A recent report released by Nike outlines the sportswear giant's intentions to and strides made in achieving carbon neutrality for the 2009 fiscal year and going forward.
"We opened the aperture of our lens and discovered our potential to have a positive influence on waste reduction, climate change, managing natural resources, renewable energy and factory conditions," says Mike Parker, Nike president and CEO, in the report published last week.
Nike is moving away from carbon offsets and renewable energy certificates in its mission to achieve carbon neutrality.
Being green is not a new concept at Nike. In fact, in 2007, Nike placed among the top three of 56 on a survey about climate-friendly companies, conducted by a New England-based environmentalist group.
Nike has, in the last twenty years or so, consistently initiated programs to increase environmental awareness, including its Earth Day awareness campaign that ran in 2008 with Steve Nash, and the company's many reduce-reuse-recycle projects, such as their "Reuse-a-Shoe" program from the early 90s.
But when a company so large and with such presence in so many countries takes a stab at lowering greenhouse gas emissions across its supply chain, it's no small undertaking. What's more, when a company is able to reduce emissions while increasing revenue, it's something to be made an example of.
Event amidst an economic recession, revenue increased 3% in 2009, 14% in 2008. (In 2008, the Oregon-based company employed more than 30,000 people worldwide, reporting a total revenue of US$18.6 billion.)
Among other things, the report released last week boasts reduction in greenhouse gas emissions in 2009 across its supply chain to 2007 levels, during a period in which Nike-owned and operated facilities grew in size by 41% (from 2007 to 2009).
Nike reports that it reduced the carbon emissions of its supply chain by 4% in 2009 (1.53 million tons of CO2 equivalent), compared to 2008 levels (1.6 million tons). Compare this to a decade ago, during 1997-1998, when Nike's emissions totaled 7.5 million tons in CO2 equivalent being released into the atmosphere in the more than 45 countries where the company has offices...
Nike also reported that it had ceased to purchase carbon offsets to counter emissions being generated by air travel from employees, and that the company was phasing out the practice of buying renewable energy certificates as compensation for the energy used at its factories, offices, and suppliers by burning fossil fuels.
According to the report:
Rather than purchase renewable energy certificates to achieve climate neutrality, which have become increasingly controversial, we believe it is more meaningful to invest in energy efficiency and in distributed energy projects that reduce our reliance on grid energy and help stabilize energy costs for the long term.
Nike joins other companies in advocating for climate energy legislation that will reward large-scale investments in carbon reduction, standing firm with their belief that "the lack of a market price for carbon has limited its ability to access and deploy clean energy across our operations."
The company has even taken a step further, announcing that Nike announcing a plan to collaborate with nine other organizations by which to "collaborate and share intellectual property (IP) which can lead to new sustainability business models and innovation" through a web-based forum called GreenXchange (GX).
The organizations included in this worldwide sharing of ideas and technology by which to improve corporate environmental responsibility include Best Buy, Creative Commons, Yahoo!, Mountain Equipment Co-op, IDEO, Outdoor Industry Association, salesforce.com, nGenera and 2degrees, and of course, Nike.
The company best known for its swoosh symbol is making great strides in its environmental practices — and even sharing ideas with other companies wanting to accomplish the same.
So long as Nike continues to decrease waste output while increasing revenue and expanding their sneaker empire, Nike will be a corporate leader.
You can read more concerning Nike's announcement in their corporate responsibility report, right here.
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