Amanda Trieu
Part 2 – Embodied Energy in the Process of Production, Distribution, Dissembling, and Recycling
“Just do it” and the “swoosh” is a motto and a logo that we all have encountered before. It is the motto of the infamous shoe and product brand, Nike. This company started in the mid-20th century by Bill Bowerman, a track and field coach at the University of Oregon, and Phil Knight, a talented athlete training under Bowerman. They wanted to create a high performance shoe that is lightweight and will enhance the athlete’s performance. From then Nike was history. Their vision has flourished and the Nike brand today has more than 900 contract factories, more than one million workers, and produces more than 500,000 different products. This company is global and to learn more about it we can dive into the different embodied energy processes of this shoe trade. We can explore the systems of productions of shoes specifically, their means of distribution of the product, their means of dissembling of the product, and how unused shoes are recycled.
Before a Nike shoe is produced as a product in a factory, there must be a template and instructions to build the product. Starting from the beginning of the lifecycle of the shoe, there is first an idea. This idea is to create a shoe that addresses problems that the consumer and or the manufacturer may encounter. Nike works with a “triad” team which consists of “a marketer, responsible for translating consumer demands into product specifications detailed on “product briefs,” a designer, who created the product’s general concept and layout, and a developer, charged with the product’s technical details and coordinating production with the factory” (MIT). This team is the backbone of Nike and without it, the process would not be through and the product would not be delivered with results.
We first start off with the design process where the triad team work and gather information to create the intended shoe. With this group, factors that are taken into consideration are the environmental impacts and availability of the materials, the physical qualities of the materials, the aesthetic appealing look of the shoe, and the total energy forfeited. Designers must have forward thinking and take into consideration how this shoe will impact the environment, the industry of shoes and of production of products, and how choosing materials from certain areas can affect certain causes. For example, Nike talks about the material leather. It is a strong, durable, flexible, and light-weight material perfect for use in shoes. As the designers understand that there are consumers only in favor of leather for their footwear, there is a demand for leathered goods. With that, looking into the suppliers for leather, Nike wants to make sure that it is obtained in the most efficient and sustainable way possible. Although the production of leather does use much energy and the raising of the cow takes up a lot of resources, Nike wants to support sustainable practices. In 2009, Nike created the Amazon Leather Policy where they refuse to obtain leather from the Amazon biome because cattle raising in that area contribute to the deforestation of tropical forests including the Amazon Rainforest. If leather were to be obtained from that region, a handwritten letter must be presented by the supplier of compliance to the Amazon Leather Policy (Nike Inc.). Above is one method of forward design thinking when it comes to the production of the shoe. We must take into consideration the impact of our surroundings pertaining to the environment, work forces, and ultimate sustainability.
Moving onto the production manufacturing of the shoe, Nike shoes and products are produced in factories all over the world. It’s a global phenomenon as Nike has over 900 factories producing the shoes and over 1 million workers working on their products. These factories, however, are contract factories which Nike does not in fact own. By this Nike is giving opportunities for companies to create business and support the local population by giving them jobs. But with this, there is much controversy as the factories have their own standards of production when it comes to the well-being of the workers. Nike has been fighting to keep and or impose rights for the workers. Some factories comply while others are in progress. Nike is working hard with their vision of Lean, Green, Equitable, and Empowered vision. Their focus is with these four statements: lean with regard to the manufacturing philosophy, green in the approach to design, product creation and sourcing, equitable in the commitment to balance people and profit, empowered by building a workforce that knows and can advocate for its rights (Nike Inc.).
The whole shoe production process consists of a collaboration of many groups which include triad developers, liaison factory staff, and factory engineers. The basic three steps to producing a shoe are “cutting out and stitching upper materials components, molding and shaping soles with “tooling,” and bonding the components together” (MIT). The term tooling means a general metal production mold used to create the soles of the shoes. Each shoe size, that increases in half size increments, require a different tool or mold. These molds can cost up to several thousand dollars apiece. The fabric and materials of the shoes are cut out by a pattern made by the factory engineers who followed a blueprint process that was created by the triad developers. And to bond the different components of the shoe, they use adhesives, primers, bonding agents, or they can do it mechanically by sewing the components together. Starting from the 1990’s Nike has taken a favor towards water-based bonding agents to bond their shoes. (MIT).
