Congratulations to The Natural Step partner Nike for being recognized as a sustainability leader! You can read our case study to learn more about Nike’s sustainability journey and how The Natural Step helped them apply the principles of sustainability to its business operations. Nike has also won an award for their Corporate Responsibility Report. Please read the following article highlighting Nike's sustainability achievements from the Environmental Leader.

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Nike has won the top prize in sustainability reporting awards run by investment advocacy group Ceres and the Association of Chartered Certified Accountants (ACCA).

In the awards at the Ceres conference in Oakland, Calif., Nike won for best sustainability report, with American Electric Power the runner-up. Anvil Knitwear won for best first-time report. SAP won a commendation for innovative use of web and social media.

The awards began in 2001, and this year there were 98 entries from companies and organizations in more than 20 sectors. From these, 17 reports were short-listed and four winners chosen.

"Nike's report addresses the new context within which business must operate—one with a rising global population, decreasing natural resources, and an unstable climate—and reveals how Nike, in an effort to take a competitive advantage, is shifting to a more sustainable business model,” Ceres said.

The award organizers said that Nike’s report also “demonstrates the company’s commitment to scaling sustainability solutions through the open sourcing of its audit and design tools and its integral role in the creation of the Green Xchange platform.”

The judging criteria (pdf) address completeness, credibility and quality of communication. The judging panel currently includes nine North American experts representing a broad spectrum of backgrounds in the nonprofit, corporate and investment worlds, Ceres said.

In the CR Reporting Awards 2011, handed out in March by Corporate Register, Hewlett-Packard won the best report award for Changing the Equation, HP Global Citizenship Report 2009. Runners-up were Coca-Cola and Bayer AG, for their 2009 reports.

The CR awards are decided by the votes of Corporate Register users.