Leading up to her trip to the Maldives, designer Jasmin Bynoe was unsure of what to expect. She was about to take to the seas for a 5-day adventure alongside 17 of her colleagues from adidas Group; they would be learning about plastic pollution and what they could do to help from Parley for the Oceans educators, and it was sure to be a unique experience.
“I think it’s going to be quite an adventure,” Bynoe told me. “But also, I’m pretty sure it will be very emotional because you have this beautiful island scenery – a paradise – and then on the other side, you see that we are actually on the way to destroying it all if we don’t watch out.”
The opportunity arose through adidas’ partnership with Parley which Adidas' Director of Sustainability, Alexis Haass shared with the Sustainable Brands community in London in November. Bynoe was one of the 18 employees selected to travel to the Maldives in November to participate in the Parley Ocean School and be trained as Parley ambassadors within adidas. Despite her uncertainties, Bynoe was excited about every aspect of the adventure ahead of her – even the visit to a “trash island.”
“It’s actually a really sad aspect, of course,” Bynoe said. She explained that it is exactly what it sounds like: An island full of trash, because most of the region’s garbage is sent there and the area hosts a high level of tourist activity.
“I’m excited to see, actually, this trash island, how it really looks, because I think it’s going to be really eye-opening [to see] how much trash we actually have going on,” she added. “I mean, I’ve only seen pictures on TV or on the Internet, but I have never actually seen something like that in real life.”
The opportunities available to employees through adidas Fund’s volunteer program in cooperation with Company Sports are usually related to sports, but in 2015, employees could apply to participate in the Parley Ocean School. For Bynoe, the program could not have come at a better time; she was interested in learning more about what she could do to reduce waste and inefficiency.
“I’m a designer in sportswear, and I was just recently working on a sustainable range, which is coming out in spring/summer ’17 – everything is made out of recycled polyester,” Bynoe explained. “So when I saw the new booklet from Company Sports and the adidas Fund, I saw that [the Parley Ocean School was included] and I thought, ‘Oh, that would be perfect!’”
On the trip, participants learned from Parley ambassadors, saw the negative impacts of pollution first-hand, met with local community members such as students and divers, and enjoyed the natural environment they were learning how to protect.
“Seeing the effect of plastic waste on the underwater world in real life had a major impact on me as a person and as a designer,” Bynoe wrote in a blog about the experience.
“I feel more motivated than ever to tackle the root cause. When working on a collection there are so many things to take into consideration: fit, color, pricing, marketing concept and, even more importantly in the sporting goods industry, performance. Drawing away in my office, I have to admit that I used to spend more time worrying about the 'birth' of a product and whether people will like it than worrying about the end of its lifecycle.”
Product innovation and design has been a core element of adidas’ work with Parley for the Oceans. The partnership has led to the elimination of microbeads from adidas body care products, the co-creation of new fabrics, a concept shoe made from ocean plastic, and more. Bynoe said the company wants to work towards avoiding the use of virgin polyester completely and is looking into more sustainable materials such as tencel, lyocell, cotton and wool, as well as fully engineered fabrics that avoid the use of chemicals.
“Since we announced the partnership with Parley, we’ve been working a lot behind the scenes, and for us, our partnership with Parley is much more than just a product,” adidas Group’s Senior Manager of Sustainability Communication Silvia Raccagni told Sustainable Brands. “There are multiple aspects and pillars behind this partnership, and we’re really getting active in ocean cleanups – both for our employees and at a later stage in the future, for consumers.”
Raccagni explained that adidas aims to get its customers involved through events and workshops, including ocean cleanups, in the near future. For now, the employees who participated in the Parley Ocean School are delivering an internal speaker series on what they learned and are encouraging their peers to consider sustainability in their work.
“Internally, the level of engagement demonstrated by employees has been overwhelming – everybody was like, ‘What can we do? How can we help?’ and we’ve been inundated by e-mails with employee suggestions,” Raccagni said. Employee suggestions such as eliminating plastic bottles from adidas’ headquarters and switching plastic straws for paper straws have been put into practice at the adidas Group headquarters.
“We’re really trying to create an environment where people are more aware of what they do in their daily life, but also more aware when it comes to their work environment as well.”