As part of an energy-efficiency project (PDF) aimed at reducing energy consumption within its footwear contract manufacturing base, Nike says that this summer it will share a set of reduction goals for a contract factory pilot program, plus a blueprint that will be used to roll out the program to other key factories.

As part of the research leading up to the blueprint, Nike has installed wireless monitoring devices in four contract factories in China and Vietnam to understand how much energy each factory uses, where in the factory the most energy is consumed and what the biggest opportunities are to reduce or optimize energy use.

It will be interesting to see what’s in the blueprint because, in a statement, the company also says that through the research it has come to understand that energy use and reduction opportunities are vastly different from factory to factory and “as such there is no one size fits all approach.”

M&S launched a similar program last year.

There’s been a big push by retail chains to develop pilot stores.