Along with the first thought and design processes, the Nike shoe has to go through more processes to ensure quality and to meet the design standards. A report from MIT states, “Product designs and production processes needed to pass through three successive design review gates on a rigid timeline that paced the entire Nike value chain, making failure to meet deadlines highly problematic.” Nike has high regulation for their shoe products and they must meet it for quality assurance. So basically the whole run through of the production process is described in the following. A category chief and a marketer lay out what kind of shoe is wanted in a brief. Then the designer makes sketches of the shoe and if it passes the debut gate, then they can go ahead and make blueprints for production. A prototype is made and feedback is taken into consideration. The product is adjusted and tweaked and goes through more scoring and enhancing. The product finally is launched if it passes through the whole process and it is finally put on the retail market. The production of the shoe is an intensive process with a collaboration of skilled peoples, information, factory machines and visions.
After production of the final product, the shoe is transported to distribution centers all across the globe, which is then sold to retail stores and ready for consumption. Some of the large chain retailers include Foot Locker, Ladies Footlocker, Macys, Champs, and Kohl’s. A large majority of profits come from the sales of the shoes so it is vital to have connections and the product in big box stores where it can be tangible and ready for consumption. Nike keeps track of its entire sale with a POS computer system (point of sale), where each shoe product is registered and documented from the distribution centers where they track inventory, deliveries, and orders to the retail stores where the final product is purchased. So after production of the product they get shipped out to distributors where orders from retail stores are placed, then the final product is shipped to the stores and thus sold (Nike Shox).
By getting the final shoe products to the distribution centers and to the retail stores, one must use various modes of transportation like ships, planes, trucks, and trains. All these can produce a lot of Co2 emissions. A Nike transportation statistics say that transportation makes up 23% of Nike’s climate impact. Nike states that they hire companies to deliver their products from point A to point B to point C and that they are working to help lower their transportation carbon footprints. Although Nike is not in the right to fully control the transportation services, they can perhaps have some influence on the use of efficient vehicles and progress forward. In 2009, Nike’s transportation Co2 emissions rose 14% from 2003. As business and demand for Nike increase, there is more production and transportation of these goods. This leads to ultimately more carbon outputs. And as we as a society are environmentally conscious, seeing any increase in C02 emissions is alarming. And with such statistics from a big corporation like Nike, it makes you question if Nike is as environmentally conscious as they claim to be (Nike Inc.).
As I read Nike’s reports and getting information from the website, I realize that Nike does supply facts and statistics and does admit to not having the most fully efficient or ideal ways of working with their partners in distribution and manufacturing. But admitting is one thing, actively seeing a solution is another. There must be a tolerance level to the inefficient modes of working to the need of taking environmental and social responsibility. Nike of course is a corporation looking for ways to make more profit and unfortunately it can already be assumed that although they claim to strive to have better relations with their partner facilities and services, that Nike ultimately does not put enough effort to change practices. It is a struggle between being socially and environmentally responsible and making personal profit. It is also the consumer’s choice if he or she wants to support this system and this practice. In this case, converting back to supporting local businesses might be a better alternative resulting in a lower carbon footprint .
