Demand Management, Energy Efficiency, GHG Emissions, Sourcing Renewables  -  May 12, 2016

Nike targets 100% renewables by 2025, aligns carbon reduction goals with Paris agreement

An avenue toward meeting its carbon reduction goals, Nike Inc. has joined an ever-growing list of corporations striving to power its operations with 100% renewable energy.

Layered into broader sustainability goals outlined in Nike's Sustainable Business Report for fiscal year 2014/2015, the company said it is targeting 100% renewable energy use in its owned or operated facilities by the end of 2025. Through that transition, alongside energy efficiency initiatives, Nike aims to hit corporate carbon reduction targets that is has directly aligned with the Paris climate agreement.

More broadly, Nike aims to double its business while cutting its environmental impact in half. The company says in its report:

To define and thrive in a low-carbon future, we share the same two critical levers as the rest of the world – energy efficiency (use less) and renewable energy (use better). NIKE's approach to reducing our carbon footprint involves pursuing innovation in low-impact materials, driving energy efficiency in our supply chain and advancing renewable energy in our owned or operated facilities.

The company admits that its owned and operated facilities, which it plans to shift to 100% renewable energy use, comprise just a small portion of its end-to-end carbon footprint. It's largest carbon and energy impacts occur in the materials stages of the value chain, according to the report, which includes materials growing processing and finishing.

To address those impacts, Nike said it uses sustainability indices that enable product creation teams to choose lower impact materials and seeks to education those teams of the importance of making better materials choices. The company is additionally working to improve the carbon footprint of "key high-volume materials" and to develop new materials with lower carbon impacts.

"We’ve set a moonshot challenge to double our business with half the impact," Nike Chief Sustainability Officer and Vice President Hannah Jones said in a statement. "It's a bold ambition that's going to take much more than incremental efficiency – it’s going to take innovation on a scale we’ve never seen before. It’s a challenge we are setting for ourselves, our collaborators and our partners as we move toward a circular economy future."

Nike is an RE100 partner, has signed the White House's American Business Act on Climate Pledge and has committed to the Department of Energy's Better Buildings Challenge.

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