Image: Nike Grind uses a “slice-and-grind” technique, where each shoe is cut into three slices—rubber outsole, foam midsole and fiber upper. These slices are then fed through grinders and refined for use.
In addition to Nike’s ambitious goal of generating $50 billion in annual sales by 2020, the company recently stated that it would like to achieve that growth as sustainably as possible.
According to Nike’s new annual sustainability report (that highlights past achievements and sets new long-term goals), CEO Mark Parker reported that Nike’s revenue has increased 64% since 2008 but has limited absolute emissions to only 30% growth across Nike-owned facilities, manufacturing and logistics. This means that Nike was able to decrease carbon emissions by 19% on a per-unit basis.
Parker also stated that 71% of its products now contains materials made from waste products from its own manufacturing process, including everything from yarn to running shoes.
“We have embraced sustainable innovation as a powerful engine for growth and a catalyst for change,” Parker said.
Branded Nike Grind, the material is made from recycled sneakers and manufacturing scraps from its factories. Sliced into three parts, the old shoes are then ground into rubber bits, foam and fluffy fiber. In addition to using the materials in it’s own products, Nike sells them to buyers who typically use them on running tracks, gym and weight room floors, playgrounds and carpet underlay.
“I never knew how excited I could get about waste,” Hannah Jones, Nike’s chief sustainability officer. “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 has come a long was the target of boycotts over the use of child labor in the 1990s. Since then, the company has pursued a holistic approach to reforming its supply chain, cutting down the number of factories it works with and gaining more control over the manufacturing process to raise working conditions and environmental impact standards.
In 2010, Nike vowed to stop purchasing carbon offsets in favor of slashing its own emissions instead. Between 2011 and last year, Nike’s carbon emissions per item shipped decreased by 18%, a mark of significant progress.
Way to go Nike!