Rick Ridgeway

K2 is known for the inherent danger in climbing it, featuring a steep pyramidal relief and long sections of rock and ice, and unstable, overhanging serac.

During his explorations Ridgeway witnessed the degradations of the wildlands that had come to define his life: he saw firsthand remote grasslands in Patagonia turned to tourist cities, and the glaciers on Kilimanjaro disappear.

He also witnessed the wildlife that inhabited those wildlands decline, and in the mid-'90s he began a series of journeys that allowed him to communicate, through books and films, what was happening to these formerly wild regions.

In 1996 he and companions climbed Kilimanjaro and from the summit walked 500 kilometers (310.6 miles) to the sea, giving Ridgeway a vehicle to report on the fate of Africa's wildlife.

In 2004 he and companions Jimmy Chin, Galen Rowell, and Conrad Anker followed the migration of the endangered chiru, walking without support 300 miles (482.8 km) across uninhabited grasslands in northwest Tibet to confirm the locations of the species' calving grounds.

Ridgeway's book, The Big Open, and accompanying National Geographic television show and magazine article assisted the acclaimed wildlife conservationist George Schaller to convince the Chinese government to create a 15,000 square mile protected area around the calving grounds.

In 2012 the Coalition released the Version 1.0 Higg Index tool that is being implemented across the supply chains of member companies to measure, and in that way to manage, environmental and social/labor impacts.