As a good shoe is made, there comes a point where it can no longer be worn and has to be retired. There are many shoe recycling facilities that people can donate their old shoes to and it’ll be put to good use by giving it to needy individuals in American and overseas. Nike has its own plan for unwanted and used shoes. The program is called Nike Reuse-a-shoe where shoes are dropped off at Nike Grind facilities. Then they are shipped to the Nike sorting facilities in Meerhout, Belgium or Memphis, Tennessee. Afterwards, the shoes are dissembled and sorted into three categories: rubber from the soles, foam from the cushion, and fabric fibers. These materials Nike ultimately dubbed Nike Grind. So what happens next to these old materials? Nike recycles it and puts it in use in different products. The products range from athletic fields to zippers or back into garments. The rubber from the old shoes can be used on athletic fields like courts, tracks, fields and playgrounds. This is a great and practical way to reuse a material and not having to waste fresh rubber. Nike Reuse-a-shoe also receives shoes that were not used but perhaps defective in the manufacturing process. These shoe parts can be put back into shoe and apparel uses (Nike Reuse-a-shoe).
Nike Reuse-a-shoe is a great way to reduce the carbon foot print and to keep shoes from going into landfills. Each year, Nike Reuse-a-shoe receives up to 1.5 million pairs of shoes on top of the scraps that come from manufacturing. In totally they have dissembled and recycled over 25 million pairs of shoes. Imagine if all those shoes were in the landfills. This program has done a great job in reducing waste and the use of more resources. But one cannot help but to question why Nike not simply donate the shoes to needy people has? Their response was that their focus is to create a great product and design for mass consumption. Also, Nike Reuse-a-shoe is different than shoe donation programs because Nike receives worn out shoes that are at the end of their lifecycle while other shoe donation programs receive slightly worn and still good shoes. Nike has created a great program for unwanted shoes that help save the environment one shoe at a time (Nike Reuse-a-shoe).
In conclusion, Nike is a successful shoe brand that was a dream of an athletic coach. This brand has gone global and caters to people all around the world. Nike being such a massive corporation, has its products in high demand. The embodied energy and process of production, distribution, dissembling, and recycling can be broken down. The production of the shoe is an intensive process with a collaboration of skilled peoples, information, factory machines and visions. A design is implemented and information is gathered to create a template of the desired shoe. Prototypes and feedback are gathered and the shoe is adjusted accordingly. Finally, the product can be sold to retail markets. The technical aspects of creating the shoe can be broken down into three processes of cutting out and stitching upper materials components, molding and shaping soles with “tooling,” and bonding the components together. Next is the distribution of the product where the factories ship their shoes to distribution centers where the she is then shipped out to retailers. And finally, when it comes to the end of the shoe’s lifecycle, the shoe can be recycled. Nike’s Reuse-a-shoe program receives worn out shoes, scraps from production, and flawed shoes, dissembles the different materials and then reuses each material like playground turf and new apparel. With this whole process, one cant help but to question the amount of emissions and outputs created by all the variables of the lifecycle of the shoe. Although Nike does admit that they could improve on their emissions and social rights for workers, they are still working on creating a better brand that is appealing and socially responsible.
Bibliography
Henderson, Rebecca, Richard Locke, Christopher Lyddy, and Cate Reavis. "Nike Considered: Getting Traction on Sustainability." Massachusetts Institute of Technology, n.d. Web. 12 Mar. 2013. <https://mitsloan.mit.edu/LearningEdge/CaseDocs/08.077.Nike%20Considered.Getting%20Traction%20on%20Sustainability.Locke.Henderson.pdf>.
This basically broke down the process of creating a shoe. From the initial ideas to the designers creating a look. Then the blueprint is sent to manufacturing where a prototype is created. Feedback is taken after that and changes are made. Finally there is a finished product.
"History & Heritage." NIKE, Inc. -. N.p., n.d. Web. 13 Mar. 2013. <http://nikeinc.com/pages/history-heritage>.
This tells the history of Nike, how it was first started and how it grew.
"Inbound Logistics." Nike, Inc. -Responsibility Report. N.p., n.d. Web. 13 Mar. 2013. <http://www.nikebiz.com/crreport/content/environment/4-3-5-inbound-logistics.php?cat=climate-and-energy>.
This talks about the distribution and costs of distribution of the Nike shoe products. They don't own the distributors nor the modes of transportation. They work with companies that ship the product through plane, ship, truck, or train. They give statistics.
