| Practice | Y/N | Don’t Know | Notes |
| Governance—Does the business have the necessary support and infrastructure to develop and/or maintain a strong sustainability program | Yes | Nike has a robust governance structure that allows the company to make enormous towards achieving its goal of helping the world move forward. Strong governance exists in collaboration with a sustainability mindset. These two features are essential in ensuring that all sectors in the company demonstrate high levels of accountability through collective decision-making processes. The sustainability of the company is under the jurisdiction of Corporate Responsibility, Sustainability, and Governance (CRS&G) Committee. This committee is part of Nike’s Board of governors and has a crucial responsibility in setting the pace for sustainability within the business strategy of the company. The committee manages to achieve the overall sustainability of Nike by ensuring they perform specific vital responsibilities assigned to them. These responsibilities include studying to provide strategic feedback on sustainability issues to their impacts. Once they have collected all the necessary information, they come up with strategies to incorporate sustainability into the business operations of Nike. Measures that help facilitate the integration process include originality, product design, production, and sourcing. These aspects, particularly creativity, promote the industry to remain relevant in attending to the needs of its customers—people like trying out new products that make them stand out from the rest. The committee also gives feedback to Nike’s management regarding the effectiveness of sustainability procedures employed within the company’s marketing operations. These procedures include labor operations within Nike and the different audit programs. This high degree of efficiency ensures that the company maintains a robust sustainability program. | |
| · Social Impact: Workers—How does the business engage employees and ensure that they are treated well? | Yes | Nike has invested heavily in its employees. The minimum requirement for anyone to work at the shoe factory is that they should be at least eighteen years old. The minimum age requirement for the clothing factory is sixteen years. Afterward, the employees receive equal chances to facilitate their growth within the business operations. Nike offers education programs aimed at building the knowledge and skill set of the employees. At Nike, everyone has an equal opportunity of occupying leadership positions. The company bases its promotions on merit, eliminating any form of bias in the process. Therefore, such measures build the morale of the employees because they know that their hard work will get them to the top. As they continue to give their best efforts, the company benefits in the process. Nike encourages teamwork among its employees. Together, employees can achieve much more than when working individually. The company has measures in place to ensure that the payment systems are fair. The pay the company gives to its workers depends on the position of the employee in the company. The fair rates encourage individuals to work harder to get to top posts and earn higher. Nike has several stores in different parts of the world. Therefore, it has a variety of employees from diverse cultural and racial backgrounds. Thus, the company encourages diversity in its operations and treats each individual within the organization fairly. The company also has measures in place that ensure the well-being of the employees. For example, the company has programs that allow the employees to purchase the company’s products at discounted prices. This move ensures that the employees feel valued and develop a sense of pride when being associated with the company. The company has a loan program that allows employees to get loans from the company when they are faced with difficult times. The two parties then agree on a suitable repayment system that allows the company to deduct the amount from the person’s salary in installments. | |
| · Social impact: Civic Engagement & Giving—How does the business give back to the community? | Yes | Nike company gives back to the community in a variety of ways. The company is dedicated to helping young boys and girls make it big in the sporting industry by financing their dreams. They achieve this by providing training attire, including t-shirts, shorts, and shoes. This equipment helps the children train better and motivates them to work harder to reach their dreams and aspirations. Nike established the Nike Community Impact Fund that allows the company to finance children’s dreams in collaboration with non-profit organizations. Six of Nike’s Community stores give $240,000 annually to local organizations. This money is meant to empower the youth within these organizations to derive empowerment from sporting activities. This project has been in existence since 2010. The total amount provided by Nike in the form of grants since the inception of the project is $3.75 million. These figures show Nike’s dedication to ensuring that children in society get to experience and enjoy the thrill of physical and sporting activities. | |
| · Environmental Impacts: Waste Reduction—What does the company do to reduce and minimize waste? | Nike has shown great determination towards protecting the environment and its natural resources. This determination is evident in their quote: “Without the Planet, there is no Sport.” Therefore, they have several measures in place that ensure that they do not contribute to environmental pollution. Also, when possible, the company takes steps to remedy environmental hazards, even though they might not have taken part in causing the damage. For example, the company once made a statement indicating that it would no longer use leather from cows raised in the Amazon rainforest in Brazil. The announcement was Nike’s attempt to ensure that the individuals in Brazil ceased taking part in deforestation of the rainforest. Nike indicated that it would only buy leather from cows whose owners can prove that they were raised outside the Amazon Biome. The company has continued to hold on to their values aimed at ensuring the safety of the environment. Currently, approximately three-quarters of Nike’s products contain recycled material. The materials used to make Nike footwear have the name “Nike Grind.” The contents are generated from recycled content. Nike is also aware of the harmful effect of carbon and other fossil fuels on the environment. Therefore, the company has made great strides towards achieving the use of renewable energy sources in all of its operations. The company aims at performing 100% use of renewable energy in its services by using the following sources: geothermal energy, onsite wind-driven turbines, hydroelectric power, solar power, and locally produced biomass. One of the company’s rather ambitious projects is ensuring that they provide zero waste. | ||
| Environmental Impacts: Resource Conservation—What does the company do to conserve resources? | Yes | The company goes to extra lengths to ensure that it reuses and recycles its waste material. This move ensures that none of the company’s resources goes to waste. They use their resources economically and efficiently. A recent statement indicates that their long term goal is to ensure that no waste product comes out of their operations. Lack of waste material would mean that the company uses its resources to the maximum, resulting in maximum efficiency and zero waste. The general resources that Nike uses in its production include metallic, foams, rubber, plastics, fabric (canvas), textiles, and leathers. The company makes use of both natural and synthetic rubber. | |
