Pakistani Soccer Ball Industry Sets Up Green Goals

LAHORE, Pakistan, November 29, 2004 (ENS) - A majority of the world’s soccer balls will be produced in an environmentally friendly manner under the terms of a declaration adopted unanimously on Friday at a UN sponsored forum on environmental responsibility in the sports industry.

The statement was agreed at the Third Global Forum for Sports and Environment held in Lahore and Sialkot from November 24 to 26. The event was organized by the UN Environment Programme (UNEP), the Global Sports Alliance, and the Pakistan based Irfan Group of companies. The event introduces the celebration of 2005 as the United Nations Year of Sport and Physical Education.

Greener balls will roll out of Pakistan, manufacturers pledge. (Photo courtesy Pakistan Football Federation)

They will introduce cleaner technology, reduce the amount of toxic and chemical waste and other pollutants in production facilities and raise environmental awareness and action among company workers.

By agreeing to the Lahore Declaration, the soccer ball makers indicated they would include the environment as a key factor in their non-financial reporting.

"If it is not yet a standard part of their non-financial reporting, there are many examples of how organizations and companies are minimizing waste and incorporating environmental principles into their activities," UNEP Communications Director Eric Falt told the conference.

"Ski resort operators, mountain biking groups, sports facility architects, parks and recreation departments and major sporting goods manufacturers like Nike, Mizuno and Patagonia are among a growing number of proponents of greater sustainability," Falt said.

Sialkot soccer balls generate US$ 1 billion in retail sales annually. The industry has proved in the past that it is willing to make changes to improve its child labor record. Environmental responsibility is the industry's next big step forward.

"Leaders have courageously tackled the issue of child labor in recent years and have committed to continue to improve working and environmental standards in line with the UN Global Compact initiated by Secretary-General Kofi Annan," UNEP said in a statement. The announcement refers to Annan’s initiative to promote better business practices in human rights, labor, the environment and the fight against corruption.

In 1997, the International Labor Organization formed a partnership with the Sialkot Chamber of Commerce and Industry and UNICEF to eliminate child labor in Sialkot's soccer ball industry. The Punjab government outlawed child labor and business leaders set up a social safety net for ex-child laborers, putting more than 10,000 of them through a program of education and technical training.

Children learn soccer skills on a New Zealand field. (Photo courtesy U. Waikato)

The Global Forum for Sports and Environment was held at the Pearl Continental Hotel in Lahore. It brought together 250 participants from the sporting goods industry, international and regional sport federations and associations, as well as athletes, to discuss their impact on and contribution to sustainable development.

Considerable effort and diligence was invested by the Pakistani sporting goods industry and NGOs in order to bring this forum to Pakistan, and participants were proud of their pledge to green the soccer manufacturing industry.

A RECYCL'art Exhibition, run with the cooperation of the Pakistan National Council of Arts, was on display during the Forum.

Lahore was chosen as the first venue outside Japan for the Global Forum for Sports and Environment, because of the huge volume of sporting goods and sportswear manufactured and exported by Pakistan. The Forum was held in Tokyo in November 2001 and 2003.