White House Author

Frank Hugelmeyer is President and CEO of the Outdoor Industry Association (OIA). The Outdoor Industry Association Sustainability Working Group is an initiative involving more than 200 outdoor industry companies working to identify and reduce the environmental and social impacts of their products across shared global supply chains. The OIA Sustainability Working Group (SWG) was formed by outdoor businesses that recognized they could achieve more meaningful, scalable improvement through collaboration than by working independently. In 2007, outdoor companies began to develop a shared product sustainability indexing tool—the OIA Eco Index. Subsequently, the Eco Index was adopted—by some of the world’s largest retailers and brands through the work of the Sustainable Apparel Coalition—as a way to utilize a standardized, credible framework and language to assess the sustainability of products. Today, OIA is working on groundbreaking initiatives critical to outdoor industry supply chains, including establishing responsible chemicals management practices, improving materials traceability methods, and addressing social responsibility and fair labor challenges. The OIA Sustainability Working Group has proven its ability to take tangible action to address corporate sustainability challenges, as well as for showing that it is possible for competitors to work together toward meaningful, business-driven change. Frank Hugelmeyer is being recognized as a Champion of Change for his work demonstrating that corporate environmental leadership makes sense, both for business and for American communities.