BEAVERTON, OR – Nike, Inc. today issued its second corporate responsibility (CR) report highlighting the Nike brand’s CR priorities, programs, progress and challenges relating to workers in contract factories; employees and diversity; the environment; and community investment. In addition, the company voluntarily disclosed the names and locations of the more than 700 active contract factories that currently make Nike-branded products worldwide.
The 108-page report, Nike’s first public corporate responsibility report since it made the decision to stop reporting in October 2002 when it petitioned the U.S. Supreme Court to hear the Kasky v. Nike First Amendment case, was released in conjunction with the annual Ceres conference in Boston, MA. Ceres is a coalition of investment funds, environmental organizations and public interest groups.
“We’ve been fairly quiet for the past three years in corporate responsibility because of the Kasky lawsuit. So we’re using this report to play a little catch-up and draw a more complete picture,” said Philip H. Knight, Nike founder and chairman, in his opening letter in the report. “It makes for a long report, but I urge you to read it from cover to cover. And then some; because probably the most significant piece of disclosure linked to this report is actually on our website. It’s a listing of all factories that produce Nike-branded products, worldwide.”
Nike said it believes full disclosure of its contract factory base producing Nike-branded product ultimately will provide greater visibility into shared suppliers and more efficient monitoring. It also supports the company’s long-term strategy of building shared ownership of compliance directly with contract factories. Since 1999, Nike has disclosed its contract factory base producing Nike-branded products to the Fair Labor Association. In 2000, Nike became the first company to disclose publicly online the names of its suppliers making college and university licensed products.
“While we cannot say with certainty what greater levels of factory disclosure will unleash, we know the current system of addressing factory compliance has to be fundamentally transformed to create sustainable change,” said Hannah Jones, Nike’s vice president of corporate responsibility. “We believe disclosure of supply chains is a step toward greater efficiencies in monitoring and remediation and shared knowledge in capacity building that will elevate overall conditions in the industry. No one company can solve these issues that are endemic to our industry. We know the future demands more.”
The report relies heavily on the guidelines issued by the Global Reporting Initiative (GRI) and covers primarily Nike’s 2004 fiscal year (FY04), which began June 1, 2003 and ended May 31, 2004.
The report highlights include details on the following: reductions in the use of volatile organic compounds, increases in the use of organic cotton, meeting goals regarding the contribution of pre-tax profits to communities – among others.
“Going deeply into a company’s business to integrate corporate responsibility practices to effect positive change is the key challenge,” Jones added. “We’ve learned we need to focus less on activity and more on strategic impact that will bring about company and industry innovations that reap long-term value for our business, and ultimately on communities and the environment.”
To download the report or provide feedback, please visit Nike’s website.
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