Nike Launches ‘Move To Zero’ Carbon & Waste Campaign To ‘Protect Future Of Sport’

Sportswear giant Nike has announced a new sustainability initiative with the “singular aim” of “protecting the future of sport”. Called Move to Zero, the new campaign will see the multinational corporation dramatically shift its operations to circular models, from moving to 100% renewable energy to eliminating all single-use plastics and diverting waste into new products. 

According to the firm, Move to Zero is a recognition that the future of sport is at risk of threats posed by climate change, from rising temperatures and too-humid conditions impeding the ability of athletes to compete at the top of their game, to less practice time or even the physical loss of the field itself in snow sports like snowboarding. 

“Move to Zero is a response to these realities,” Nike said in a statement. 

Of course, it also represents the pressure Nike is facing from consumers to clean up its act and take responsibility for its role in fuelling the climate and waste crisis as one of the biggest companies in the world. Nevertheless, this latest campaign marks a dramatic step up in its efforts to prioritise sustainability with a slew of new ambitious targets that will bring the company’s operations literally to zero carbon and zero waste. 

Among some of the specific goals it has set include powering all its owned and operated facilities with 100% renewable energy by 2025 and slashing its carbon emissions across its entire global value chain by 30% within the next decade. 

Move to Zero works to both minimize Nike’s environmental footprint as a business and maximize avenues for positive impact as a brand.

Nike

It will also begin diverting 99% of all its footwear manufacturing waste from landfills and recovering 1 billion plastic bottles per year to create new yarns that will be used in its products. 

Some of the waste diverted by the company may even go towards constructing sports playgrounds, running tracks and courts – a move that its arch rival Adidas has done before, building a new football field using 1.8 million recycled plastic bottles. 

Other measures that Nike has pledged include eliminating all single-use plastics on Nike’s campuses across the world, and encouraging more circular apparel and footwear designs and material development through its “global design community”. 

“Move to Zero works to both minimize Nike’s environmental footprint as a business and maximize avenues for positive impact as a brand,” the company said. 

The latest campaign follows the news that Nike and other major conglomerates including Microsoft, Unilever and Starbucks have joined together to form a new group to assist other businesses to reach net-zero emissions by 2050, in line with the Paris Agreement. 

Called the Transform to Net Zero initiative, the team of companies will develop and provide science-based guidance and roadmaps designed to railroad a carbon neutral global economy amid the widespread acknowledgement of the dangers of the continued destruction of the natural world, to both the planet and their profits. 

Lead image courtesy of Nike.