Sports company PUMA announced it has introduced a new shoebox design which will save 2800 tonnes of cardboard every year, as part of its sustainability strategy to make a positive environmental impact across its product range. The new shoeboxes, which have been rolled out in 2021, are just one element of the company’s commitment to make its retail supplies more sustainable. By 2023, it will also no longer use plastic bags in its stores and in addition will switch other retail supplies, such as hangers and shoe trees, to more sustainable alternatives.

“If we consider that it takes about 12 trees to make a tonne of cardboard, we are saving 33,600 trees every year. That is more than the number of trees in Central Park in New York,” said Stefan Seidel, Head of Corporate Sustainability at PUMA. “Such initiatives, which are part of our 10FOR25 Sustainability Strategy, help us make a positive impact at scale.”

The new shoeboxes are said to be just as sturdy as their predecessors and are made of more than 95 percent recycled cardboard.

Earlier this year, PUMA announced a partnership with not-for-profit environmental organisation Canopy and said it would source all of its cardboard and paper packaging from recycled or certified sources to ensure they are not derived from the world’s most integral forests.