NIKE Impact Report represents the first year of performance against our 2025 Purpose targets. This set of 29 enterprise targets, plus the corporate commitments with a longer time frame – like our Science-Based Carbon Target (2030) and Net Zero Target (2050) – form an aggregated view of NIKE’s long-term goals and public commitments to meet stakeholder expectations and align with NIKE’s business priorities. This report covers NIKE’s fiscal year 2021.
The report highlights that the brand has significantly reduced 25% in freshwater usage per kg textile dyeing and finishing and about 13B liters water restored in our extended cotton supply chain. The brand is working for further positive changes regarding the textile materials that include:
Polyester
NIKE Footwear is tracking ahead of our 2025 goal of 50% recycled total polyester usage. At the end of FY21, recycled polyester made up 38% of NIKE Footwear’s total polyester usage, double the amount from the end of FY20. Progress was driven by our focus on foundational polyester-based materials that cut across the brand’s product portfolio, such as laces, linings, and reinforcements. NIKE Apparel’s most important lever for carbon impact reduction is polyester because it makes up approximately 50% of our materials. In addition, conversion to recycled polyester is achievable with little to no compromise to material quality, performance, and aesthetics.
Cotton
The cotton used in NIKE Apparel is growing due to Nike’s focus on sports lifestyle products and T-shirts, and we have long supported a 10% blending strategy for organic cotton. This puts NIKE among the top users of this critical sustainable fiber globally. In addition, we feature organic cotton as a primary fabric content in products such as Kids/Girls NIKE Sportswear Jerseys made with at least 50% organic cotton.
FY21 was relatively stable for recycled cotton as Nike’s team prioritized other material conversions (such as recycled polyester). Recycled cotton has become more of a strategic focus in FY22. Nike’s ability to scale this material is dependent on the differing capabilities of suppliers and the quality/content constraints inherent in the mechanical yarn creation process. The main supply for recycled cotton is shredded textile waste from garment manufacturing, so increases in recycled cotton blending will coincide with higher closed-loop recycling rates and reduced waste at Tier 1 suppliers going forward. In FY21, Nike achieved 70% sustainable cotton by supplementing our use of recycled and organic cotton with third-party certified cotton
