As climate change is becoming more and more apparent, people have started to aim for carbon neutrality in order to suppress climate change. As more and more people have become more aware of climate change and carbon neutrality, more and more businesses and corporations have started to take major actions in order to support carbon neutrality. One of these corporations is Nike, with the “Move to Zero” campaign.

Nike, as many of you may already know, is one of the most prominent, widespread sportswear clothing brands, and has several notable athletes sponsored across a diverse array of sports. Nike claims that the Move to Zero campaign is an effort to move “towards a zero carbon, zero waste future” (1). They explain that their motivation for this campaign is to “protect the future of sport” as “protecting the future of sport means doing [their] part to protect the planet” (1). To support this claim, they mention several sports negatively affected by the warming climate such as running, tennis, snowboarding, and football.

Nike has proposed several methods under their “Move to Zero” campaign to achieve carbon neutrality. The first is by choosing the proper materials to create their products. These materials include Nike Flyknit, “a lightweight fabric precision-engineered with an average of 60% less waste than in traditional footwear upper manufacturing,” Nike Flyleather, a material “made by binding at least 50% recycled leather fibers with synthetic fibers using a water-powered process,” Nike Air, “composed of at least 50% recycled manufacturing waste” and produced in North America with only “renewable wind energy,” “recycled polyester,” “sustainable cotton,” and “recycled nylon” (2). All of these materials are currently being used in Nike products; in fact, you can even purchase products online by using the specific material as a guide for your shopping. 

Another method is Nike Refurbished, a program under Move to Zero that is dedicated to refurbishing and reselling imperfect shoes. Nike states that these shoes are anything “that cannot be sold as brand new” and “could include a pair that a consumer returned or exchanged from a recent purchase because it wasn’t quite right for them, or shoes with a small imperfection” (3). Through Nike Refurbished, Nike is able to minimize waste in the form of shoes that have been thrown away due to slight imperfections and ultimately take a step closer to carbon neutrality.

Finally, Nike has published “Circularity: Guiding the Future of Design,” which is a guide for designers to follow in order to create sustainable products. They explain the significance of their guide by stating that “Design has the opportunity to take on a powerful role in making the world a better place” (4). The guide includes 10 design principles: material choices, cyclability, waste avoidance, disassembly, green chemistry, refurbishment, versatility, durability, circular packaging, and new models. 

The actual reason Nike started the Move to Zero campaign could have been due to the increasing desire of consumers to support sustainable businesses. Nevertheless, more businesses and corporations should follow in Nike’s footsteps, since, to put it bluntly, if climate change continues to worsen, there will be no viable earth to hold any more businesses. 

Sources:

1. https://purpose.nike.com/climate-and-sport/#

2. https://www.nike.com/sustainability/materials

3. https://www.nike.com/sustainability/nike-refurbished

4. https://www.nikecirculardesign.com/