Nike Launches Considered Design

Submitted by Richard Blume on Mon, 2008-11-03 16:03.

Nike Considered Launch - Richard Blume and Chad Park

Dear Friends and Colleagues,

Last Tuesday, Chad Park and I represented The Natural Step at Nike’s press event in New York to observe the next phase in their approach to sustainability – the public launch of Considered Design (“performance without compromising sustainability”). The Natural Step worked with Nike ten years ago to jump-start their earlier sustainability work and in 2008 we began helping them create a set of innovation goals to define their future success in sustainability terms.

The event was spread over two days; one which included a ‘show and tell’ for Nike’s friends in the non-profit community, allowing them to better understand the Considered ethos and ask in-depth questions, and a second day that was primarily a press event. Given the nature of Nike’s brand, the press group consisted of journalists and representatives from The Wall Street Journal, MTV, Blender Magazine, the Discovery Channel and many other diverse publications.

This event was a milestone for Nike and I am happy to have participated and to share my reflections:

The launch was not just a presentation, but also an exhibit that show-cased a timeline of sustainability activities and accolades going as far back as 1990, demonstrating that Nike sustainable product innovation is more than just a new fad.
Considered is more than a niche product line and Nike has targets to embed the ethos 100% across the board, including its high performance products. Some were featured at the Beijing Olympics, others have been previously released (e.g. Steve Nash 'Trash' shoe and Air Jordan XXIII) and the Spring 2009 range will feature many more Considered products.
Nike’s Considered Index has harnessed the ‘just do it’ mentality in service of sustainability. The Index rates their products and rewards designers for making good design choices (e.g. environmentally preferred materials, waste reductions, water-based solvents and step-change innovation). This tool has been a key leverage point - Nike exceeded its own expectations and smashed original internal targets by over 700%. They plan to share the Index with industry in 2009 in the spirit of industry-wide collaboration towards sustainability.
Lorrie Vogel, Nike GM of Considered spoke of the need to plan for future success on the ultimate playing field, our planet: “It would not only be environmentally irresponsible to ignore these issues…we need to plant the seeds now so our business so can not only survive, but thrive in a resource constrained world” (approx).
Mark Parker, CEO of Nike Inc., made bold statements about the significance of Considered: “I see unlimited possibility with Considered and the potential for us to be a game changer. It is helping us to be a better, more responsible, more profitable company. I envision a time when all our products are closed loop using sustainable, low carbon design” (approx).
The launch took place in the context of a global economic meltdown. Nike could have quite easily cancelled this launch but the fact they didn’t sends a strong message about how crucial sustainability is for Nike’s future business success.

So far, so good and credit to Nike for recognizing the importance of collaboration and showing such public leadership from the top. I was personally very inspired by the event and although Nike continues to face challenges, this public launch is a big step for an organization that has taken considerable heat on supply chain issues.

The Natural Step will continue to work with Nike on its Considered vision and strategies to ensure that social and ecological sustainability are indeed considered. Their vision, aptly named the North Star, was created to guide innovation toward a sustainable Nike. Following this launch, I am excited to watch how Nike will position itself over the months and years ahead in an environment of rising consumer expectations and increasingly uncertain times.

Richard Blume

Senior Advisor

The Natural Step

Nike’s Considered press release

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