In the fashion and sporting goods sector, the majority of a brand’s environmental impacts are embedded in its products — from materials and manufacturing choices to use and end-of-life. Yet for performance-driven brands like Salomon, acting on these impacts is not straightforward. Product technicity, durability, and performance are core brand promises, and sustainability actions must be compatible with these constraints.
Against this backdrop, Salomon partnered with Quantis to translate life cycle insights into actionable, product-level ecodesign decisions — balancing environmental impact reduction with technical feasibility and real-world product development requirements.
Salomon is the modern mountain sports lifestyle brand creating innovative, premium and authentic footwear, apparel and winter sports equipment in the French Alps. At the Annecy Design Center, designers, engineers and athletes intersect to explore the white space of tomorrow and create the future of sports and culture.
Challenge
Salomon, through its Change Our Future program, is committed to ensuring that 100% of its key products are developed using ecodesign and circular principles. To do this, the company needs a reference framework to measure its progress, along with a product‑level methodology that can be applied consistently across footwear, apparel, and accessories while still preserving the unique characteristics of each category.
While sustainability considerations were increasingly present within product teams, they were difficult to operationalize at product level.
The environmental impacts assessed through LCAs — a process Salomon initiated several years ago — are often difficult for operational teams to translate into concrete impact‑reduction actions when making design decisions. This was particularly challenging given the technicity of Salomon’s products and the industrial and feasibility constraints shaping development decisions.
Teams needed a shared, credible framework that could help formalize ecodesign actions, set priorities and support informed trade-offs without oversimplifying environmental complexity. At the same time, the approach needed to generate robust, defensible metrics to support internal alignment and, over time, external communication.
Solutions
Quantis worked with Salomon to co-develop Sustainable Product Scorecards designed to support product-level ecodesign decision-making across multiple product categories.
Rather than applying a predefined framework, the scorecards were developed through an iterative, collaborative process involving product owners and cross-functional teams. The focus was on building a tool aligned with Salomon’s development processes and performance requirements, while remaining grounded in life cycle thinking.
Key elements of the work included:
- Identifying priority ecodesign levers based on product life cycle hotspots
- Structuring these levers into a coherent set of criteria applicable at product level
- Prioritizing actions using an environmental relevance and feasibility lens
- Translating priorities into clear indicators and scoring levels that teams could apply consistently
- Testing and refining the scorecards with internal stakeholders to ensure clarity, usability and alignment
Our teams are highly engaged in sustainability, yet the real challenge is translating complex environmental issues into concrete actions creation teams can use. With these tools, we can iterate, compare configurations and bring clarity to the impact of each design choice. They open the door to stronger discussions and alignment across teams, creating a shared framework for better decisions — and ultimately accelerating responsible innovation.
Marc Peyregne, Ecodesign and Circularity Senior Manager , Salomon
Results
Salomon has applied the scorecard framework to assess its product portfolio and define internal thresholds associated with different score levels. These thresholds are used to build portfolio-level indicators and track product distribution across grades over time.
The framework provides a consistent basis for product teams to assess and compare products and to structure discussions around ecodesign priorities during development. By establishing a shared reference point, sustainability considerations can be addressed more systematically across categories and teams.
The collaborative development process also supported stronger alignment between sustainability, design and R&D functions, through a common structure and language for product-level environmental decision-making.
We’re your full-service partner for the transformational journey. Our strategic advisors are equipped to guide you at every point along the way.
