As Nike moves toward its sustainability goals, picking up a new pair of shoes might mean getting part of an old pair, too.
On Wednesday, the company said that 71 percent of its footwear now contains materials made from waste products from its manufacturing process, including ground-up pieces of old shoes and scraps from the company's factories.
"From an impact standpoint, materials matter the most. In fact, in one pair of Nike shoes, 60 percent of the environmental impact comes from materials," wrote Mark Parker, the company's chief executive, in a letter announcing the release of Nike's latest sustainability report on Wednesday.
The effort is part of a broader push toward a series of ambitious environmental goals.
In 2010, the company pledged to stop buying carbon offsets. Instead, Nike said it would work towards reducing its own emissions, including the eventual goal of a "closed loop," eliminating all waste products from its manufacturing process.
The company says that between 2011 and 2015, it successfully reduced its carbon emissions by 18 percent for each unit it ships.
Using recycled material is a key part of that effort.
"I never knew how excited I could get about waste," Hannah Jones, Nike's chief sustainability officer, told The Huffington Post. "If the world were to reframe how it thinks about waste, it is the delta between the ambition we have collectively to get to a low-carbon world and where we are now."
The company's Nike Grind material reuses scraps and old shoes by slicing them into three parts, then printing them into rubber bits, foam, or a fluffy fiber, the Huffington Post reports.
In addition to using the materials in its own designs, the Oregon-based apparel giant is also selling them to outside buyers. They are then used to line running tracks, playgrounds, gym floors, and carpet underlay.
The company has also been working to reduce its water usage through a special waterless dye process, which Nike says has saved more than 5 million gallonsof water.
During the Paris climate talks last year, which led to a pledge to curb global emissions signed by more than 170 countries, rival Adidas introduced its own prototype of a 3-D printed sneaker made partly of recycled ocean plastic and fishing nets.
In the 1990s, Nike became a target of harsh criticism over its labor practices, including the use of child labor, but the company has since made labor issues a key part of its sustainability effort.
"The worker is the most important element in any factory," Ms. Jones told OregonLive. "At the end of the day, this is about transforming attitudes. If you get it right, policing [factory conditions] actually becomes less important."
Even as its sales have continued to increase, Nike says it has reduced the number of factories it works with by 24 percent.
For example, it has not contracted with factories in Myanmar, and has limited operation in Bangladesh due to concerns about working conditions.
Eighty-six percent of factories it contracts with now meet its minimum requirements for sustainability and investment in workers, the company reports.
Eventually, Nike says it hopes to halve its environmental impact in a move toward a so-called "circular economy."This concept, which is intended to emulate nature, involves reforming a company's business model completely to recycle waste and eliminate pollution.
"We've set a moonshot challenge to double our business with half the impact," Jones says in a statement. "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."
FAQs
Nike's waste generated at headquarters worldwide 2011-2022
Nike generated a total of 3,942 metric tons of waste at its headquarters globally in financial year 2022. This was an increase of almost 50 percent in comparison to the previous financial year.
How does Nike get rid of waste? ›
Footwear gets turned into Nike Grind, which in its most simple form is the scrap that comes from manufacturing waste, unused materials, and end-of-life product. After grinding it up, we collect, separate, and reuse it, or process it into new materials.
Why does Nike outsource manufacturing? ›
The primary reason why Nike outsources its products overseas is purely financial – because it is able to cut costs.
How does Nike manufacturing affect the environment? ›
And in the production of its footwear and apparel, Nike says it's using 39 percent “environmentally preferred materials,” which reduce emissions by more than 182,000 metric tons, while 97 percent of its manufacturing waste is now diverted from landfill with 72 percent being recycled.
Is Nike still using sweatshops? ›
When we reviewed the brand in May 2023, we found that Nike now claims to have a program to improve wages but found no evidence it indeed ensures its workers are paid living wages in most of its supply chain.
Is Nike actually environmentally friendly? ›
Since 2008, the soles are composed of at least 25% recycled manufacturing waste, in facilities powered by 100% renewable energy. 90% of the waste materials from the air soles are turned into new cushioning systems. The Nike Flyknit is a fabric that produces 60% less waste than traditional footwear upper manufacturing.
Does Nike actually recycle shoes? ›
Recycling Reinvented
If received product is not in good enough condition or otherwise not eligible for donation, we work to recycle each item in the right way. For footwear, this means sending it through our state-of-the-art grind machine.
What does Nike do with unsold shoes? ›
If the shoes are damaged or can not be resold , they may be donated to charitable organizations or recycled through the Nike Grind program , which repurposes materials from old shoes into new products like playgrounds and running tracks .
What does Nike do poorly? ›
Environment. Nike received Ethical Consumer's worst rating for its cotton sourcing policy, because it lacks a clear approach to use of pesticides and herbicides. Cotton accounts for 12.34% of all insecticide sales and 3.94% of herbicide sales, even though cotton covers only 2.78% of global arable land.
Who are Nike's biggest competitors? ›
Nike competitors include Skechers U.S.A., adidas, New Balance, ASICS America and Steve Madden. Nike ranks 1st in Overall Culture Score on Comparably vs its competitors.
There are about 600 factories located in 46 different countries that exclusively manufacture Nike shoes. Out of these Nike vendors, about 36% are located in China and Vietnam each. Another 22% are located in Indonesia.
Why does Nike have factories in China? ›
The low wages and talented manpower in China encouraged Nike to shift some of its production from other countries to China. However, Philip Knight, one of the founders of Nike saw China as a huge market for Nike. The consumer presence of Nike in China started in 1981.
What problems still exist in Nike factories? ›
Nike's sweatshops undoubtedly violated human rights. Workers survive on a low minimum wage and are forced to work in an unsafe environment for long periods of time. However, since the Nike Sweatshop Scandal, many non-profit organisations have been set up to protect the rights of garment workers.
How do Nike treat their employees? ›
Nike's Code of Conduct and Code Leadership Standards have detailed prohibitions on discrimination in hiring, compensation, promotion, discipline or any other aspect of employment. The majority of workers involved in the global production of apparel and footwear are women.
What percentage of Nike products are sustainable? ›
The use of more sustainable materials used in Nike's apparel increased from 41 percent to 59 percent in the 2020 financial year. In 2015, the use of more sustainable materials used in apparel was just 19 percent, showing a significant increase over this five -year period.
How much does Nike pollute? ›
Nike sells these products through company-owned retail stores, e-commerce portals, independent distributors, licensees, and sales representatives located worldwide. Total GHG emissions of Nike in 2021 were 10,942.7 thousand tonnes of CO2 equivalents (thousand tonnes of CO2eq), a decrease of 7.3% from 2020.
Is Nike greenwashing? ›
A federal judge has dismissed what was a proposed class action lawsuit that accused Nike of greenwashing in marketing claims related to its sustainability collection.
Does Nike reuse plastic? ›
Uppers of Nike shoes made from recycled materials include at least 85% recycled materials, primarily recycled plastic bottles, t-shirts, and yarn scraps. The sole is made up of 15 per cent Nike Grind Rubber and 100 per cent recyclable foam.
