With the release of its 2023 sustainability report, ASICS has revealed how prioritizing mental and physical well-being is helping to drive its sustainability agenda across a range of material topics from supply chains to climate action.
Key examples cited by the run shoe brand include:
Mental and physical well-being have long been part of the culture at ASICS, a company with a 75-year history. The company name originates from its founding philosophy ‘Anima Sana In Corpore Sano’, meaning ‘A Sound Mind In A Sound Body’.
Yasuhito Hirota, Chairman and CEO of ASICS, said “This report is the latest chapter of our sustainability story, highlighting the actions we have taken to promote well-being and understand the science behind it, while minimizing our impact on the planet.”
Against a background of economic uncertainty and a decline in mental well-being, ASICS has decided that its unique social value lies in its ability to get people moving.
Key to this is ASICS’ transformation from a product-focused company into one that supports ‘the lifetime athlete in all of us’ through its Runkeeper fitness-tracking app and its OneASICS membership program.
The company reported that it dramatically exceeded its 2023 target of 5 million OneASICS members to reach a total of 9.45 million last year.
Key initiatives highlighted by ASICS in its 2023 sustainability report include:
The global gender gap in exercise
ASICS has been contributing to the science of well-being with its ‘State of Mind’ studies. In 2023, ASICS partnered with Dr Dee Dlugonski at the University of Kentucky in the USA and Associate Professor Brendon Stubbs at King’s College London on ‘Move Every Mind’ – one of the largest global studies conducted on the gender exercise gap.
Responses from 24,772 people in 40 countries revealed that women who exercise regularly are 52% happier, 50% more energized, 48% more confident, 67% less stressed and 80% less frustrated.
The world’s lightest CO2e emissions sneaker
The company claims that its new products are enabling consumers to make more sustainable choices about what to wear on their feet. The GEL-LYTE III CM 1.95 – billed as the world’s lightest CO2e sneaker – was made available to consumers in 2023, following a 10-year development process and building on ASICS’ past collaboration with MIT to establish a life-cycle assessment of running shoes.
Running for reforestation
In April 2023, ASICS launched the Run for Reforestation challenge in partnership with One Tree Planted. The target was to get 25,000 users of the ASICS Runkeeper app to log a 5K run or walk, with each successful completion resulting in the planting of one tree. The challenge saw over 50,000 completions globally helping ASICS plant 50,000 trees, mainly in Indonesia.
Safe and ethical working conditions
ASICS adds that it also prioritizes the well-being of workers in its global supply chains and has ramped up due diligence to ensure that over 99% of its tier one supplier factories meet global sustainability standards.
KnowTheChain’s 2023 Footwear & Apparel Benchmark Report identified ASICS as one of two notably improving companies in Asia for mitigating the risk of forced labour. It ranked ASICS 12th out of 65 global companies, an improvement of four places since the last assessment in 2021.
Direct and indirect CO2e emissions down since 2015
ASICS adds that it is committed to achieving net-zero by 2050. In 2023, it recorded a 29.8% CO2e reduction in its direct operations and 21.6% reduction in its supply chain from a 2015 baseline.
Under ASICS’ green procurement policy, this year 80% of its major strategic suppliers have set and disclosed a 1.5°C reduction target, while 90% have concrete renewable energy sourcing plans.
www.asics.com