| · Environmental Impacts: Carbon Footprint & Toxin Reduction—What does the business do to reduce its carbon footprint and reduce its use of toxic materials? | The company has always been vocal concerning its acknowledgment of the effect of carbon in bringing about climatic changes due to global warming. In a bid to reduce its production of coal-related fumes and toxins, the company has made tremendous steps towards ensuring that it uses a hundred percent renewable energy in its operations. This move has taken full shape in North America, where the company powers its facilities along with those it operates using a hundred percent renewable energy. This step marked a milestone in the company’s history as it served as proof that the company could achieve its target of zero carbon by 2025. The introduction of the system in North America has proven successful. Therefore, all that is left is to extend the same concept of operations to the company’s plants in different parts of the world. The process may be expensive to administer at the moment. However, Nike has the necessary resources required to finance these activities fully. Also, the event will prove profitable in the long run because the renewable sources of energy are an ever-present feature in the environment. Therefore, the company will continue to harness natural power and incorporate it into its functions. The success of these operations would lead to the achievement of the zero-carbon goal set by Nike. The other problem that faces the company at this point is the production of toxic waste substances that have adverse effects on the environment. Nike aims at addressing this issue by ensuring that its operations do not produce any form of waste products. This feat is achievable by providing that the company makes full use of the available resources in creating items for public consumption. Consequently, Nike would have to resort to extreme measures to ensure that its goal of a hundred percent efficiency is achievable. Maximum efficiency is instrumental in ensuring that there are no left-over waste products from the production process. The company has a wide variety of materials to choose from in accomplishing its operations of producing shoes for the public to enjoy. At this point, it is essential that the company makes informed choices and select the materials that have the least effect on the environment. Proper selection will help reduce the production of toxic substances to the environment. This move is instrumental in ensuring that the company keeps true to its vision of preserving the well-being of the planet so that its primary consumers, athletes, can have a place to train and engage in physical exercises that are beneficial to them. | ||
| · Environmental Impacts: Product Development & Life Cycle—What does the business do to minimize the environmental impact of its product? | The company has adopted greener approaches in the manufacture of its products. This approach has helped the company take measures that help mitigate the environmental population. They achieve this by using environment-friendly material in the production of their products. This approach has made the company gain popularity among environmentalists and their associated groups, thus increasing the company’s market size. Non-biodegradable resources are recycled by the company to create new products. Therefore, these materials do not get to have any effect on the environment. | ||
| · Environmental & Social Impact: Supply Chain & Procurement—How does the business engage with suppliers to promote sustainability? · | Many companies believe that the secret to success is making massive profits from their operations. They rely on the amount of profit they made within a certain to gauge whether the company has experienced growth. However, Nike has different views on the subject. Nike believes that sustainability is the key to the growth and development of any business organization. This belief has been instrumental in guiding the activities of Nike since its inception to the current levels of success that the company is currently enjoying. The current situation all around the world has seen customers develop high levels of environmental consciousness. Consequently, the consumers scrutinize retailers highly, and they are unlikely to buy products from companies they believe do not have the appropriate sustainability practices in place. Since its inception, Nike has always put the interests of its customers first. Therefore, when consumers raise environmental concerns, the company is quick to respond to the issues and provide environment-friendly goods for the consumers to purchase. Nike has a variety of suppliers who help in the distribution of the products to various stores so that they be closer to the consumer. These suppliers must be compliant with the sustainability practices of the company. Otherwise, they may destroy the excellent brand image that the company has worked so hard to develop over the years. For example, a supplier dealing with goods from Nike may not engage in distributing products from a different company that does not have the same ideals as the shoe company. Any violations of the sustainability policies will result in a breach of contract that may result in the total cancellation of the contract. Therefore, suppliers have to be very careful with the type of goods they avail to consumers as they are Nike’s representatives to the public at the grass-root level. | ||
| Do the company’s sustainability-related activities and programs form a basis for the company’s competitive advantage?
| Yes | The company’s sustainability model has been crucial in giving the company a significant competitive advantage over other players in the industry because they have demonstrated that they value their consumers more than they value making profits. Developing strategies to help in environment conservation ensures that consumers live in a safe environment, free of health hazards. Also, the company actively listens and responds to the changing needs of its consumer population. This move makes the clients feel valued by the company. Consequently, the movement has resulted in high degrees of loyalty by the clients towards the company. These activities have been instrumental in propelling Nike to the top of the shoemaking industry and ensuring that they stay at the top. | |
| · Do the company’s sustainability-related activities and programs play a central role in the company’s branding strategy?
| Yes | The company’s commitment to developing a friendly environment for people to live in. this goal is present in one of the company’s slogans that states, “Without the Planet, there is no Sport.” This slogan clearly illustrates the company’s commitment to maintaining the integrity of the environment. This slogan has been one of the company’s major selling points, facilitating the effective branding of the company. The company’s brand is famous all around the world, mainly due to the company’s sustainability-related activities. | |
| · Provide examples of promotional materials (via links) the company uses to communicate its commitment to sustainability and assess the effectiveness of these materials. | · https://www.eventige.com/blog/nike-sustainability-efforts · https://purpose.nike.com/sustainability-commitments · https://www.nike.com/sustainability Nike has several promotional pages that communicate the company’s views and commitment levels to guaranteeing sustainability in its operations. The pages are a useful tool as most of the information is addressed directly from Nike officials to the consumers (the info is in the first person). The use of the first person creates a sense of responsibility as the company would readily take responsibility for its actions. Also, the information they put on their pages is mostly factual, winning the trust of many people, including customers and potential investors. |