This weekend, we assembled at Islandwood on Bainbridge Island for another intensive with BGI, our soon to be alma mater. The class in Social Justice revolved around the difficulties in applying metrics and hard numbers to the case for social justice in Corporate Social Responsibility. While it has become much easier to measure environmental costs and impact on the bottom line, a similar case cannot be made for social justice. And so, the argument goes, why should companies force the issue or even proactively support the social bottom line in practices? Not only is social justice a difficult issue to discuss, and even harder to define, but without quantifiable standards it becomes a sticky wicket indeed. But in closing remarks, Jill Bamburg, our noble and standard bearing Dean of the MBA Program and Social Justice co-instructor, brought it all home when she reminded us of the seminal Nike v. Kasky lawsuit which stirred the issue of corporate sweatshop labor. Kasky v. Nike, and then Nike v. Kasky at the U.S. Supreme Court, involved Nike’s appeal of an April 2002 California Supreme Court ruling. The California court rejected claims by Nike’s lawyers that the First Amendment immunized the company from being sued for an allegedly deceptive public relations campaign. A settlement prevented the case from going to the Supreme Court, but the damage had largely been done. Nike was perceived as the corporate behemoth that neglected third world laborers in sweatshop factory conditions to the benefit of its sneaker margins. While the negative publicity from the case hurt Nike’s share value in a not irreversible fashion — at the peak of the sweatshop issue in 1993, Nike’s share price fell more than 50% from a peak of $23 to $10, but since 1994, the share price has recovered— for many, the brand image has been irreversibly effected. And the effect on the company in its practices since — both social and environmental — has been deep and powerful. Nike now is a leader in Corporate Social Responsibility and is pushing the envelope, and the outdoor industry, towards higher standards in sustainability and corporate reforms.

We are currently amongst a team in the C5 track at BGI that is working with Nike on an Action Learning Project (image above). Our team members are, from left, Loren Bors, Dru Van Hengel, Katie Keane, Jinn Brunk, Jennifer Ulrich, and myself, Marty McDonald.