Nike's Commitment to Circular Innovation in Apparel and Footwear with Adam Brundage

In this episode, Cory Connors welcomes Adam Brundage from Nike to discuss the company's wide-ranging sustainability efforts. Adam shares his unconventional path into sustainability beginning with a degree in meteorology and atmospheric science and how that led him to learning about life-cycle assessments, discovering greenhouse gas analysis, and pursuing a decade-long career at one of the world's most iconic brands.

Key Topics Discussed:

• Adam's background in meteorology and atmospheric science and how it shaped his passion for climate impact
• Life cycle assessment (LCA) as a foundational tool for understanding Nike's environmental footprint
• Nike's full value chain focus: raw materials, manufacturing, transportation, and packaging
• Packaging's role in Nike's overall carbon footprint (approximately 7%) and the Nike OneBox initiative
• The five major materials Nike focuses on: cotton, polyester, leather, foam, and rubber
• Recycled and organic material adoption: approximately 25% of Nike's current products contain at least one sustainable or recycled material
• Scaling renewable energy across Nike's global store and supplier network
• The evolution of Nike's shoe recycling program: from "Reuse a Shoe" (early 1990s) to the current "Recycle and Donate" model
• Nike's Refurbished program: cleaning and reselling lightly used returns to reduce waste
• Extended Producer Responsibility (EPR) and its growing relevance to the apparel and textile industry
• Textile-to-textile recycling technology: converting old polyester garments back into raw polyester for new products
• Bio-based and biomass-balanced materials as the future of sustainable packaging and apparel
• The challenge of translating complex climate data into actionable understanding for employees across all departments
• The tension between cost and doing the right thing, and finding opportunities where sustainability and savings align
• AI's promise and concern: its power consumption and the importance of powering data centers with renewable energy
• The influence Nike's sustainability efforts can have on the broader apparel, footwear, and consumer goods sectors

Resources Mentioned:

• Nike Recycle
• Nike Refurbished program
• Sway (seaweed-based bio material)
• Adam Brundage

Contact:

Listeners can connect with Adam Brundage via LinkedIn or explore Nike's sustainability initiatives at Nike.com by searching "sustainability" or "recycle." More information on the Recycle and Donate program is also available through Nike's sustainability web pages.

