“The seemingly extravagant use of materials and energy resources by many newer manufacturing processes alongside claims of improved sustainability from products manufactured by these means is alarming,” Gutowksi and his colleagues announced, now published in the journal Environmental Science and Technology (ES&T).

The idea, launched by Wikinomics author Don Tapscott and Nike’s Sustainability Innovation team, is similar to the Eco-Patent Commons, an initiative started by the World Business Council for Sustainable Development and IBM in 2007. The Eco-Patent Commons (EPC) created a conglomerate of IT/tech companies in Silicon Valley that were willing to share intellectual property related to solving environmental and corporate social responsibility problems. The EPC also supports sharing IP for sustainable growth in developing countries.

Nike will share more than 400 of its patents for research. One of these include their Environmentally Preferred Rubber, which contains 96 percent fewer toxins than traditional rubber. It could, for example, be used by MEC for a new line of bike tubes, helping the company bring a greener product to market cheaper and faster.

“These attacks and the surveillance they have uncovered–combined with the attempts over the past year to further limit free speech on the web–have led us to conclude that we should review the feasibility of our business operations in China. We have decided we are no longer willing to continue censoring our results on Google.cn, and so over the next few weeks we will be discussing with the Chinese government the basis on which we could operate an unfiltered search engine within the law, if at all. We recognize that this may well mean having to shut down Google.cn, and potentially our offices in China.”