For over a decade, Nellie Cohen has worked on circular economy initiatives, starting with her role at Patagonia in 2009. There, she built and directed the Worn Wear program and its precursor, the Common Threads Partnership. Alongside this work, she has been involved in the development of tools to measure and manage the environmental impacts of textile products, including helping to build the methodology of the Sustainable Apparel Coalition and obtaining B Corp Certification for Patagonia. Today, her Ojai-based consultancy, Baleen, is focused on building circular product systems for brands that are designed to reduce environmental footprint while generating revenue. Some of her clients include Levi’s, lululemon, Dôen, Canada Goose and Guittard. A former lecturer in Industrial Ecology at UC Santa Barbara, she holds a BA in Environmental Systems from UC San Diego and a MS in Biological Oceanography from Scripps Institution of Oceanography.
