SPOTLIGHT RACE: Nicole Bassett for OR-SD26

I didn't come to this from politics. I came to this from twenty years of walking into rooms where things weren't working and figuring out how to rebuild them.

I studied how business affects people and the environment. Then I went to Patagonia and put that thinking to work across real supply chains, from raw materials to factory floors. At prAna, I became the company's inaugural Director of Sustainability and led the launch of Fair Trade certified apparel in the US — a first for the entire industry. The business grew and so did the good it was doing.

But no matter how much we improved, the same problems kept showing up. Not because people weren't trying. Because the way things were set up kept producing the same results. Eventually I realized I didn't want to keep fixing symptoms. I wanted to fix the cause. So that's what I did.

In 2015, I co-founded The Renewal Workshop in Cascade Locks. We built a factory that gave unsold products a second life. Fixed zippers. Repaired seams. Created local jobs. The company was acquired in 2022, and I stayed on to lead circularity work worldwide.

Today I run Citrus Circular. I help companies rethink how they operate from the inside out — how they design products, train people, and build the infrastructure to waste less and create more value from what they already have.

I've been named a Vogue Business 100 Innovator in Sustainability, a Grist 50 Fixer, and Portland Business Journal Executive of the Year. I've given a TEDx talk on the future of circular business. But what I'm most proud of is the work itself. Businesses changed. Industries pushed forward.

I know how to walk into something that isn't working and make it work. I've been doing it my whole career. And I'm ready to do it for this district.




https://www.bassettfororegon.com/