Nike unveils its Materials Sustainability Index (MSI), which is the result of eight years research into the environmental sustainability of the materials it uses. To conduct research, the company has teamed up with software startup Earthster. 

Photo: a snapshot from Nike MSI pre-release

Currently, as Earthster is in beta testing, the MSI is only available to members of the Sustainable Apparel Coalition. Other brands that form the Sustainable Apparel Coalition that launched in January 2011 include Gap Inc, H&M, Levi Strauss, Marks & Spencer and Patagonia to name a few.

Earthster will launch in full version in December 2011 and Nike is to release the MSI publicly in 2012. Earthster’s software let organizations view and analyze their sustainability metrics on the individual product level up to a global impact in regards to climate change, ecosystem quality, resource usage and human health. Earthster will be available as a cloud-based subscription service and a downloadable open source project, says Sustainable Life Media.

Nike and Earthster are intended to make a significant step into creating a framework for the footwear and apparel industry.

“Our goal was to create a tool to help Nike designers understand the environmental impacts of their work by enabling them to select environmentally better footwear and apparel materials supplied by environmentally better vendors,” is written in the opening of Nike’s MSI documentation. “The tool evaluates significant impacts—in the areas of Chemistry, Energy and Greenhouse Gas intensity, Water and Land Use intensity, and Physical Waste—associated with the most commonly used materials, from the plant, animal or fossil-fuel source to the finished material ready for use in footwear or apparel.”