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Fears that Nike’s long-awaited second corporate responsibility report would be guarded and uninformative in the wake of the Kasky v Nike legal case have proved unfounded, according to an independent committee of CSR specialists that was invited to comment on the document.
The nine-person review committee describes the 108-page report – Nike’s first for three years – as ‘candid and comprehensive’. Nike suspended its reporting in 2002 as a result of the Kasky v Nike lawsuit, which challenged the sportswear company’s right to make certain statements in support of its social responsibility programmes.
The case was settled out of court last year. Nike subsequently warned that lawyers would have to go through the new document, published last month, with a fine tooth comb (EP6, issue 7, p1).
However, the committee, which includes Chris Tuppen, head of sustainable development and corporate accountability at BT, and Liz Umlas, a senior research analyst at KLD Research & Analytics, concludes that the report shows no signs of holding back, and even features a ‘groundbreaking step in transparency’ by disclosing, in a web annex, the names and locations of the company’s 700 supplier factories.
The committee also praised Nike for ‘charting some new territory’ by reporting for the first time on its lobbying positions.
The committee’s comments are contained in the body of the Nike report.
Nike said that it was not sure exactly how full disclosure of the names and whereabouts of its supplier factories would improve the social and environmental performance of its suppliers, but felt this was the right way forward. ‘We cannot say with certainty what greater levels of factory disclosure will unleash, but we know the current system of addressing factory compliance has to be fundamentally transformed to create sustainable change,’ said Hannah Jones, Nike’s vice president of corporate responsibility.
‘We believe that disclosure of supply chains is a step toward greater … shared knowledge in capacity building and will elevate overall conditions in the industry,’ she added.
The nine-person review committee describes the 108-page report – Nike’s first for three years – as ‘candid and comprehensive’. Nike suspended its reporting in 2002 as a result of the Kasky v Nike lawsuit, which challenged the sportswear company’s right to make certain statements in support of its social responsibility programmes.
The case was settled out of court last year. Nike subsequently warned that lawyers would have to go through the new document, published last month, with a fine tooth comb (EP6, issue 7, p1).
However, the committee, which includes Chris Tuppen, head of sustainable development and corporate accountability at BT, and Liz Umlas, a senior research analyst at KLD Research & Analytics, concludes that the report shows no signs of holding back, and even features a ‘groundbreaking step in transparency’ by disclosing, in a web annex, the names and locations of the company’s 700 supplier factories.
The committee also praised Nike for ‘charting some new territory’ by reporting for the first time on its lobbying positions.
The committee’s comments are contained in the body of the Nike report.
Nike said that it was not sure exactly how full disclosure of the names and whereabouts of its supplier factories would improve the social and environmental performance of its suppliers, but felt this was the right way forward. ‘We cannot say with certainty what greater levels of factory disclosure will unleash, but we know the current system of addressing factory compliance has to be fundamentally transformed to create sustainable change,’ said Hannah Jones, Nike’s vice president of corporate responsibility.
‘We believe that disclosure of supply chains is a step toward greater … shared knowledge in capacity building and will elevate overall conditions in the industry,’ she added.
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