Outdoor Industry Association (OIA) on Wednesday announced that Amy Horton will join the OIA executive team as senior director of sustainable business innovation. Horton is currently an independent strategist who has led sustainability strategy and collaborative projects for clients such as Nike, Walmart, Sustainable Apparel Coalition as well as OIA.
Prior to her consulting strategy work, Horton worked full time for the Sustainable Apparel Coalition where she led collaborative impact projects and built the first business case for the Higg Index, a suite of tools that enables brands, retailers and facilities of all sizes—at every stage in their sustainability journey—to accurately measure and score a company’s, facility’s or product’s sustainability performance. For the last three years, she has consulted with OIA and has helped significantly increase Higg Index adoption by outdoor industry brands.
“Amy’s proven sustainability facilitation and strategy experience will ensure we take our important work in this area to the next level,” said Amy Roberts, OIA executive director. I’ve worked with her closely for a number of years, and she always delivers results with her special combination of big thinking, critical listening and team collaboration.”
Horton has worked for outdoor industry companies and Fortune 500 organizations facilitating sustainability progress. She helped craft a greenhouse gas reduction strategy for the U.S. dairy industry and contributed to the design of Walmart’s initial sustainability index. She has expanded OIA’s Chemicals Management Community of Practice and supported efforts by the OIA team that increased outdoor industry Higg Index adoption by more than 80 percent.
“My passion for helping teams collaborate to accomplish sustainability goals that no single company alone could achieve drove my desire to lead the work that OIA does on behalf of the outdoor industry,” said Amy Horton. “Transparency about sustainability performance and progress is rapidly becoming an expectation of doing business today; it’s no longer an option. I look forward to this opportunity to work with sustainability leaders, companies just getting started and those in between to drive impact on environmental and social challenges that matter most to the outdoor industry.”
Horton is a native Oregonian, avid hiker and world traveler. She holds a Bachelor of Science in journalism and communication from the University of Oregon. She will be relocating to Boulder from Portland, Oregon, this summer with her husband and two young daughters, where they will enjoy exploring Colorado, the mountains and much more sunshine.