As with it seems almost everyone else these days, Nike want to change the world.

The athletic gear giant is fresh out with its 2016 Sustainable Business Report, covering progress and developments in 2014 and 2015, with perhaps the headline news being he athletic gear giant's new approach to manufacturing "revolution."

Nike's Manufacturing Revolution initiative is not only transforming what products Nike makes, but also how it makes them through technology, labor and sustainable innovation," the company said in a statement accompanying the report. "In order to deliver new product innovation to consumers, Nike is focused on creating technology-driven manufacturing, through more sustainable factories that place highly skilled, engaged and valued workers at the center."

The Green Supply Chain Says: Nike is taking this pretty far, saying that it is focused on to ensuring "that workers are supported with services and tools that enhance opportunities for financial management, education and training, and access to lower-cost goods and services." What Do You Say? Click Here to Send Us Your Comments Click Here to See Reader Feedback

It also noted that "Nike is working with fewer, better contract factories that are committed to taking this journey."

Nike of course was sort of the poster child for lack of corporate responsibility back in the early 1990s, when critics attacked it for using factories that were sometimes little more than sweat shops, utilized child labor and more. Nike initially reacted by in effect saying "it's not are problem," but changed that tune not long after under blistering criticism.

Now, Nike CEO Mark Parker says "We believe it is not enough to adapt to what the future may bring - we're creating the future we want to see through sustainable innovation," adding that "Today our teams are advancing ambitious new business models and partnerships that can scale unprecedented change across our business and the industry."

Nike says it has embedded sustainability across its business and set aggressive sustainability targets while investing in disruptive innovation, "all in service of driving company growth, delivering performance innovation for athletes and acting as a catalyst for change in the world."

It adds that it has set a "moonshot" goal of "doubling our business with half the impact. It's a bold ambition that's going to take much more than incremental efficiency - it's going to take innovation on a scale we've never seen before," according to Hannah Jones, Nike's Sustainability Officer .

As part of those efforts, Nike say set the following goals for sustaintainability improvement by 2020:

• To have zero waste from contracted footwear manufacturing sent to landfill or incineration without energy recovery.

• To source 100% of products from contract factories meeting the company's definition of sustainable.

• To create products that deliver maximum performance with minimum impact, seeking a 10% reduction in the average environmental footprint and an increased use of more sustainable materials overall.

In addition, to reach 100% renewable energy in owned or operated facilities by the end pf 2015, and to encourage broader adoption of renewable energy as part of an effort to control absolute emissions.

Jumping on the Circular Economy Bandwagon

To achieve all this and more, Nike is fully behind the so-called "circular economy" concept, which focuses on re-use and sustainability management across the full product lifecycle.

"We envision a transition from linear to circular business models and a world that demands closed-loop products - designed with better materials, made with fewer resources and assembled to allow easy reuse in new products," Nike says. "This will involve up-front product design, with materials reclaimed throughout the manufacturing process and at the end of a product's life. We are re-imagining waste streams as value streams, and already our designers have access to a palette of more than 29 high-performance materials made from our manufacturing waste."

It says that already materials left over from producing Nike shoes are being reborn as tennis courts, athletic tracks and new shoes.

The Manufacturing Revolution

There are a number of aspects to Nike's planned manufacturing revolution.

For example, in 2012 Nike released its Sustainable Manufacturing and Sourcing Index (SMSI), a system that combines contract factory ratings for Lean manufacturing and human resource management, as well as for health, safety and the environment.

This system gives environmental and human resource management performance equal weight alongside business metrics in Nike's sourcing decisions. Nike says that to date, factories are making progress in meeting compliance its supplier standards - 86% of contract factories were rated bronze or better at the end of 2015.

Below is a graphic from the report that shows how Nike classifies its suppliers based on their approach and capabilities:

Nike's Contract Manufacturer Scorecard Scale

Source: Nike 2016 Sustainability Report

Nike also says it is focused on getting its contract factories to embrace the importance of a valued and engaged workforce, because Nike's "ability to achieve future growth increasingly relies on well-trained people learning new skills and using new technologies."

Toward this end, Nike is sharing learnings from pilot research programs to effect "positive change inside factories," including regular worker voice surveys and improved management-worker relationships along a number of dimensions.

Nike is taking this pretty far, saying that it is focused on to ensuring "that workers are supported with services and tools that enhance opportunities for financial management, education and training, and access to lower-cost goods and services."

That is quite a perspective indeed. It is not clear how Nike, for example, will enable contract factory workers to access lower cost goods and services in their lives.

As its manufacturing goes more high tech, and it focused more on partners that can meet its growing demands for sustainability improvements, Nike says it has reduced the number of contract factories its uses from 785 factories 2013 to 692 at the end of 2015, while still growing the volume of products made by 11%.

Nike says "We are driving changes at every level and transforming manufacturing by changing the way we work, whom we work with and what we expect of our partners."

Lean is at the core of this, Nike adds, saying "aimed at creating an optimized production process that reduces impacts, eliminates waste, enables skilled and engaged workers to drive quality and productivity, and that is strategically led by managers who see value in an empowered workforce."

There is a lot, lot more, but you get the idea. The full Nike report can be found here: Nike Sustainable Business Report 2016.

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