To everyone,

First I was an athlete. Then a designer. Now a CEO. But I'm still an athlete and a designer. Like everyone, I view the world through the lens of my experiences. And so I'll talk about a few things I've learned along the way and why I am committed to building a more sustainable company and future.

Designers are curious. They scan and observe and notice what is unique rather than what is obvious. Their curiosity often shows an object or process to suffer some deficit - a lack of function or performance or style or relevance - and they are compelled to improve it. Just as often, designers see not a flaw but an opportunity — and they feel compelled to seek solutions.

Innovators are composers. They see connections where others see only dots. It's all about relationships and possibilities. They understand that the elements of invention are not the notes of the song but rather the spaces in between — new technologies, unique behaviors and unusual partnerships. And they have absolutely no fear of failure in exploring these possibilities.

Sports created Nike, but design and innovation made it grow. Our challenge — and our opportunity - is to use all three to help people reach their true potential.

We have always obsessed on performance - make it lighter, faster, tougher, more relevant — all to enhance the experience of sport for all. In the early days our "systems" consisted of only those things that helped us build better shoes and shirts, and ads and events. We are, after all, a consumer products company.

It took us a while, but we finally figured out that we could apply these two core competencies — design and innovation — to bring about environmental, labor and social change. We opened the aperture of our lens and discovered our potential to have a positive influence on waste reduction, climate change, managing natural resources, renewable energy and factory conditions. We saw that doing the right thing was good for business today — and would be an engine for our growth in the near future. With each new discovery and partnership, we willingly gave up old ideas to shift our thinking toward a better, smarter, faster and ultimately more sustainable future — financially, environmentally and socially.

There were many teachable moments along the way. I'll offer six:

1. In the early ‘90s, we came under intense scrutiny for labor conditions in our supply chain. Our critics were smart (and right) to focus on the industry leader. Our first reaction was to defend the practices prevalent in developing economies. Soon, however, we learned that the path to change that status quo is paved by collaboration with multiple stakeholders. We had a lot to learn, and there were people who could coach us. In those days the Internet was brand new, but we began to see the power of instantaneous information and new communities enabled on a global scale. We suspected that a new model was being born - one that would tap into the wisdom of diverse contributors, where collaboration was more important than proprietary secrets. We learned to view transparency as an asset, not a risk
2. Another hard lesson came after years of pushing our suppliers with monitoring and policing tools. We thought that we could be a unilateral force for systemic change. Instead, we learned that meaningful reform was not going to come from external pressure alone. Awareness and monitoring of any mandated Code of Conduct had to be embraced and enforced at the local level. And it had to be based on real business-based solutions driven by strong market signals. If we are to enable systemic change, we can't do it alone. We need partners. We need collaboration from industry, civil society and government. And we need to show the real benefits of lean manufacturing and human resource management
3. For years we used SF6, a global warming gas, in our Air Soles. It was a legacy technology that had to change going forward. But it was incredibly difficult to engineer a solution that replaced SF6 with a benign gas without sacrificing the performance of our products. After much trial and error over several years, the Nike R&D team devised a way to replace SF6 with nitrogen, which virtually eliminated the release of CO2 equivalent and actually improved the performance of our Air Soles. It was a moment of clarity that showed us a risk could become an innovation. It launched us on a continual search for similar advances in sustainable technology and performance
4. As we thought about how to reduce the environmental impacts of our products, we realized it had to start with our design community. So we worked back upstream from the finished product to the earliest stages of design and development. From the first glimmer of a product concept, we would consider everything involved in bringing a shoe to market - from raw materials sourcing to transportation - all aimed at minimizing our environmental impact. This gave birth to our Considered Index that measures the effective use and management of resources. The focus on design as a key enabler of system change taught us that, while retrofitting the past or the present yields significant benefits, prototyping the future can unleash disruptive and scalable innovation
5. We have many tools to use in our commitment to a better world - our investment in the Nike Foundation and The Girl Effect, our policy advocacy work on climate and energy policies, LIVESTRONG and the fight against cancer, and the N7 Native American product line where revenue returns into the community to name a few. These successes prove that Nike can be a catalyst with significant ripple effect. We have ambitious goals around scaling environmental, social and labor-related change. But we know we can't do everything, and we can't do it alone. So we decided to focus on a few key areas where we know we can mobilize awareness and commitment - with our employees, our consumers, policy makers, civil society and among members inside and outside of our industry. And that has made all the difference
6. And we continue to build and upgrade our facilities to leverage new technologies - solar arrays on the roof of our fitness center, windmills that power our distribution center in Laakdal, our LEED-certified daycare center, and much more. We're continually investing in a smart, responsible and sustainable home for Nike around the world

This report is published at a tipping point. It's time for the world to shift. All companies face a direct impact from decreasing natural resources, rising populations and disruption from climate change. And what may be a subtle effect now will only become more intense over the next five to ten years. Never has business had a more crucial call to innovate not just for the health and growth opportunities for our companies, but for the good of the world.

Ten years ago, few companies had a corporate responsibility team. Today, we're evolving beyond the words corporate responsibility to a "sustainable business and innovation team." We see sustainability, both social and environmental, as a powerful path to innovation, and crucial to our growth strategies.

I grew up in design and innovation. I grew up at Nike. And for all the athletic and cultural and financial successes of the company, I believe our work in sustainable business and innovation has equal potential to shape our legacy. For that to happen, we have to focus on the lessons we've learned:

The challenges we face are huge, but the opportunity is even greater if we act now — new business models, new markets, new services and products — all based on our commitment to innovation.

There is now only one path and it leads to greater sustainability, equity, growth and prosperity.

Thanks,

Mark Parker
President and CEO, NIKE, Inc.