"NIKE, Inc. - Sustainable Business Report." NIKE, Inc. - Sustainable Business Report. N.p., n.d. Web. 13 Mar. 2013.
This website talks about the materials and productions of the Nike shoe. They talk about the facilities and plants that make the shoe and more of a social justice aspect to it. I assume Nike gets a lot of heat about their over seas factories pertaining to practices and labor issues.
"Nike Shox." : Pricing and Distribution Strategies. N.p., n.d. Web. 13 Mar. 2013. <http://laura-nikeshox.blogspot.com/2009/04/pricing-and-distribution-strategies.html>.
Talks about the simple distribution of the Nike shoes. How it gets from the factory to the retailers.
"Where It Goes." : Nike Recycles Old Shoes into New Products. N.p., n.d. Web. 13 Mar. 2013.
This website talks about Nike's Reuse-a-shoe program where they take in donated worn out shoes. They then dissemble the shoes and use those materials to create new products. This is a great way to reuse old shoes so that they don't end up in the landfill.
Yin Harn Wang
DES 40A
Christina Cogdell
Feb 16, 2013
The pollution of the Nike footwear
As we discussed in our group, first we were thinking about doing the high heel shoes. However, we could not find any further information of the high heel shoes when we doing our research. Therefore, we decided to change our focus to Nike shoes. Bill Bowerman was a coach of University of Oregon, he focus on how to make athletes exert their full strength and abilities by innovating different needs such as drinks, field surface, and the most important one, the running shoe. After Bill Bowerman decided to devote his work into the running shoes, he and Phil Knight, which is a runner and also a partner of Bowerman , established the Blue Ribbon Sports, their shoes and design has won many athlete favored. However, at that time they don't have enough time to run the company, fortunately Jeff Johnson, a friend of Knight joined their group and become one of the top manager of the company. Johnson create the brochures for their footwear and design the early Nike shoes, which has consolidated the company and soon the Blue Ribbon Sports has become the Nike during 1970s as we known for today.
Nike was soon become the trade company during 1980 after complete IPO, and also become one of the largest aerobic industry by extend the business in different field. The Air Max technique they innovated has made the Nike more visible and become one of the famous feature of Nike air bag shoes. In 1989, Nike's cross training business exploded due to the "Bo Knows' campaign effect in multiple countries, and here stand up the Nike, "the first and only time a company in the athletic footwear/apparel industry has accomplished" (Nike). Nike now not only design the footwear for men, but also the apparel and footwear for different kinds of sport team for all men, women and children worldwide. In 2000, Nike innovated a new footwear cushion system called Nike Shox, with this system combine with the Air technique which push the Nike to the top. As the Nike grew up strongly in China, which all the materials and manufactures are support by China with lower cost, Nike has become the official NFL (National Footwear League) sponsor beginning in 2012.
As Nike continue their innovation through ages, other brands has also raise up in different area, the industry has become more evolutionary with all different kinds of technique, machine application, and also huge increase in human power source. This tendency has cause serious environmental pollution problems without people realize the effects are not only toward our intake habit, living environment, but also the shortness of our natural resources. We can see all kinds of news on the TV reporting the environmental hazard and dramatically change of climate not only affected the animal and plant life cycle, but also a serious survival issues toward human as well. However, people didn't realize until they experience and think about this seriously, but it was found out too late already. Since human need increase rapidly, we are now rely on so many high technology and daily use such as machine and human wearing, those are all the factors of causing the environmental pollution even we know those are harmful to the environment. Without those goods, we can't really keep our lifestyle such as work, transportation, and wearing on the regular basis.
