resources, DECATHLON teams aim to have 100% of eco-design products by 2026. In addition, the company is developing a new Eco-design strategy, which is a new approach to product design that uses recycled materials such as recycled cotton, polyester etc. and production techniques such as eco dyeing to reduce the consumption of water and energy used during manufacturing. With this approach, the company aims to reduce the environmental impact of a product over its entire lifecycle while preserving its qualities of use.
Annie George, Sustainability Leader, Decathlon India said, “At DECATHLON, our teams provide our customers with high-performance sporting goods that are also designed with an effort to lower the emission of the newer version from the previous version. . In addition to taking an eco-design approach, we have begun to assign an environmental labelling to some of our products. This enables our consumers to compare the environmental impact of products within the same family (for example, the short-sleeved T-shirt family). It is currently available on 48% of the company’s products. We understand that there is still much to be done in order to reduce our environmental footprint, and we are determined to continue to forge ahead towards sustainable change.”
Here are some products which have been manufactured in India while keeping eco-designing in mind: ● Recycled Polyester (T-Shirt running RUN-DRY for women and men)
● Organic cotton (Women’s Organic Cotton Gentle Yoga Bottoms)
● Recycled Cotton (Women’s Hiking T-shirt NH500)
● Dope Dye (Jacket NH100 Raincoat Black M)
● BITONS (Sports Backpack Essential 25L – Navy Blue)
● GREIGE (Yoga Cotton Belt beige)
● PFC Free (Jacket SH100 Warm M Blue)
