“Earth is Now Our Only Shareholder”: Patagonia’s Bold Strides in Sustainability
Overlooking a white snowscape through the window, I snuggle deeper into my Patagonia jacket while sitting by the fire. An avid advocate for sustainable business, I have long supported and acknowledged Patagonia’s efforts to significantly reduce their carbon footprint, as well as their avoidance of the typical path of corporate greenwashing. Likewise, Patagonia’s rejection of fast fashion by creating high-quality, long-lasting products and offering a rewear and reuse program, titled Worn Wear, draws me to the company’s message. Nonetheless, it came as a surprise when I found that the Patagonia founder and owner, Yvon Chouinard, announced that the company would donate all future profits to fight the climate and extinction crisis. In an age where deceptive green marketing, or “greenwashing”, is soaring in popularity, it’s rare that political and economic organizations follow through on their environmental commitments to such a great extent.
“Better Than New”: Patagonia’s Worn Wear program. Source: Patagonia Works
Chouinard has stated that he will be transferring the company, valued at around $3 billion, to the Patagonia Purpose Trust, a set of trusts and nonprofits. This is meant to ensure its profits go towards combating the climate crisis. All corporate revenues will be donated to initiatives and groups working to combat the climate crisis, protect biodiversity, and protect wild lands. His wife and two adult children are also donating their stake in the company to these critical causes. To explain the necessity of his decision, Chouinard penned an open letter, which was posted on the Patagonia website. Here is an excerpt from this letter:
“If we have any hope of a thriving planet—much less a business—it is going to take all of us doing what we can with the resources we have. This is what we can do.
While we’re doing our best to address the environmental crisis, it’s not enough. We needed to find a way to put more money into fighting the crisis while keeping the company’s values intact. One option was to sell Patagonia and donate all the money. But we couldn’t be sure a new owner would maintain our values or keep our team of people around the world employed. Another path was to take the company public. What a disaster that would have been. Even public companies with good intentions are under too much pressure to create short-term gain at the expense of long-term vitality and responsibility. Truth be told, there were no good options available. So, we created our own. Instead of ‘going public’, you could say we’re ‘going purpose’. Instead of extracting value from nature and transforming it into wealth for investors, we’ll use the wealth Patagonia creates to protect the source of all wealth.”
Prior to this announcement, Patagonia had already made significant progress on environmental protection and social justice. For example:
100% cotton is regenerative organic certified
100% of down is responsibly sourced
100% of electric needs in the U.S. are met with renewable energy
98% of products are made with recycled materials
88% of the products are fair-trade certified sewn
75,000 workers benefit from Patagonia’s participation in the fair-trade program
Patagonia has always felt strongly that “the Climate Crisis Is Our Business.” The company recognizes its imminent need to radically reduce carbon emissions by transforming production, as well as the need to double down on its work to help communities depart from fossil fuels in favor of protecting nature. After all, we must demand nothing short of systemic change from government and industry, as the fight for climate justice is on every front. I strongly believe in Patagonia’s message that the state of the environment warrants priority and prominence on the global agenda. In response to those who argue that corporate sustainability will always take a back seat to profitability, the words of Chouinard are perfect: “Earth is now our only shareholder.”