Since the paper is the study about the Nike shoe, there are several issue need to be focus on. There are raw materials waste, environmentally pollution and labor healthcare and safety issue. In order to run the production line work smoothly, the labor is the main factor of running the whole industry properly with cost down, without them checking the production processing, the condition of the machine, the supply of the materials, and the production management, the factories won't able to run by itself. However, there are always safety risks of working in the industries. The labor not only have to deal with the operation of the machine, sometimes they have to machining manually by themself. Most of them has been under the exposure to the chemical substances for long term, their body has been suffer to all those chemical which damage their body system. Moreover, they don't have a good insurance provided by the factory because they are low wages workers and the factory try to cut the production cost. In addition, huge amount of material demand has cause the shortness of natural resources and the environmental pollution just to focus on the footwear. During the process of fusing the material with the raw materials in the production process is also hazard for the human body and the gas outflow will bring down the air quality, the water waste emission to the ocean by the industries, the plant and the animal won't be able to survive or to grow in that area which also effect on the food chain, even effect to the human diet not only base on the outside environment, but also from what people intake.
First of all, the waste of raw material is the most consumption overall during the production process. Base on the statistic report from the 1992 census of manufactures. Industry series which written by Ronald H. Brown, a Secretary of U.S. Department of Commerce, 1/5 of the business and raw material are footwear and apparel related, including the employee and transport industries. The huge amount of raw material needs also pop up the growth of related material and processing industries. Because of the society getting advanced and people are now living in a higher standard lifestyle surrounded by those high technique product, the stronger the desire of inventing of new technique, machine application, and develop different raw materials to substitute the natural resources to fit the higher realm for the countries. Moreover, manufacturing production is "usually carried on for the wholesale market, for transfers to other plants of the same company... sell chiefly at retail to household consumers through the mail" (Brown). Therefore, the manufacture not only support economic of the wholesale market, but also toward the household through website. Those are all the factors of pushing the economic and the technology to a higher standard but also at the same time is the main reason of causing the environmental pollution and shortage of natural resources.
Starting from the transportation industries, the shipment require tremendous packaging such as paper carton, wood pallet, and PU barrel adding to the outer layer to protect the goods inside which waste more than 5 million tons each year. In addition, the fuel and electric energy for running the industries and transportation waste 3 millions per year. Furthermore, for leather tanning and finishing section it takes 500 millions labors to run the companies, the materials waste are more than 3,500 millions for the processing for the energy use and power itself require at least 800 KWH, those are the data without counting the coast and needs of the maintenance for the machine and software update. However, for the finalize product there are only 300 millions can be sold and sent to other countries. For the footwear cut stock it takes about 160 millions of rubber to make, it takes 18.5 millions for the hides, skins, and pelts to produce another kinds of footwear cut stock, as the shape it require plastics coated, impregnated or laminated fabrics for at least 9.7 million square yard. Yet, if producing the regular footwear beside the athletic shoe it require about 20 million square yard which is more than athletic footwear needs. (Brown) Base on all those data, the footwear materials requirement is way more than what people expected, the waste is also beyond our imagine even though we see lots of finish product in the market, but people didn't really think about how will they treat those defected products and where they go.
Even thought Nike is trying to focus on green technology by reducing the waste and need of the natural resources, the process of inventing new elements and material is still require using different materials and testing . In order to come up with the new raw materials which can be apply in their product, they also need to put more times, lots of manpower for experiment and different types of equipments for inventing a new resources by fusing the raw material together, or adding other chemical structure to form a new type of element which is similar to that material, for example: synthetic leather: contains ground, pulverized, shredded reconstituted or bonded leather and combined with Polyurethane and some kind of cotton or poly/cotton blend. Polyurethane (PU): which is made with isocyanates and polyols. Silicone: made of silicon dioxide, or silica - found in nature as quartz, or common beach sand. Those fusions are made with every little kinds of material, but actually it became more harmful to the human body and the environment. At the same time it waste more materials and create more waste, unneeded material during the fusion. From the news people usually can see those reports on the chemical safety value of those daily used are excess regular basis which cause the body absorbing the poison and stay in our body by eating, wearing, and washing etc. Because they are mix with different kinds of material or chemical compound, not only takes more raw materials to invert it, it also takes longer than usual to decompose after bury for more than 100 years or to incinerate and release those gas into the air, the worse thing is letting those product overflow into the ocean polluting the whole marine ecology and domestic water in our daily life.
