Eliminating waste

Eliminating waste from our value chain requires coordination across every aspect of the product lifecycle, from ideation and creation, to sale, to recycling or take-back. It's a systemic and systematic approach, where every decision minimises waste. To strengthen our approach, we're focused on six areas: using lighter-weight, higher-yield materials; increasing pattern efficiency; simplifying moulded components to reduce defects; using Lean and Six Sigma methods to address root causes; increasing closed-loop recycling; and working on breakthrough innovations that enable recycling of manufacturing scrap materials that typically can't be efficiently recycled, like leather and blended textiles.

At Nike, we continuously improve our waste-estimating and measurement practices to more effectively reduce and recycle waste. In particular, we focus on reducing defects, because defects indicate opportunities to improve design and/or manufacturing. We also require factories to sort, bag, tag, weigh and carefully store scrap material starting at the production line, so the material created from recycled scrap can compete with virgin materials in terms of quality and cost to process.

Packaging is a necessary part of moving products, but our teams are rethinking every aspect of it to reduce waste throughout our extensive supply chain. We're switching from single-use to reusable boxes and reducing the weight of the boxes used to dispatch products around the world. We're also phasing out unnecessary filler material, or dunnage, used in transport. At the end of FY21, 84% of Nike distribution centres had completely eliminated dunnage.

In footwear, we're optimising speciality shoe packaging so all aspects of the shoe box can be recycled, and changing the size of shoe boxes to create the best fit and reduce weight and waste. The Nike One Box and Converse One Box allow shoes to be dispatched in their shoe boxes. Ditching the outer box (plus any extra packaging) reduces the waste of those orders by 51% and carbon emissions by 25% compared with traditional transportation methods. Teams are also determining when toe stuffing is needed, and eliminating it where it's not. By removing toe stuffing, we eliminated almost 9.5 million kilograms of waste in 2021. In apparel and accessories, we're optimising our hangtag system, using more sustainable packaging materials and optimising the packaging elements used for products like gym bags, gloves and shinguards.

Across the globe, we've removed plastic bags from our retail stores. In North America alone, that was 250+ stores using 50 million plastic bags. We're also exploring alternative materials or solutions to plastic polybags, and working to eliminate plastic packaging for digitally managed transportation. Nike's European Logistics Campus is 100% converted to non-plastic packaging.

Finished-product waste is any product that can no longer be sold or used as originally intended, including gear consumers no longer use. Throughout our supply chain, there are a variety of reasons that a product falls under this designation. We recognise that often these products can be used in some way, and have intensified our efforts to give them a second life.

We're unveiling and piloting new programmes that help consumers recycle and refurbish our products. Recycling & Donation (RAD), an evolution of Nike's global Reuse-a-Shoe programme, accepts footwear and apparel, recycling worn gear into Nike Grind and donating usable gear through community partners. Nike Refurbished extends the life of gently worn, like-new or slightly imperfect Nike footwear by refurbishing and reselling the products at selected Nike Factory, Unite and Community stores. In-store repair services, designed to extend the life of gear, are also being piloted.

We have set ambitious recycling targets with a focus on closed-loop recycling. Nike innovation teams are working with industry experts to identify new and emerging recycling technologies. In collaboration with an ecosystem of global consolidators and recycling centres, we are building a circular supply chain to recover and transform manufacturing scraps into valuable materials and products.

Much of our work builds on the success of Nike Grind, established in 1992. Nike Grind, made from recycled scrap and footwear, is used to make new Nike products, as well as playgrounds, running tracks and other products like phone cases and carpet padding. We invest in research and development and expand our relationships to recycle more materials and increase the use of Nike Grind materials.

We're investing in innovation that enables breakthroughs in recycled and recyclable materials, new machines and methods of make, and new recycling technologies. Our teams are building on what we learnt through Space Hippie and finding new ways to create products, including pinnacle-performance footwear, with recycled content. Products like the Alpha Fly Next Nature and Mercurial Next Nature are expanding our capabilities and empowering us to scale more sustainable innovations throughout product lines.

Part of eliminating waste is empowering employees and vendors to take action. We use audits to fine-tune this effort, with a focus on creating and operating spaces that embody circularity and enable reuse and the total elimination of single-use waste and hard-to-recycle items. Through collaboration with our vendors, we're creating programmes, like the Home Grown programme, that reduce food waste and finding channels to reuse or donate furniture, excess construction supplies and other items.