We have worked across our operations - from design to delivery, manufacturing to travel - to identify our energy and climate footprint and understand where our actions will have the greatest impact.
As we have examined our energy footprint in more detail, we have gained a better understanding of where to focus our efforts. For example, in the absence of data, we might be tempted to focus immediately on transportation from our factories in Asia to retail. But in looking at our footprint more completely, we realize that our largest energy impact is embedded in our materials. In a typical running shoe, 59 percent of our energy is in the materials, 22 percent is used during the manufacturing of the product, and only 10 percent of the footprint is attributable to shipping. This information allows us to focus our efforts where they will have the most impact: sourcing materials with a lower energy footprint.
We've calculated that an average pair of Nike running shoes has a CO2 footprint of about 40 pounds (taking into account the embedded energy in all the materials in the shoe, the manufacturing of that shoe and the transport to our distribution center in the U.S.). To put this into context, every mile driven emits an average of one pound of CO2.
Nike partnered with Levi Strauss & Co., Starbucks, Sun Microsystems and Timberland as a founding member of Business for Innovative Climate and Energy Policy (BICEP). We have committed to strategic collaboration through BICEP to push for U.S. energy and climate legislation and rule making. BICEP members have agreed on nine guiding principles: