耐吉為推進永續發展業務制訂全球策略

耐吉為推進永續發展業務制訂全球策略

俄勒岡州比弗頓--(美國商業資訊Business Wire)--耐吉公司（NIKE Inc.，紐約證券交易所代碼：NKE）今日發佈2007至2009會計年度企業社會責任（CR）報告，其中勾畫出其下一階段的企業社會責任策略將從風險管理、慈善與法規遵循模式，轉變為注重創新、協同合作、透明與積極參與的長期策略，以使公司在永續發展經濟中保持積極成長動力。

公司對永續發展業務與創新（SB&I）的高度重視將進一步充分整合至耐吉的所有業務策略之中，形成一個更具永續性的方針，從而為其業務、社區、工人、消費者乃至全世界提供更大的回報。該報告闡述了耐吉的5年企業社會責任目標，並對其過去3年內在企業社會責任方面做出的努力進行了全面回顧。

耐吉公司的總裁兼CEO Mark Parker說：「永續發展對於耐吉的成長與創新非常關鍵。提高我們業務的永續性，對我們的消費者、外包工人、員工和股東都有益處，因為消費者們希望他們購買的產品及體驗對環境的影響不大，工人們將從永續生產中獲利，而一家對未來有所準備的公司將使其員工和股東得到回報。」耐吉體認到自然資源減少的影響以及向低碳經濟發展的需要，所以耐吉也透過這份報告分享其實現封閉迴圈（closed-loop）業務模式的願景，即實現供應鏈中的零浪費，並使產品和材料都能不斷地重複利用，避免在消費者之前及之後的環節產生浪費。這一願景旨在推動創新和永續發展業務流程和模式的發展。

永續發展業務與創新副總裁Hannah Jones說：「做為一家成長型公司，耐吉與永續發展之間的聯繫目前顯得尤為清晰。勞動力、年輕人的運動、供應鏈和產品的社會、環境以及經濟轉型都可能帶來嚴重的衝擊。這就為耐吉提供了一個機會，使我們能夠利用我們的創新能力以及對透明和協同合作的堅持來處理這些複雜的問題。」

該報告公佈了耐吉於2007年制訂的5年目標的進度。公司已經在許多領域取得了不錯的進展，例如精益人力資源管理（Lean and Human Resource Management）培訓在外包工廠的實施，以及在Considered Design高性能產品中減少毒廢料及擴大環保優勢材料的使用等。該報告還闡述了其他較高難度目標的進度，例如管理外包工廠的超時工作等。為了幫助理解問題的複雜性或策略上的變更，耐吉還做了一些修改或解釋。

該企業社會責任報告介紹了公司的一些重要專案：

1. Considered Design Considered Design透過減少或消除毒廢料及擴大環保優勢材料的使用，在創新性高性能的運動員專用產品中融入了永續發展原則。

2. GreenXchange（GX）GX是一個網路式的交易市集，用於共用各類可引導新的永續發展業務模式和創新的智慧財產權。這是一個用於捕捉、共用及授權專利的系統，一旦他人參與使用，就可以催生出無限創意，有助於解決永續發展問題目前遇到的阻礙。GX的目標是使私有的智慧財產權為人所見、為人所用，從而促進綠色創新的發展。

3. 精益人力資源管理（HRM） 耐吉一直在與外包工廠合作，培訓他們實施專門的精益生產和人力資源管理。精益原則透過技能培訓、團隊合作以及灌輸品質高於數量的理念，拉近了決策者與工人之間的距離。人力資源管理增強了工廠的管理能力，並使他們體認一支強有力的員工隊伍的價值。雖然這只是耐吉與外包工廠相關合作的一個層面，但這對於耐吉打造更加精益、綠色、有力和公正的供應鏈的策略是一個重要的支撐。

4. 運動帶來社會轉變耐吉進一步推進其透過運動強力推動社會轉變的策略。人們低估了運動在構建社會企業家和社區創新者網路方面的實力以及推動社會、經濟和文化的積極轉變的能力。耐吉與Grassroot Soccer在非洲合作的專案就是一個有力的證據。這是一個社區專案，旨在透過加強對HIV/愛滋病的認識和教育直接解決一個迫切的社會需求，它以運動為媒介吸引年輕男女，並向他們傳達資訊，使他們能夠做出明智的決定。

5. 能源與氣候變遷策略 在2009年，耐吉號召成立一個名為「創新氣候與能源業務政策」（Innovative Climate and Energy Policy，BICEP）的消費品公司同盟，它倡議美國加強氣候與能源立法，透過開徵碳費營造一個公平競爭的環境，並開放對創造技術和基礎設施解決方案極為重要的各類創新。耐吉力求防患於未然以因應強制性法規、能源價格上漲與波動及消費者壓力等。此外，耐吉在2008年與5家外包製造商發起了一個鞋襪能源效益專案。耐吉致力於該專案的協同合作已經取得了令人矚目的初步成果：幾家外包工廠的產量增加了9%，但其絕對碳足跡卻下降了6%。耐吉的企業社會責任報告詳見：nikeresponsibility.com。其中對各項目標取得的進展有非常詳盡的介紹，並對公司在2007、2008和2009會計年度的努力進行了全面回顧。

