{"id":8129,"date":"2016-11-03T23:23:08","date_gmt":"2016-11-04T03:23:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/digital.hbs.edu\/platform-rctom\/submission\/the-nike-model-garbage-in-sneakers-out\/"},"modified":"2016-11-03T23:23:08","modified_gmt":"2016-11-04T03:23:08","slug":"the-nike-model-garbage-in-sneakers-out","status":"publish","type":"hck-submission","link":"https:\/\/d3.harvard.edu\/platform-rctom\/submission\/the-nike-model-garbage-in-sneakers-out\/","title":{"rendered":"The NIKE Model: Garbage In, Sneakers Out"},"content":{"rendered":"

Climate Change and NIKE<\/u><\/p>\n

NIKE relies on a stable climate to ensure consistent production of crops for the raw materials used in its products. With 666 factories in 43 countries and 1,000 retail locations across continents, NIKE\u2019s widespread operations and supply chains require significant amounts of water and energy to produce, package, and ship its merchandise to points of sale across the globe.\u00a0[i]<\/a>\u00a0Without accounting for transport-associated energy expenditure, the energy use associated with the production of a single T-shirt is roughly equal to the carbon footprint of driving a passenger car for 10 miles and it takes several dozen gallons of water \u2014 more than 400 pounds \u2014 to process just one pound of textiles.\u00a0[ii]<\/a>\u00a0As changing climate patterns give rise to more frequent destructive weather events and increased water scarcity, NIKE, with many of its factories and sources of raw materials located in the world\u2019s most vulnerable regions, may find itself unable to \u201cdeliver the right product at the right time\u201d.\u00a0[iii]<\/a>\u00a0As a result, NIKE loses not only business but also its ability to secure its resources (materials, energy, water) at a reasonable and stable price point due to crop devastation, drought, and looming carbon restrictions. [iv]<\/a><\/p>\n

\"cotton-pic\"<\/a> \"leather-pic\"<\/a> \"polyester-pic\"<\/a> \"rubber-pic\"<\/a><\/p>\n

What is NIKE Doing?<\/u><\/p>\n

Short-Term<\/strong><\/p>\n

In the short-term, NIKE has sought out ways to accommodate the effects of climate change by building redundancy and developing contingency strategies for critical business operations. [v]<\/a> \u00a0In addition, NIKE utilizes a global property protection program that reduces and minimizes the impact of weather-related events on physical assets through appropriate site selection (e.g. outside of flood plains) and by designing and building key facilities to a very high level of property protection.[vi]<\/a> It also utilizes property and business interruption insurance to mitigate the financial impact of weather-related losses. [vii]<\/a><\/p>\n

Long-Term<\/strong><\/p>\n

NIKE has also taken steps to establish sustainable innovation as a core tenet of its operations and has challenged itself to double its business while simultaneously halving its environmental footprint. In order to achieve this long-term goal, NIKE has implemented a sequential and iterative corporate blueprint for institutionalizing, executing, tracking, and scaling sustainable practices in order to spur innovation that decouples its revenue growth from its environmental impact:<\/p>\n