For almost 20 years NIKE, Inc. has recognized that climate change is an important challenge requiring urgent, meaningful action. We have developed and pursued a number of initiatives to reduce our impact on the climate. In 2007, we moved beyond focusing solely on NIKE, Inc.'s impact and invited environmental stakeholders to our headquarters to discuss current efforts and brainstorm around public policy advocacy. At that point, climate change legislation had already moved through most European capitals, but was stalled in the United States.
Having realized no existing trade or business coalition represented our perspective on climate change, we helped create our own business coalition to advocate for climate change legislation, Business for Innovative Climate and Energy Policy.
Made up of like-minded companies and working in close consultation with the Coalition for Environmentally Responsible Economies (CERES), BICEP started by developing a series of key principles that we believed were required in any legislation that passed the U.S. Congress. Once BICEP's initial principles were drafted, we recruited other companies to join, started reaching out to members of Congress and built a public relations campaign. We believe our advocacy work made a significant difference in gaining House passage of climate change legislation, and we plan to do the same when the Senate considers the legislation. What makes BICEP's voice unique is our ability to make the business case for the passage of climate change legislation. BICEP members believe it is directly related to the ongoing success of our businesses. This business perspective is important in the political debate, as most businesses and trade associations are opposed to the legislation because they fear it would be too costly to implement. While we don't minimize these concerns to businesses that are major carbon emitters, we believe delaying the legislation and undercutting the U.S.'s ability to move toward an international agreement on climate change would become more costly in the long run.
We will continue expanding the work of BICEP after the U.S. passes climate change legislation and use our voices to promote and achieve an international agreement on climate change. We will then press for implementation of that agreement in key countries around the globe. We intend to duplicate and use the BICEP model of building and working in broad coalitions with other companies as a model in other public policy areas that are important to NIKE, Inc. CR initiatives.