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Transcript

0:06

Welcome to Sustainable Packaging with Cory Connors presented by Atlantic Packaging. I'm your host, Cory Connors. In today's episode, I connected with Adam Brundage from Nike. He is the Director, Data and Analytics Insight Global Sustainability. And we talk about everything from LeBron James to Nike shoes and how they strive to be more sustainable. Did you know that they will recycle or reuse your old Nike shoes when you're done with them? I'd also like to thank our sponsors, 3M, and Specright. We couldn't do the show without them. So excited to have Mr. Adam Brundage on today from Nike, a local company you might have heard of. uh Adam, welcome onto the show. Thanks so much, Cory. Great to be here. I am so excited to finally have someone on from Nike that I, as a friend of mine, I know you and it's exciting because Nike is such an institution in the world of fashion and shoes and athletics and it's such an important part of sustainability. So we're excited to learn about what you do at Nike and can you tell us a little bit about your background first and then what got you into sustainability at Nike? Absolutely. Yeah. And I feel so fortunate to be able to work for such a global globally recognized company such as Nike. It's been quite the ride. I've been with this company for about 10 years now focusing on sustainability analytics. And my background is kind of interesting. I started learning in undergrad to be a weatherman. Actually, I studied meteorology and atmospheric science, which got me into weather and climate. And eventually I started learning about the anthropogenic impact on the climate space. Back when I was at school, it wasn't as big of a deal as it is now. And I was just so fascinated by how humans can actually influence climate. And so I really wanted to understand that more and crucially learn how I could contribute to reducing that impact. And so my first foray into this space, I started in consulting and I was learning a lot about greenhouse gas emissions and their influence on the climate. And I kind of got into this little niche of looking at waste management and how the materials and products that we use every day when we throw them out, they have an impact on climate, you know. products and materials that end up in landfills, for example, they release methane, which is a potent greenhouse gas, and that's one of the contributors to climate change. And so that's kind how I got into learning about materials and this really interesting topic called life cycle assessment, which evaluates the impact of making things and what contributions those making of those things have to the environment. So eventually a long route got me back into the private sector where here at Nike what I I helped this company understand is using life cycle assessment to really understand the impact of the the products that we make every day that go out into the world. Yeah, well said. And that's a really interesting background. I haven't had anybody that had focused on weather before, but it makes perfect sense for what you're doing now. uh know, Nike is an iconic brand. We talked about a little bit how packaging maybe isn't the largest focus of your job, but it's certainly a part of it. What kinds of things is Nike concentrating on for sustainability? Yeah, I mean, you're absolutely right. mean, well, what we look at is we really look at the full value chain of Nike. To make the shirts and the shoes that help athletes perform to their best every day requires a whole complex value chain of sourcing raw materials like leather and polyester and cotton, converting those materials into textiles and making products, shirts and shoes that then need to be transported all over the world. packaged up and delivered to the consumer. So when you look at that full value chain, there are greenhouse gas emissions happening across all of those areas. And one of the things that we do is we provide that visibility with data. We actually quantify the greenhouse gas emissions or carbon footprint of the materials and the transportation and the packaging and the manufacturing of all the products that we make. And that kind of foundational understanding then lets us see Okay, where are the biggest impacts that Nike is having on the world? And then crucially, how can we plan to reduce those impacts? So as you said earlier, packaging is part of that focus. know, packaging does contribute to Nike's footprint because we have to put all of our shoes in shoe boxes that you get to your doorstep when you order the next pair of dunks. em And that has impact. The reality is that the packaging portion of our Nike's footprint is roughly about 7%. So there's the other 93 % that comes from all the other parts of the value chain. And we need to focus on those areas too. One of the biggest areas, or let's say two of the biggest areas that we focus on are the materials that we use. So the cotton, the polyester, the leather, the foams, and the rubber. Those are the five major materials. we want to try to find what are lower carbon alternatives to those materials. Are there recycled options we could use? Are there organic options that we could use? Are there more innovative biobased solutions that get us away from fossil based solutions that we could use? And that contributes to reduction in carbon. And then on the manufacturing side, we like to focus on how can we scale up the use of renewable energy? in our suppliers and in our own operations? All the stores we have all over the world, they're consuming electricity to light and power those buildings. Can we source renewable electricity to mitigate the carbon emissions from those stores, for example? Hey friends, we are going to take a quick break to thank our sponsors. Please be sure to support them. Are you shipping with recycled corrugated? Think outside the box with 3M tape. 3M packaging tape can help you overcome your recycled corrugated challenges with confidence, making sure your boxes are sealed securely the first time, reducing downtime, and providing consistent performance. With 3M as your partner, you can maintain productivity, achieve cost savings, and turn packaging problems into ceiling success. When you use recycled corrugated shipping boxes, think 3M packaging. 