Director of Sustainability by Jo Zugic

If I were the Director of Sustainability at Nike I would start with a new climate action plan in order to further lower our environmental impact.

The action plan would focus on both the water usage as well as reducing Greenhouse Gas (GHG) emissions. In 2017 Nike was given a score of 36 out of 100 in the Fashion Transparency Index, due to the limited amount of information publicly available regarding the social and environmental practices of the brand (Robertson, 2017).

One of the first items on the action plan agenda, will be to remove hazardous chemical from our supply chain completely by 2030. The issue with hazardous chemicals is that they pose a problem not only the people manufacturing our garments and to the people wearing them, but they are a serious problem to the environment. Waste water contaminated with hazardous chemicals is dumped into oceans and rivers, affecting the ecosystems that call these bodies of water home, the environment and people. Contaminated waste water has a negative effect on the food supply and drinking water for communities that live in the areas of contaminated water. Long gone are the days, where a company can only be responsible for their products, the time has come to take accountability for the whole manufacturing process. eliminating hazardous chemicals usage is an essential step to achieve a circular economy for textiles that avoids the endless recirculation of toxics through recycled materials (Greenpeace International, 2018). The total elimination of hazardous chemicals will be possible with investing in research and development of safer alternatives.

The second item on the climate action plan, will be to reduce GHG emissions across our whole supply chain. While we are on track to reach our goal for 2025, to use 100 percent renewable energy in our owned and operated facilities (Nike Sustainability, 2018) it is just as important to start applying that knowledge to the whole supply chain. We will start reducing our GHG emissions by sourcing innovative low-impact materials, driving energy efficiency within our supply chain and by increasing renewable energy use throughout our operations. Climate change is such an important issue today, that merely focusing on our owned and operated facilities, while it helps, is simply not enough.

We are lucky that Nike has the resources to be a world leader when it comes to sustainability. We have a great team of individuals who are passionate about helping save our planet. Now we just need to make it happen, no more excuses.

Reference:

Greenpeace International. (2018). Greenpeace report: clothing industry shows progress in cutting hazardous chemicals - Greenpeace International. [online] Available at: https://www.greenpeace.org/international/press-release/17739/greenpeace-report-clothing-industry-shows-progress-in-cutting-hazardous-chemicals/ [Accessed 27 Oct. 2018].

Nike Sustainability. (2018). Energy & Emissions. [online] Available at: https://sustainability.nike.com/energy-emissions [Accessed 27 Oct. 2018].

Robertson, L. (2017). How Ethical is Nike? - Good On You. [online] Good On You. Available at: https://goodonyou.eco/how-ethical-is-nike/ [Accessed 27 Oct. 2018].