From the official Nike material sustainability index (MSI), they are trying to use the scoring system in their company to evaluate the material used in their product by lay out all the materials they use and the chemical residues in their product to ensure the safety of their products. According to their data, the Chemistry part which include: Carcinogenicity, Acute Toxicity, Chronic Toxicity, and Reproductive Toxicity and Endocrine Disrupters is 8.9. The water and land use intensity include: Water Intensity and Land Use Intensity is 13. The Energy and Greenhouse Gas (GHG) intensity include: Energy Intensity, GHG Intensity is 11. The most important part is the Physical waste which include: Hazardous, Municipal, Industrial, Recyclable / Compostable, and Mineral is 17.1. Adding up those number is already 50% out of 100 with other elements materials and suppliers with green program only takes place about 24% and 26%. Study from the material list, there are more than 50 kinds of materials they used in their products. Nike still use the natural resources such as Bamboo Rayon 20.4% use with waste 6.29%, Down use 35% with waste 14.28%, Cotton 22.6% use with waste13.77%, Hemp 22.3% use with waste 11.73%...etc, and the fusion type such as Cardboard 34.8% use with waste 8.5%, Aramid 19.5% use with waste 13.26%, ethylene vinyl acetate (EVA), the copolymer of ethylene and vinyl acetate 36.24% use with waste 13.43%, Polypropylene is a vinyl polymer, which similar to polyethylene, can be made from the monomer propylene by Ziegler-Natta polymerization and metallocene catalysis polymerization with high temperature of 320 degree F: 34.4% use with waste 14.79%...etc (the maximum material score is 50, and the physical waste score is 17.1) By looking some of the data it is not hard to tell it is not very helpful to use fusion material since it still require minimum amount of raw material in the production line. In addition, the fusion materials also have higher hazard and harder to decompose which make the environment even more difficult to resolve by itself. (Nike)
Secondary, the material waste bring serious pollution not only toward the air, but also the ocean and land which cause the dramatically change of the environment. Over hundreds of years people are living in a environment where surrounded by all kinds of technology and cannot live without them. As the human requirement and market consuming become larger, more and more industries built up in different countries and producing different kinds of need for customers and footwear is one of our daily needs among those products. Everyday there are tons of waste are either landfill, overflow into the ocean worldwide, or gas release during the incineration. Within those areas, the "Mississippi River Delta region is one of the most polluted areas in the world... There is a 6,000-square-mile area at its mouth called the “dead zone”" (GeRue) just by the toxic pollution caused by the factories. Another problem is most of the cities close to the industrial area have sewage problems because the facilities exceed the amount of capabilities which is 13,000 tons in the U.S. each year. Moreover, "there are 185 million cubic yards of poisoned, high levels of arsenic have been found in children in that area" (GeRue). Not only human have to suffer the poison of those chemical and pollution, but also impact the marine ecology, tons of living organism dead or either survive with those chemical inside their body. Some of them contain the organochlorines from the industries waste, and some other chemicals have been banned can be found in their body, and people die or ill because of eating those fishes through time. As for the land pollution is cause by industrial waste dumping and random disposal of urban wastes. The felling of natural resources for the industrial use has "destroys the soil’s water-holding ability; sediment loads in adjacent streams may increase as much as 500 to 1,000 times" (GeRue). Even thought the incineration is a better way to burn all the solid waste to create the heat to make steam and generate for the electricity, "there are serious flaws with incineration: incinerator ash contains concentrations of heavy metals, becoming a hazardous waste itself, scrubbers sometimes fail, and incinerators discourage the use of recycling and other waste reduction methods" (GeRue). It also creates carbon monoxide, hydrocarbons, nitrogen oxides, particulates, sulfur dioxide and photochemical oxidants into our atmosphere which reduce the air quality and make it harder for people to breath in and purify by our own body system. The chain reaction brought huge effect to our environment year by year, the ecological environment has been damage, people are now victims of the natural disaster such as mudslide, acid rain, sand storm, earthquake, heavy metal pollution, all kinds of climate change happened due to those pollution destroy the whole balance of the natural life circle.
