Abstract

US based Nike, the world’s leading athletic footwear company, launched an eco-friendly shoe in 2005 under a newly created product line called ‘Considered.’ The launch of ‘Considered’ product line was one of the major and innovative environmental friendly initiatives of Nike. The company had been making efforts to reduce its environmental footprint since the early 1990s. It took several steps like phasing out sulfur hexafluoride, recycling shoes and manufacturing waste to design sports surfaces and working along with several NGOs to reduce its environmental impact. Nike ‘Considered’ is an innovative concept where designers were encouraged to design shoes using less amounts of harmful adhesives and more of recycled material. The concept was further extended to be used in apparel and sports equipment that the company produced. Nike had developed an index called ‘Considered Index’ using which Nike’s designers could get a ranking based on the environmental friendliness during the design phase before they went for commercial production. Nike aimed at making its own facilities and business travel climate neutral by 2011. It had set a target of making all its footwear meet the minimum standard of ‘Considered Index’ by 2011, its apparel by 2015, and sports equipment by 2020.

Learning Objectives

The case is structured to achieve the following Learning Objectives:

• Study the efforts taken by Nike to reduce its environmental footprint.: Examine various ways to minimize the environmental impact of its operations by a multinational corporation.: Analyze the efficacy of Nike’s ‘Considered’ footwear index scoring system.

Keywords

Nike Inc., Nike 'Considered', Sustainable Business Practices, Sustainability Program, Considered Index, Environmental Impact, Shoe Recycling Program, Corporate Responsibility Committee, 'Reuse-A-Shoe' Program, 'Considered Score', Environmentally Preferred Materials, 'Nike Considered Design', Nike Supplier Code of Conduct, Nike's 'Considered' Index Evaluation, Nike 'Considered' Footwear Index Scoring System