Social Responsibility and Nike

Corporate Social Responsibility Nike does not have a statement of corporate responsibility. On its website, the company has highlighted a number of issues that would traditionally fall into that category, but it does not specifically use the term. This appears to be that Nike is projecting that it has moved beyond the overly-simplistic, jargonistic vision of CSR to embrace something that is genuinely meaningful. The company discusses actual issues in specific on its website, in the section that would otherwise be called CSR.

Nike has instead introduced a concept that they call "sustainable innovation." At the heart of this concept is that innovation is disruptive, and that this is something that not only can drive the company forward in terms of its products, but can also drive the company forward in terms of the impact that it has on the world. The company discusses a few different issues, including climate change.

In its Sustainable Business Report, a 115-page document, Nike discusses other issues as well, including its manufacturing processes and the role of workers in that process. This hits on the key area in which Nike has had controversy in the past. Other issues include Nike workers and governance.

The fact that Nike does not use the terminology Corporate Social Responsibility, and that it has a broader vision of the subject, indicates that Nike is now seeking to take control of the dialogue concerning its business practices, in particular that social responsibility. It is setting the terminology, and it is defining success on its own terms.

Allusions to issues that it had in the past are hard to find in the Sustainable Business Report, indicating that the company is seeking to leave such discussion in the past at this point, and instead wants to talk about a future, on its own terms. 2. Nike's report highlights that there are a number of different things that Nike talks about with respect to subjects that normally would be considered social responsibility. The company highlights the environment, in particular the threat posed by climate change.

The company notes that the "future must be circular," reflecting a zero-waste situation and minimal use of carbon. This idea forms the basis of its environmental strategy. The company evaluates itself on several environmental measures, and seven different socioeconomic measures as well. The environmental measures typically relate to waste, and the socioeconomic ones primarily relate to workers. With the former, Nike works with its suppliers to achieve its environmental objectives. The process of making athletic apparel, and shoes in particular, creates a fair amount of waste, some of it hazardous.

Nike works within the context of growing its business when it discusses its plans for dealing with the pollution its enterprise creates, selling the idea that growth can be sustainable, when pollution occurs and non-renewable resources are consumed. The company sells the ideal of a zero-waste, closed-loop economy, but in reality it is nowhere near achieving that. Dreams are great, but they bump up against a current situation that is far from the ideal the company wishes to project.

On the matter of workers, the main controversies of the past for Nike have related to workers at their subcontractors in the developing world. The company wants to improve leadership among workers in these factories, increase compensation and benefits, and otherwise deliver better for workers in the developing world.

By other accounts, Nike has improved its engagement with contractors significantly following its scandals and sought to become more of a leader with respect to the treatment of workers at its overseas manufacturing partners, rather than to be a follower and be blindsided by scandal again. The company documents these efforts in its Sustainable Business Report. 3. Nike has paid attention primarily to workers, as that is the area where it has had the most difficulty in the past.

The issue today for Nike is that, even in the context of a 115-page document, it has little in the way of specifics to offer about social responsibility. The company's environmental record may be improving, at least by measures of its own choosing, but ultimately there are a lot of issues that it faces.

While the optimism of hoping for an unattainable ideal sounds great, it rings hollow when subject to even a modicum of scrutiny -- like how you can ship goods halfway across the world sustainably, given that fossil fuels are non-renewable and that they must be burned in the process. Nike's employees might all run to work, but their goods don't run to America from Bangladesh.

So while as consultant I recommend retaining the ability to frame CSR in its own terms, I do feel that Nike should project a more sober, realistic outlook towards the matter in its communications. It has to understand.