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Well, it's having a big impact. And it's, think at your scale, even these smaller changes are greatly impactful. And I think other companies are learning from what you're doing saying, oh, okay, that's a good idea. And we should try that and well done Nike. And, you know, this is, so I want to commend you for the efforts that are being made. I know it's very difficult, but I would like to focus on maybe some of those challenges. What's some uh What are a couple of things that have been difficult to improve or uh you're still working on? Absolutely. Yeah. No, I think you said it right that, you know, the power of what we do is not just what Nike is doing, but how we can then galvanize the rest of the apparel and footwear sector, other competitive brands to kind of join with us to help this problem. And then even beyond our sector, how can we influence other companies in other areas? So that's that's where the power comes from. But there are there are definitely challenges. mean, there there are. I think one of the main challenges is there's definitely a cost to trying to do the right thing in terms of researching innovative new lower carbon materials and being able to have them scale to the level that we need to. There's a cost associated with that that we need to make sure we understand the value. I think also trying to translate this really difficult problem of climate change to the individual employer at Nike, the folks that are working on design or development or color or even just marketing. How can we empower them to be able to know that this is the right thing to do and know where their role is to helping, helping Nike get there? So that's another challenge that I find. And I think again, using data and kind of bringing a little bit of the emotions into it really helps drive that story. Well, like you said, you got to have a way to measure the results and you to step on the scale to know if you lost a few pounds, right? This is such an important thing that often gets overlooked is, oh wait, we need to figure out where we are today. And then how can we reduce and how can we lower these carbon footprints and things like that. But I like your talk about life cycle analysis. We often use those in packaging. And one of the things that I've actually spoken about at events before is your Nike OneBox. I thought that was totally brilliant that you just said, okay, we're going to stop with the two boxes with the box in the box. And the reductions were incredible. As far as your material usage, I would love to see that life cycle analysis of the change from two boxes to one. Yeah. can you talk about that? Can you talk about some of the wins you've had? Yeah, I mean, I think that's a perfect example of just, you know, thinking through where the biggest hotspots are in that space. It was in packaging to try to help reduce the impact in that space. And the nice thing is that I think it came with a cost savings as well. So we got this double whammy of it's good for the environment and it's good for the bottom line. I think other areas that we're focusing, we're taking those same kind of learnings about focusing on hotspots. and finding alternatives in the material space and being able to then scale those lower carbon materials into our products. I just pulled some numbers recently and about 25%, so a quarter of all of Nike's current product offerings have at least one sustainable or recycled material in those products. So when you go on to Nike.com and you want to buy the more sustainable or recycled option, you can type that into the search bar and find all the product details. And so we're talking about using recycled polyester, for example, is a big one. Organic cotton is involved in our products. And those come with real carbon savings because you're using the recycled version instead of the virgin version. And that gives you some savings. So those are those are some things I've been really proud about. in the world that I've been at Nike. Yeah. As an Oregonian, Nike is an institution around here. You know, we grow up and it's uh everybody knows somebody that works at Nike. Everybody has been to the employee store with a pass or, you know, Nike's very generous with that. And we want to thank you for that. But at the store, there is a recycling bin for old shoes, old Nikes. And I'd like to ask you as the sustainability person at Nike, what happens to those shoes? I've heard different things, like they get ground up and used for other things. Can you tell us about that? Yeah, this is really fascinating. This is predated my time here, but the original program, I think it was called Reuse a Shoe, started in the early 90s. And at that point, you know, the first couple of decades of that program was, you're right, it was taking old shoes and essentially grinding them up and taking those granules and using that to apply to, for example, sports surfaces like running tracks. or other areas that would be used instead of normal material. So was a really great story of taking old shoes and using them for new applications. But more recently now, we've kind of expanded this program, and it's called Recycle and Donate. And so now, when products come in, there's more of an evaluation of like, are these basically new shoes or barely used shoes that we can, instead of grinding them up, can we actually donate them to other causes and goodwill, for example, to be used by other folks before they go to oh waste? If they're not good enough, then we can then consider recycling them, but that recycling is sort of the last approach. And on top of this, we've also really started to look at a lot of our returns. We have a program called Refurbished, where When consumers buy shoes, a lot of times they just, it's the wrong size. They put them on inside, they don't even use them and they return them back. In the past, those returns simply just went to waste. But now we have this refurbished program where we actually open the box up and say, okay, these are barely used. We're gonna clean them up a little bit and then resell them in certain select areas, in certain stores. And to consumers, they're basically like new. And so that has really... seen a huge popularity increase. And I know I look for those when I want to buy shoes because I don't necessarily need the new shiny Nikes. And it helps prevent waste. So it's all been a really wonderful program. And I hope we continue scaling it and pulling it into more and more storage across the world. What a great idea. I hadn't heard of that program. I certainly check for that the next time I'm at a Nike store or see it around. But I think you're right. It's important to get all the life out of a product before it goes to recycle or before it goes to its uh end of life process. Congratulations to you and the team. That's really smart. I wanted to talk about extended producer responsibility. I know that doesn't just affect packaging, affects lots of different things. Can you talk to us about that? Do you think that will have a large effect on what decisions are made at Nike? Yeah, you know, and I'm a fan of this and to be honest, I'm not in the regulatory space, like looking at the latest rules coming down, but I know of this and I know I'm familiar with the same type of approach, this extended producer responsibility approach being applied in other areas. I think that's happened in this past in the appliances space, for example, like refrigerators, et cetera. And now in packaging and I think very soon in the textile space too. And this idea that the manufacturers of these products should be responsible ultimately for their proper and sustainable disposal. I think it's been a long time coming. I'm really excited about it because I think by putting that onus and