Nike make pollution clean-up commitment
30 August 2011The world’s largest sportswear brand, Nike, on August 18 committed themselves to the elimination of releases of all hazardous chemicals across its entire supply chain and the entire life-cycle of its products by 2020, following a Greenpeace challenge to 'Detox'.
Nike's promise to remove persistent, bioaccumulative and hormone disrupting substances from its supply chain comes five weeks after a Greenpeace report, ‘Dirty Laundry’, revealed commercial links between major clothing brands, including Nike, Puma and Adidas, and suppliers responsible for releasing toxic pollution into Chinese rivers.
Greenpeace are now asking Nike rivals Adidas to take up their; ‘‘Detox’ challenge, by committing to cut hazardous chemicals discharges from its global supply chain’, said Martin Hojsik, Coordinator of the Toxic Water campaign at Greenpeace International.
As well as its commitment to zero hazardous discharges by 2020, Nike have agreed to address the issue of the ‘right to know’ by ensuring full transparency about the chemicals being released from its suppliers’ factories, and has also promised to use its influence, knowledge and experience to bring about widespread elimination of hazardous chemicals from the clothing industry. Nike has said that it will publish its implementation plan within eight weeks.
‘By committing to clean up its dirty laundry, Nike is showing real winning form, but Greenpeace will need to take a close look at its implementation plan before we know whether Nike has the makings of a true champion and if it is really serious about eliminating hazardous chemicals from its supply chain’, continued Hojsik.
Greenpeace is campaigning to stop industrial pollution of our water with hazardous, persistent and hormone-disrupting chemicals by demanding that companies and governments take action to ‘Detox’ our future.
