Nike's Journey from Adversity to Sustainability

Early 90s: Child Labor Controversy

• Faced intense scrutiny for child labor practices.
• Initial reaction: Defensive, lack of accountability.

Mid-90s: Shift in Paradigm

• Began to understand the changing global expectations.
• Started developing Corporate Responsibility practices focused on risk mitigation and reputation management.

Evolving Corporate Responsibility

• Examining supply chain in terms of social and environmental impact.
• Realized the need to partner with civil society.
• Formed the Sustainable Business and Innovation function central to the company's strategy.
• Shift from risk management to business model transformation focused on sustainability.

Sustainable Consumption

• Aim: Decouple business from constrained resources while supporting consumption.

Consumer Engagement

• Establishing dialogue with consumers.
• Practical actions like shoe recycling programs.
• Transparency about ongoing challenges in the current models.

Industry-wide Change

• Mobilizing coalitions of the willing for impactful change.
• Emphasis on collaboration with NGOs, industry players and other stakeholders.

Examples of Collaboration

• BICEP: Business for Innovative Climate and Energy Policy to influence US legislation.
• World Economic Forum: Promoting sustainable consumption.
• Chemical and Toxic Elimination: Collaborative industry meetings.

Current Position and Future Goals

• Self-assessment score: 20-30% towards being a truly sustainable company.
• Focuses on innovation at multiple levels: product, process, revenue generation, enterprise, and industry.
• Predicts sustainable companies will have a significant advantage in future.

Challenges in Sustainability

• Companies’ short-term focus vs. long-term sustainability.
• Risk of open data and transparency vs. competitive edge.
• Importance of gradual, lasting change.

Business-Government Relationship

• Challenging discussions with policymakers.
• Progressive companies vs. energy-intensive companies resisting change.

Personal and Corporate Mindset

• Balancing optimism and concern regarding the scale of challenge.
• Culture of humility and learning from past mistakes.

Conclusion

• Nike seeks to lead in sustainability and workplace conditions.