Leaders: Dave Newman, David Buchanan

Initiatives: Measure and reduce greenhouse gas emissions from Global Supply Chain operations

430 million pounds of carbon dioxide. That’s the emissions from ocean and air transportation of Nike products measured in 1999. What does this represent? All 5000 employees of WHQ commuting to and from Nike for eight full years, or planting 214,000 trees with a life span of 40 years to offset all this carbon dioxide.

Dave Newman and David Buchanan have been working since then to reduce this staggering figure. Thanks to the support of John Isbell (Senior Director of Logistics) and Bob Kreinberg (VP of Global Logistics), they were able to showcase sustainable logistics at the May 2000 Global Supply Chain Leaders Meeting right after the conclusion of the Shambhala training program. Employees from the US, EMEA, Asia-Pacific, and the Americas began the dialogue which would produce the Virtual Logistics group.

This team meets twice a year to make sure Nike Global Logistics is supporting the sustainability efforts of those in the business. Everything is conducted via conference calls to reduce costs and transportation emissions impact. The only cost in this case is employees’ time.