Staff Spotlight: Oliver Ogden
Oliver works on the wood markets team, helping grow our wood advisor services so that green builders, architects, developers, and building owners have a place to go when they want to build better. Whether it be reducing their climate impact, supporting local communities, reducing wildfire risk, or another goal, Oliver helps make it happen.
“Time outdoors instilled in me how special each place can be. Even now, I love traveling the varied terrain of Oregon.”
How did your childhood influence your decision to work in sustainability?
As a fifth generation Oregonian, born and raised in Hillsboro, I quickly grew an affinity for the outdoors from camping often with my parents as a kid. Many weekends during the summertime we would hop in the car and go camping.
Growing up in the Willamette Valley, it was always magical to experience the diversity of the landscape as we traveled through the state, from the west to east side. Just through my window, I could see the mountains, volcanoes, and the transition of douglas fir to ponderosa pines in the foliage.
This time outdoors instilled in me how special each place can be. Even now, I love traveling the varied terrain of Oregon.
Growing up in Hillsboro, I also saw its rapid expansion and development, with farmland being replaced with housing, tech centers, strip malls, and more. I saw so much change in my environment in only a few years of adolescence. I knew I wanted to explore that in my career and, ultimately, create change.
How did your educational and career path lead you to Sustainable Northwest?
Initially in my educational career, I was drawn to the arts—film and photography in particular—but also communications and English. Through those mediums, I was interested in exploring how people navigate natural and built environments, and how we can use natural resources in a sustainable way.
Eventually, though, I decided to shift from the arts to something that I hope will create more substantive change. That’s when I became a builder. I focused on bio-based building, working to close the gap between natural resources and the built environment. Ultimately that led me here to the role of wood advisor specialist at Sustainable Northwest. This is a culmination of all of those different career tracks in one position, as it involves communication, storytelling, and industry knowledge.
What do you like most about your position at Sustainable Northwest?
My favorite part about working at Sustainable Northwest is the diversity of work. With the many traveling opportunities, each work day holds something different, and I get to be immersed in both intellectual and physical realms of resource management.
For instance, I took a trip recently to the Yakama Nation and walked the land with one of our staff members, who is a member of the Yakama Nation, and visited Yakama Forest products, their mill. When I returned to the city, I shared the photos I took so that I could help continue to tell the story of the Yakama’s exemplary stewardship work. That diversity of location and work day is powerful.
Passions outside of work: Photography, writing, trail running, and playing at parks and in my garden with my family
One thing you think is overrated: Social media
Favorite thing to do on a day off: Spend time in the garden or get out of town into the woods
Favorite place in the PNW: Paulina Lake
Book recommendation: A Sand County Almanac by Aldo Leopold
Cats or dogs? I have two cats, but I’m an aspiring dog person.