關於耐吉耐吉公司總部位於俄勒岡州比弗頓附近，是設計、行銷和經銷真正的運動鞋、運動服、運動設備和運動配飾的全球領先企業，其產品廣泛用於一系列體育和健身活動。耐吉的全資子公司包括：設計、行銷和經銷高檔鞋、手提包、配飾和外套的Cole Haan公司；設計、行銷和經銷運動鞋、運動服和運動配飾的匡威公司（Converse Inc.）；設計、行銷和經銷極限運動及年輕人時尚風格鞋類、服裝和配飾的Hurley International LLC；以及總部設在英國的全球領先足球品牌茵寶有限公司（Umbro Ltd.）。

Nike: Corporate Responsibility at a “Tipping Point”

摘自Business-Ethics.com網站（2010/01/24）

The old business maxim that “what gets measured, matters” is overused but nonetheless powerful, especially when applied to corporate responsibility: when information and metrics are combined with disclosure and transparency, corporate posturing on issues that affect society can be quickly replaced with fact-based analysis and discussion.

One current example is Nike Inc.’s newly-published Corporate Responsibility (CR) Report for fiscal years 2007 to 2009. It’s a slickly-produced multimedia display of data and information - in fact, Nike says, an independent panel of stakeholder advisers at one point concluded the volume of information contained in the 176-page written report was so “overwhelming” that it required a rewrite.

“This report is published at a tipping point. It’s time for the world to shift,” Nike CEO Mark Parker writes in the report’s introduction. “We see sustainability, both social and environmental, as a powerful path to innovation, and crucial to our growth strategies.”
That’s a huge change from the 1990’s, when Nike was a poster child for corporate villainy stemming from sweatshop labor practices in Southeast Asia factories. Since then, the company has charted a very different course in corporate citizenship and, in many important respects, has succeeded.

Grappling with Issues

This latest report places a big focus on environmental sustainability, with Nike sharing its vision of “reaching a closed-loop business model where the goal is to achieve zero waste in the supply chain and have products and materials that can be continuously reused – no pre- or post-consumer waste.”

What’s most interesting about the report, though, is that you can see Nike grappling, in public, with some tough choices. The narrative demonstrates what can happen when a company begins reporting regularly and in-depth, and with an apparent commitment to intellectual honesty, about core issues.

For Nike, labor and human rights continue as a top priority and corporate worry. The company’s three main product lines — footwear, apparel and equipment — are made in approximately 600 contract factories that employ more than 800,000 workers in 46 countries around the world. Nearly 60 percent of the work force is in North Asia, 31 percent in South Asia. One major difficulty is that contract apparel factories generally produce for multiple brands, making it a difficult to maintain standards.

To listen to Nike, monitoring those contract factories for working conditions, wages and overtime – and a host of other issues, including possible unionization – is not easy. “While we can point to many examples of improvements, challenging issues remain for our company and our industry in systemically identifying and tackling how to affect long-term system-wide change,” the company says.

“In evaluating where our targets fell short, we saw a consistent pattern: a focus on auditing against a set of criteria sometimes results in on-the-ground improvements for workers, but it rarely produces systemic change in the area of concern,” Nike says. “On further reflection, we realized that, if we want to make sustainable improvements for workers, we need to significantly change the way we engage and interact with our supply chain as a whole.”

One potential solution, Nike reports, is collaborating with other brands on factory audits and, maybe more importantly, working with competitors on developing remedies for labor problems as well as standardized codes. And then there are improvements that can be made by Nike alone. Example: “Asking factories to manufacture too many styles is one of the highest contributors to factory overtime in apparel. We have an opportunity to reduce this pressure by reducing the number of apparel styles and partnering with the factories to improve efficiencies through lean production methods.”

Increased Reporting

There’s more detail in the Nike report than most any layman could digest and understand, and Nike critics – such as Oxfam’s Nike Watch, and a new activist initiative, TeamSweat – are likely to find weaknesses. That’s as it should be. No one should be satisfied simply because the company has issued a report, even one chock-a-block with narrative, charts and bar graphs.
Some critics of corporate responsibility reports believe they can’t help but be self-serving. And, in fact, more companies are reporting. Sixty-six of the S&P 100 firms produced a formal sustainability report with performance data in 2008, a 35 percent jump from the 49 reports produced in 2007, according to a report from the Sustainable Investment Research Analyst Network (SIRAN), a working group of the Social Investment Forum (SIF). However, the SIRAN survey found that only six S&P 100 firms publish complete sustainability reports that meet the highest “A” level reporting standard set by the Global Reporting Initiative.

In the end, it’s difficult to see how more reporting can’t help, as long as it’s done well. Nike’s latest effort is a good example of how the process can lead to data being gathered, metrics developed and performance benchmarks set. The process grew out of Nike’s public floggings in the 1990s, says CEO Parker, when “we learned to view transparency as an asset, not a risk.”