 Many small businesses are adopting green practices, and to EnviroCitizen.org, that's good news! But all too often, big corporations do little in the way of going green. Nike, a famous, worldwide, gigantic corporation, hasn't always been known as a green business. However, when Nike saw their numbers drop, they sought to do something about it. Since then, Nike has adopted a lot of good, green practices!
Nike now has a recycling program and they have stopped using leather from the Amazon. They've also made several commitments to improve labor standards, work toward becoming a carbon-neutral company and to significantly reduce their waste by 2011. One other thing that they've done, which has received a lot of positive press, is to introduce a new shoe made from trash! Not trash in the way you're thinking. Marketed as the Trash Talk basketball shoe, it's made from leftover leather and synthetic leather, foam and rubber. In July 2009, it was awarded Best in Show at the annual International Design Excellence Awards (IDEA). The upper piece of the Trash Talk basketball shoe is made from leather waste swept up from the factory floor. The mid-sole is made from foam that also came from the factory floor. Finally, the outsole uses environmentally friendly rubber that has a reduced level of toxins. The Trash Talk basketball shoe officially made its debut originally on the feet of Steve Nash, the Phoenix Suns guard.
Nike also has a new line of shoes called Considered. The new line incorporates recycled rubber and reduces manufacturing waste. The shoes are not manufactured with any adhesives so that the toxic effect on workers in factories is significantly reduced. The shoes are also designed for total component disassembly, so that they can be recycled. Nike plans to source the materials within 200 miles of the factories to reduce carbon emissions and they are going to tan the leather with vegetable oils. Overall, the Considered line of shoes creates 63% less waste, requires 37% less energy in production and reduces solvent use by 80% compared to all of Nike's other standard products. Nike's efforts to transform into a global, green empire inspire hope for the future of other conventional, worldwide companies. If such a large, mainstream corporation is making an effort to be green, EnviroCitizen.org can only hope that others will do the same. Only time will tell, but Nike has every intention to continue to pave the way for any other companies that would like to follow suit.
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