Sport-related industries vow to adopt green practices

Sporting goods manufacturers in Pakistan, the world's largest maker of footballs, struck a landmark commitment on Friday to adopt green practices. The "Lahore-Sialkot declaration on corporate environmental responsibility" was signed by sports industry leaders in Sialkot. Sixty percent of the world's footballs are manufactured in Sialkot.
The declaration came at the end of a three-day UN-sponsored international conference on using sport to promote socially responsible practices from HIV-AIDS awareness, to equal pay, to waste minimisation.
The Global Forum for Sports and Environment conference, backed by the United Nations Environment Program, was held for the first time in three years outside of Japan in Lahore.
Under the declaration, sport-related industries agreed to boost the level of "non-financial reporting" of environmental factors, a reference to company reports listing socially responsible practices.
They pledged to scale back the use of water and energy in the production of sporting goods, and reduce the amount of toxic and chemical waste.
They vowed to boost environmental awareness among company workers, and to get involved in activities linking sport and the environment.
Sialkot's football industries have won worldwide praise for their near-complete eradication of child labour. They had traditionally relied on children under 14 for tiny hand-stitching of the balls.
Michel Parraudin, president of the World Federation of the Sporting Goods Industry, hailed the "absolute commitment of these companies, which have been very positive in acting on the question of child labour, to go now to the next stage, which is looking at sustainable development".
"They've taken the message of child labour, they're busy working not only on eradication of child labour but also the question of proper social responsibility," Parraudin told AFP.
He praised the sports goods manufacturers for "moving forward with industry and building new factories and doing things differently from what they've done in the last 10 years".