Puma will have to stop using leather in its football shoes and trainers because it is "such an environmentally damaging product," according to Pilita Clark of the FINANCIAL TIMES. Puma unveiled an “environmental profit and loss account” that valued the environmental impact of its operations and supply chain at €145M ($182M). Puma CEO Jochen Zeitz, at the UN Rio+20 earth summit, said, "I think eventually we’ll have to look at alternative materials, there’s no question about it. We should eat less meat, all of us, and we should use less leather, I mean that’s reality." Zeitz said that the measure "showed the production and processing of raw materials" was the biggest contributor to Puma’s environmental footprint. Zeitz added that leather was "the biggest impact driver.” Footwear "has the biggest environmental footprint of Puma’s products." Zeitz added that innovative ways of finding a solution to the problem "had to be found." Zeitz said, “It may sound crazy, but maybe there’s an economic way of producing a leather-like product in the laboratory" (FINANCIAL TIMES, 6/22).