Thirdly, the people who work in the industry also suffer the pollution and chemical harm during the processing. Since there are lots of factories and industries were built overtime to fulfill the demand in the market, the industries still cannot catch up the speed of expansion of the market place. There are lots people trying to get a job in the industry and working fulltime or overtime even thought with low pay and without full insurance coverage, especially in those poor areas and countries. Here is the Comparison of Occupational Exposure Standards (OES) for some Hazardous Solvents ( in parts / million for an 8 hours period ) in the industry just within the U.S.A: Acetone 500, Ammonia 25, Benzene* 0.5, Dichloromethane* 50, Ethyl acetate 400, Hydrogen Chloride 1, Methyl ethyl ketone (MEK) 200, Styrene* 100, Toluene 50. ( * )These are chemicals need particular attention (Basu).
There are lots of workers suffer the illness or die by working in the industries due to the long term exposure under the chemical poison element or the accident when operating the machine. For this kind of situation, some of the company have own method to exam their worker health condition regularly which is PEER. Measurement of Peak Expiratory Flow Rate (PEFR) is a parameters in the field for "assessing the lung function status in general population and also for making a diagnosis and monitoring treatment of patients with bronchial asthma and chronic obstructive lung disease" (Gangopadhyay) within the industries for the workers. From this measurement can show that all the workers have been suffer from dust, fume, asthma, hypertension, suffocation, eye irritation, nausea, dizziness and all kinds of illness. At this point, the result shows that the "occupational exposure to atmospheric pollution in the footwear manufacturing industry may be responsible for the development of acute and chronic respiratory impairment"(Gangopadhyay) not only inside the factories but also outside the environment. The workers have to suffer all those illness more seriously when dealing with the gluing process, leather dust, air pollution, toxic solvents, and other chemical products such as volatile organic solvents, isocyanates and water-based adhesives. It also higher the risk of getting lung cancer, the infection of the "musculoskeletal system associated with ergonomic factors, contact dermatitis, chronic pulmonary diseases and damage of peripheral nerves in solvent-exposed workers" (Gangopadhyay). Still, this kind of examination doesn't work effectively because most of the workers don't have enough money to see the doctor and they will still not quit the job even thought they know they might being infected because they have to make a living. As a result, almost all the workers in the footwear industries carry all different types of illness and disease and they have to get along with their working environment, and sometimes the disease will cause the mutation within the body and pass down to the next generation within the family.
As a result, within all those hazard how can people live safely in such a environment without harming themselves is the primary problem need to be solved. However, even many groups and companies to promote greening, still virtually wasted a lot of natural resources in the publicity or the development of new synthetic resources which just increase the amount of using instead of reducing. It's hard to find the best way to reduce all different kinds of waste by using other sources to substitute because all the materials will still run out one day. If using another material to substitute the old one, there will be new problems are going to come up after years without putting an end to it. From the research paper, I start to think about how to avoid the material waste without bringing more harm to the environment. But as long as human demand doesn't go down, there is no way to save the materials in the advanced society. With the idealize scheme still cannot improve the environment and is really hard to find a good way for people to follow. This is still only the pollutions focus on the Nike footwear industries without other areas, if we take all different factors into consideration, how enormous the waste and the pollution will be? It's very hard to explain and impress people without showing the data and explain in only description. However, I hope that people can realize their action and desire will directly or indirectly affect the whole environment in different way, and they can self reflection and constrain their behavior by reading from this paper. If people can think more about the cause and effect, maybe there won't be so much waste and pollution in our society.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
Basu, Sujit Kumar, Tyagi, Pankaj Kumar. "Hazardous Substances in Footwear Industry: An approach for better Human Health". Electronic source. <http://mayagroup.org.in/confpaper/HAZARDOUS_SUBSTANCES_IN_FOOTWEAR_INDUSTRY_1_.doc> Jan 29, 2013
A paper written by Sujit Kumar Basu and Pankaj Kumar Tyagi about the danger inside the footwear industries with different kinds of materials and different kinds disease cause by those materials. The paper is focus on trying to find a way to reduce the hazard in the industry in order to secure the health and safety for the workers.
