Intersport developed its ESG Scorecard to standardize sustainability metrics across thousands of products in its network. Ben Blischke and Sofia Manzali explain how the tool works.

Why did you develop a product ESG Scorecard?

Ben: We have thousands of brands in our network and hundreds of product types – textiles, footwear, hardware, paddle boards, skis, and more. We needed a unified way to work on all these products. Previously, brands might come to our teams saying they had new sustainable product innovations, but every brand meant something different. One company might say a product is sustainable because it is manufactured with fair working conditions, while another might highlight the use of recycled materials. To support our ESG goals, we had the responsibility to unify these different metrics and create a level playing field.

If there were a unified EU or global standard covering the full 360-degree sustainability topic we would prefer to use that, but most existing standards focus on one element like materials or supply chains rather than combining everything together. So, we set about making our own.

How does the ESG Scorecard work – and is it a carrot or a stick for brands?

Ben: First off, this is a business-to-business tool rather than a marketing initiative, and the findings are not intended for public communication. Similarly, the methodology took a couple of years to design and was developed collaboratively with national teams and brand partners.

For each product there are eight criteria with multiple-choice options linked to existing frameworks – things like certification standards for materials or labor conditions. Data is pretty useless if it doesn’t tell a story, so we spent a lot of effort making sure the dashboards present the results clearly.

It’s also fully carrot. Participation is voluntary, and we’re not trying to punish brands. Most of what we’re doing with the scorecard goes beyond legal requirements and is meant to encourage progress. We essentially provide a service that enables benchmarking against industry averages and a way for brands to identify hotspots in their products. The ESG manager can receive the dashboard and pass it directly to a CEO or commercial team and the data speaks for itself.

What’s the current status of the initiative, and what comes next?

Sofia: The system has now been running for about a year. We’re gathering product-level scores, which allow us to analyze the data and develop dashboard insights that can then be shared with participating brands. So far, we’ve introduced the project to the 50 brands contracted with Intersport International. Engagement has been strong, with most participating brands analyzing their entire product range, often 300 to 400 models.

In the coming weeks, we’ll begin onboarding additional brands from National Organizations and external groups as well. This will broaden the scope of our analysis and further strengthen the insights we can offer. Over time we also hope to track how performance evolves from season to season as brands update their data.

What have you learned so far?

Sofia: Because the data comes directly from participating brands, we can’t share details of the scorecard or its findings publicly due to confidentiality and privacy considerations.

One interesting observation we’ve had, however, is that some industries – like outdoor and ski – tend to be very vocal about sustainability. But behind the scenes we also see strong performance from brands in other segments that may not communicate about it as much.

Ben: Another thing that stands out is that from the outside, sometimes it looks like ESG action is disappearing. But that’s not what we see. Many companies simply don’t feel able to communicate publicly about ESG topics anymore, so it may appear that nothing is happening.

From the inside, though, we’re encouraged to see action every day.

Lead image: Intersport