Throughout this report we share elements of our commercial strategy that provide opportunities for corporate responsibility to create value for the company.
The socially responsible investment community and other research and rating organizations regularly request information from NIKE, Inc. and/or rank us using publicly available information. As such, these organizations are one of the intended audiences for this report. We engage with these communities by attending conferences and other gatherings to discuss best practice as well as through our regular response to surveys and profiles that are created by external research and rating organizations. Some highlights of the recent rankings include:
The Global 100 Most Sustainable Corporations in the World is a project initiated by Corporate Knights Inc., with Innovest Strategic Value Advisors Inc. The annual Global 100 is announced each year at the World Economic Forum, and NIKE, Inc. was honored in this ranking each year from 2006 through 2009. Innovest Strategic Value Advisors is an international investment advisory firm specializing in analyzing nontraditional drivers of risk and shareholder value including companies' performance on environmental, social and strategic governance issues.
The 100 Best Corporate Citizens list, created by Business Ethics magazine, is a ranking of leading ethical performers publicly listed in the U.S. Released every spring, the 100 Best Corporate Citizens list is designed to recognize firms that excel at serving a variety of stakeholders with excellence and integrity. Nike was honored in this ranking in each year from 2005 through 2009. KLD Research & Analytics, Inc. provides the information and analysis for this ranking, which is based on how well companies perform in eight stakeholder-service categories: shareholders, community, governance, diversity, employees, environment, human rights and product. The rankings are created from both financial information and corporate social performance measures.
Nike ranked as one of the World's Most Ethical Companies each year from 2007 to 2009 in an analysis by Ethisphere. The annual ranking covers corporate citizenship, corporate governance, innovation that contributes to the public well-being, industry leadership, executive leadership, legal/regulatory and reputation track record, and internal systems.
In 2008, Ceres ranked Nike top of the apparel category in its first-ever ranking of consumer and technology companies on climate change strategies. The analysis, conducted by RiskMetrics Group, examined 63 of the world's largest global companies. Nike scored 71 on a 100-point scale; half the companies analyzed scored less than 50 and the median score was 38.
Nike ranked in the top 10 of Newsweek's 2009 first annual Green Rankings, an exhaustive assessment of the 500 largest U.S. public companies' environmental performance, achievements and reputation. The rankings assess all 500 companies on three metrics - an environmental impact score, a green policies score and a reputation survey score. Nike placed seventh on the list with an overall score of 93.28 out of 100.
In 2009 NIKE, Inc. scored the highest in nonprofit organization Climate Counts' annual rankings. Rankings are created using a 22-criteria scorecard to track corporate climate action in four areas: measurement of impact; reduction of impact; engagement on public policy related to climate change; and openness and transparency with consumers on corporate climate activities.
More details on these and other NIKE, Inc. awards are listed online.