Nike’s Gold Standard

After our reporting on the use of corporate jets by Nike leadership, the company had its fleet removed from a federal flight tracking data source.

All the shareholder proposals at Nike’s annual meeting failed.

Ahead of the company’s annual meeting, we reported on shareholder efforts to force a public accounting of Nike’s efforts to address factory working conditions and climate change.

Even as Nike leaders touted their commitment to the environment, they made heavy use of corporate jets, whose greenhouse gas emissions grew. We tracked flight paths, including to frequent stops at a Bay Area airfield near a home owned by then-CEO John Donahoe.

We reported the full extent of what a worker called “the sustainability bloodbath”: 20% of employees who worked primarily on Nike’s sustainability initiatives were laid off, and another 10% left through voluntary departures or transfers.

Nike’s Sustainable Innovation team learns that it will be eliminated, the first in what will become a series of cuts to company sustainability efforts.