responsibility on the manufacturers, it incentivizes new thinking about how to create and design products in the first place. It dovetails really nicely into this really interesting innovation that I'm really excited about that Nike's doing. Going back to recycled materials and recycled polyester in particular, there's this new technology called textile to textile recycling, where now we have the capability and technology to take old shirts and old apparel products that are made from polyester and convert them back into the raw polyester that you can then use to make new products out of, which is super exciting. And I think it really jives nicely with this notion of like, OK, well, we're going to be responsible for collecting all of our textile waste at the end of life after consumers use our products. And now we have this nice technology that will enable us to take those products back and turn them back into new products. And that's a perfectly circular loop. So I'm excited about that and I think EPR is a good thing and I'm excited to see where it's gonna go. I agree. It's going to make big changes. It's going to really make people think about what they're doing and how they're doing it and what they're using and why. You mentioned innovative materials, instead of plastic, maybe it's time to switch to a bio-based bag like a sway product. These are seaweed instead of a polymer base. These kinds of things are incredibly innovative and they will... have a huge impact on, on EPR scores. So, uh, excited to see this. Yeah. So I have to ask who's the coolest or most exciting person you've ever seen at a Nike location. Have you ever seen somebody like, uh, LeBron James or Michael Jordan or somebody. Yeah, LeBron James was here about a year and a half ago when we dedicated a new innovation center to him, the LeBron James. And he came to kind of commemorate and celebrate the opening of that. And so I got to high five him, which was really awesome. And then uh I was lucky enough to meet with Roger Federer back when he was with Nike about five years ago. I'm a huge tennis fan, so I was able to meet with him, which was super exciting. And then I've seen Michael Jordan, but just from like the back, like I saw him walking around the lake, which was really exciting too. It's there's this kind of aura around Nike. It's just you just there's the best of the best are there. You know, the best athletes in the world. You know, I look at the Olympics this year and, know, you've sponsored that and that ACG gear. saw some of the people there and some of the jackets and just so so much great gear there. But I think. what you're doing at the team at Nike, what they do for the world of sports and for athletics in general, and just regular people like you and me that like to work out. We all appreciate the clothes and the gear and the fact that you are trying to be more sustainable and you are making efforts there. oh yeah. And I have to pinch myself. It's just this conversation about all these stars I get to see. And as you said, the campus here is beautiful and the fact that we're such an iconic global brand. it makes a lot of sense that we are so caring about the environment and climate change because if you can't go outside and play sports because it's too hot or there's a flood or storms, I mean, That's what we exist to do at this company. We wanna enable people to go out and play sports. If you have a body, you're an athlete, that's the motto. And so we owe it to our consumers and to our athletes that we are doing everything we can to reduce our impact on the world and make everyone be able to play sport in a sustainable world. So it makes me proud to be here having that role. Because oftentimes I tell people I work for Nike and they're surprised or they don't realize that there's a lot of sustainability things happening at Nike. And so they get even more excited when I tell them about our renewable energy plans and our sustainable materials and products and our one box packaging. It's pretty exciting. That is great. And it's so important to share the message with people that are consumers so that they can realize, hey, I'm supporting a good product here. So let's talk a little bit more generally about sustainability. What do you see taking off in the future as far as, you know, what are some innovations either, and it doesn't have to be just packaging, but anything sustainability related. What do you think is AI the future? What's going on? Yeah, think the pendulum swings a little bit with sustainability and climate change. And I think it's not a surprise, hopefully not to anyone, that the pendulum has swung the other way a little bit recently in our world. I think there's been days where it's frustrating to see that climate change is maybe taking a little bit of a backseat to the geopolitics of our world. But I think that's still an opportunity for the private sector and for individuals to still try to push and bring their passion to life. And, you know, this this problem is not going to go away. We still have to solve it. And even if it's individual actions that you do at your home, you know, switch to renewable energy and be more efficient about the way you get to work in terms of transportation. There's all these things you can do to reduce your individual impact, which I think will go a long way. AI is concerning to me because you hear stories about how much power those AI data centers are consuming. And I think unless we do it responsibly and we build renewable energy systems to power those AI data centers, then that's going to be a big problem down the line. You know, I get back to some of the things that we're doing just from a materials lens. I do think that, you know, staving off our reliance on fossil fuels by exploring these alternative materials. you mentioned, bio-based or biomass balance materials are really, I think, the future. Circularity, again, bringing back and reusing old products to make new products. I think that's another future that I'm really hopeful for. And so yeah, those are the things that kind of excite me. That's great. I agree. it's, there's concern and there's excitement about AI. And I think it can solve problems, but it can also cause some. we'll see what happens there. So thank you so much, Adam, for being on the show. What's a great way to get in touch with you and the team at Nike about your sustainability initiatives? Yeah, absolutely. think you can check out my LinkedIn page, Adam Brundage. We also, think there's a website you can search for, Sustainability at Nike. There's great information, more details about the recycling program, the recycle and donate program that we have, for example. And then again, if you're interested in what ends up in our products. On our Nike.com website, can search for sustainability or recycle and check out all the products that are moved to zero products and learn more about what's in them and why are they more sustainable. I think that's pretty interesting too. Very exciting. Thank you, sir. Appreciate you. Thanks so much, Cory.