Our Efforts to Conserve Water

Growing cotton accounts for 69% of NIKE’s overall global water footprint. As climate change continues to impact global weather patterns and disrupt water security, our ability to continue operating our business and ensuring a resilient supply chain is directly tied to the health of the watersheds from which we source cotton.

To reduce and better manage our water use, we’re continuing to focus on strategies that reduce water consumption by focusing on using organic and recycled cotton – which reduce water consumption in the growing phase – and restoring water in priority basins within NIKE’s extended cotton supply chain. In addition to reducing our freshwater footprint, NIKE’s restoration projects are reducing pesticide runoff, improving soil health, and facilitating access to water in the communities and ecosystems surrounding our key sourcing regions.

Working with environmental nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) such as World Wildlife Fund and The Nature Conservancy, we are supporting water restoration projects in our five largest cotton sourcing regions – Australia, Brazil, India, Pakistan, and the United States – that will collectively restore more than 13 billion liters to water-stressed basins by FY25.

We work closely with our finished goods, and materials suppliers to support their water resiliency through flood and drought risk identification and preparation, water efficiency management, wastewater quality management, and water security.

To help suppliers identify risks related to floods and drought, we use the World Resources Institute’s (WRI) aqueduct tool to conduct water risk assessments for all sites across finished goods and materials manufacturing facilities. The tool provides a general picture of global risks, but understanding water risks at the local level is critical. Since 2020, we've been conducting site-level water risk assessments, validating the water risk for 20% of sites located in extremely high-risk regions and working with suppliers to implement strategies to mitigate disruption to their operations.

Our program to optimize facility water use, includes work to reduce the water used to dye and finish textiles, which makes up 18% of our overall freshwater footprint. Over the last decade, we have focused on increasing water efficiency, recycling, and implementing advanced water treatment technologies, reducing water usage by more than 50% across our strategic material manufacturing suppliers, representing approximately 80% of materials production.

We partner with suppliers to train and enable them to develop capabilities that not only manage water use responsibly and securely, but to also treat wastewater responsibly. Tier 1 finished good and Tier 2 materials suppliers are part of in NIKE's Water Minimum Program, which outlines the expectations for suppliers to adopt the most rigorous water management practices within the industry.

Nike is also a member of ZDHC, Zero Discharge of Hazardous Materials – a voluntary industry program that sets standards above regulatory requirements for chemical use and wastewater management. In FY23, 100% of our suppliers participated in the ZDHC wastewater sampling program and over 95% of facilities achieved compliance.

Recognizing the reported risks of microfibers and microparticles on the environment, NIKE is leading the development of ZDHC guidelines and research to control and measure microfibers and microparticles, expanding ZDHC’s guideline scope beyond chemical wastewater management. 

As we push the boundaries of our program, we are expanding our efforts beyond materials sourcing and site-level resilience to focus on community resilience, including access to water, sanitation, and hygiene. This work builds on our existing watershed restoration by elevating the social and community benefits provided through multi-stakeholder collaboration. It also grounds our work in a more holistic understanding of the intersectionality between water, climate, and community health and engagement.

In collaboration with Water.org, we are piloting projects that bring meaningful change to communities in some of our highest-risk manufacturing backyards. Working in close collaboration with suppliers, we are helping to address the immediate needs of the workers and communities that make up our supply chain and working to replicate these solutions in other locations.

Through these efforts, we are helping suppliers and their neighboring communities flourish, working to protect the future of sport and contributing to a water-secure tomorrow.