Case Studies

Nike views corporate responsibility as an “opportunity to create value for our business” and innovate for a better world. Its sustainability strategy is focused on innovation, integration and mobilization with the intent to integrate sustainability into the heart of their business model and governance structure.

The Corporate Responsibility Committee of the Board of Directors oversees “environmental impact and sustainability issues, labor practices and corporate responsibility issues in major business decisions”. The Committee meets five times a year to review strategies and plans for corporate responsibility and the meetings are attended by either the company chairman or CEO.

The department of Sustainable Business & Innovation (SB&I) further embeds corporate responsibility throughout the company and enables Nike to transition to sustainable business models. SB&I’s mission is to enable NIKE to thrive in a sustainable economy by focusing on sustainable products, sustainable manufacturing and sustainable marketplaces.

The SB&I department is home to the company’s “Innovation Lab”.  The mission of the “Innovation Lab” is to deliver enterprise- and industry-level sustainability solutions from design to manufacturing to marketplace to recapturing, recycling and reusing. Sustainability is now a core component of Nike’s growth plans and corporate strategy and is a key priority for each of its affiliate companies.

The vice-president of the SB&I group is a member of Nike’s executive committee, the Strategic Leadership Team, chaired by the CEO. The executive committee is responsible for managing the sustainability reporting process. An executive-level Committee for Sustainable Innovation, also chaired by the CEO, was formed in 2012 to provide additional senior cross-business leadership on sustainability and innovation.

Through having the executive-level Committee for Corporate Responsibility and Sustainable Innovation, as well as, inclusion of an SB&I executive on the Strategic Leadership Team, Nike has fast-tracked integration of corporate responsibility into its business and elevated sustainability as a core value. From these Committees Nike has developed their long-term vision of designing closed-loop products and helped create coalitions to advocate for key sustainability policies, such as Business for Innovative Climate and Energy Policy (BICEP).