GeRue, Gene. "Chapter 28 - Toxic Pollution". Table of contents for How To Find Your Ideal Country Home: Ruralize Your Dreams. Online Edition. <http://www.ruralize.com/country%20home/Toxic%20pollution.html> 2009. Web. Feb 10, 2013
The author is mainly focus on how to make people feel safe living in different areas within the society where are full of unseen danger in our daily use and pollution we never really pay attention to. Starting from the personal lifestyle, needs, living standard (selection of neighborhood) into environmental problem such as air, water, soil, waste, and pollution which influence people life in different area by human motivation and demand.
Brown, Ronald H., Barram, David J.. "1992 census of manufactures. Industry series. Tanning, industrial leather goods, and shoes, industries". Census of manufactures (1992) Industry series. (Washington, DC : U.S. Dept. of Commerce) Electronic source. <http://www.census.gov/prod/1/manmin/92mmi/mci31af.pdf> Feb 1, 2013.
This research paper is written by the senators from the U.S. Department of Commerce and Economics and Statistics Administration provide the data and sources base on the shoe industries and related businesses. It focus on the companies size in different countries, the employees size and data along with their wages, working hours in different department, the transportation industries which including shipping and packaging, and the statement of the raw materials, energy, and the machine application needs and costs.
Gangopadhyay, Somnath, Ara, Tarannum, Dev, Samrat, Ghoshal, Goutam and Das, Tamal. "An Occupational Health Study of the Footwear Manufacturing Workers of Kolkata, India" (India: University of Calcutta) Electronic source. < http://www.krepublishers.com/02-Journals/S-EM/EM-05-0-000-11-Web/EM-05-1-000-11-Abst-PDF/EM-05-1-011-11-188-Gangopadhyay-S/EM-05-1-011-11-188-Gangopadhyay-S-Tt.pdf> 2011. Web. Feb 1, 2013
This is a report about the footwear factories in the Idea, using the Measurement of Peak Expiratory Flow Rate (PEFR) to exam the health condition of the worker in the industries and the percentage of infection by different poison and chemical product and the some of the diseases they might be infect. The report proofs that all the workers in the footwear industry have the highest hazard of getting lung cancer and other illness by long term expose under those pollution than the people outside.
Nike. " PRODUCT DESIGN & MATERIALS", Nike Inc. <http://www.nikeresponsibility.com/report/content/chapter/materials> 2012. Web. Feb 17, 2013.
The official website of Nike, different material use and design for the Nike footwear and apparel.
Nike. "NIKE Material Sustainability Index", Nike Inc. < http://nikemakers.com/tumblr/public/Nike_MSI_summary.pdf> 2002. Web. Feb 17, 2013.
Nike Material Sustainability Index (MSI) is a system Nike create to help the product creation teams select environmentally better footwear and apparel materials from better suppliers. With the function and detail of Material Sustainability Index, using lower chemical hazard and less natural resources to achieve the goal of green program by checking all the different kinds of material base on Science-Based Material Score, Chemistry, Energy/GHG Intensity, Water/Land use Intensity, and Physical Waste.
Parker, Mark. " HISTORY & HERITAGE", Nike, Inc. <http://nikeinc.com/pages/history-heritage> Web. Feb 3, 2013.
The official website of Nike, all kinds of products detail and historical event are publish on this website.