Sports activities are becoming increasingly relevant for the German citizens' way of life. Surveys show that around 72 per cent of men and 65 per cent of women do sports at least once a week. One eighth of the German population is a member of one of the 8,500 existing fitness studios in Germany and almost 28 million Germans keep themselves physically fit through sports activities in clubs.
Directly associated with this is a high consumption of sporting goods, that is not limited to textiles and shoes, but also includes sports equipment and sports nutrition/food supplements in the broader sense. Also the sales figures of the local sporting goods industry indicate a clear growth trend: around 25 billion euros were generated in 2016 and, furthermore, one billion euros for food supplements.
The "National Programme for Sustainable Consumption" adopted by the Federal Ministry for Environment, Nature Conservation and Nuclear Safety in 2016 shows that sport is an important field of transformation and provides as a broad cross-cutting issue diverse references for achieving the global Sustainable Development Goals (SGDs).
With the project "Analysis of Development Potentials of Sustainability in the Sporting Goods Industry", the Wuppertal Institute and other partners from science and industry are working on behalf of the Federal Environment Agency to strengthen the potentials of sports articles for a sustainable societal development. In addition, the negative environmental impacts of consumption and production within the sporting goods industry are aimed to be reduced through appropriate measures. The project will include workshops with both consumers and industry representatives, surveys on purchasing behaviour, and recommendations for action to consumers and policy makers.