NIKE IS ALREADY USING RECYCLED MATERIALS IN MOST OF ITS PRODUCTS, PLEDGES TO BE MORE SUSTAINABLE BY 2020
Nike, Inc. has released its FY14/15 Sustainable Business Report, which details strong progress against the company’s environmental and social targets and sets a vision for a low-carbon, closed-loop future as part of the company’s growth strategy.
The report highlights how Nike has embedded sustainability across its business and signals Nike’s continued commitment to set aggressive sustainability targets and invest in disruptive innovation – all in service of driving company growth, delivering performance innovation for athletes and acting as a catalyst for change in the world.
“At Nike, we believe it is not enough to adapt to what the future may bring – we’re creating the future we want to see through sustainable innovation,” said Mark Parker, Nike, Inc. president and CEO. “Today our teams are advancing ambitious new business models and partnerships that can scale unprecedented change across our business and the industry.”
Nike aims to minimize its environmental footprint throughout the product lifecycle, looking at carbon and energy, chemistry, water and waste to identify strategies to use less, use better, innovate new solutions and, where possible, close the loop and reuse. For example, about 60 percent of the environmental impact in a pair of Nike shoes is embedded in the materials used. Knowing this, Nike is investing in creating a new palette of sustainable materials in a move toward closed-loop products, and has already incorporated recycled materials into 71 percent of its footwear and apparel products, in everything from apparel trims to soccer kits to Flyknit yarns.
Nike has also announced bold new sustainability targets for fiscal year 2020 that include: to have zero waste from contracted footwear manufacturing sent to landfill or incineration without energy recovery; to source 100% of products from contract factories meeting the company’s definition of sustainable; and to create products that deliver maximum performance with minimum impact, seeking a 10 percent reduction in the average environmental footprint and an increased use of more sustainable materials overall. Additionally, by the end of fiscal year 2025, Nike aims to reach 100 percent renewable energy in owned or operated facilities.
“We’ve set a moonshot challenge to double our business with half the impact,” said Hannah Jones, Nike, Inc. chief sustainability officer and VP of Innovation Accelerator. “It’s a bold ambition that’s going to take much more than incremental efficiency – it’s going to take innovation on a scale we’ve never seen before. It’s a challenge we are setting for ourselves, our collaborators and our partners as we move toward a circular economy future.”
To view the entire FY14/15 Sustainable Business Report, please click here.