Business Resources
An Oregon Perspective on Business & Sustainability
 Sarah Severn
Director of Corporate Sustainable Development
Nike, Inc.
Nike is an Oregon company. We began in 1972, and have housed our corporate world
headquarters in Oregon ever since. In that time, our community has seen immense change in how business is viewed by the community, and how business is beginning to make inroads in areas of the environment and community virtually unimagined decades ago.
As a company employing close to 6,000 people in Oregon, we have a vested interest--and responsibility--to continue to show by example how both business and the community can benefit from gauging success according to a triple-bottom-line of people, planet and profit.
For companies, getting to the triple-bottom-line means literally imbedding the notion of sustainability into all of its business practices and decisions. A sustainable business is one that is profitable, contributes to quality of life for current and future generations, and does all this without degrading the ecosystem on which the very livelihood of commerce depends.
Businesses have a choice: continue to contribute to the decline of the living systems on which we depend, or be leaders in a new era of commerce where and human and business needs are met within the means of nature. The ongoing benefits of the latter course will be improved financial health, freedom from the constraints and costs of environmental regulations, a clear competitive advantage in the marketplace and the strengthened trust and respect of employees, business partners, consumers and the community.
Is the road to sustainability the easiest course to take? Probably not. However, we believe it to be the one truly most rewarding, and most necessary, for the long-term growth and viability not just of our company, but of the state we call home.
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