We’re in business to save our home planet.
We aim to use the resources we have – our voice, our business and our community – to do something about our climate crisis.
source: https://eu.patagonia.com/pl/en/activism/
Ventura (HQ), CA, United States
259 W Santa Clara St
Reno, NV, United States
8550 White Fir St
Website: https://eu.patagonia.com/pl/en/home/
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/PATAGONIA/
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/patagonia_2/
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1% for the planet
https://eu.patagonia.com/pl/en/one-percent-for-the-planet.html
Since 1985, Patagonia has pledged 1% of sales to the preservation and restoration of the natural environment. We’ve awarded over $89 million in cash and in-kind donations to domestic and international grassroots environmental groups making a difference in their local communities. In 2002, founder of Patagonia, Yvon Chouinard, and Craig Mathews, owner of Blue Ribbon Flies, created a non-profit corporation to encourage other businesses to do the same.
1% for the Planet is an alliance of businesses that understand the necessity of protecting the natural environment. They understand that profit and loss are directly linked to its health, and are concerned with the social and environmental impacts of industry.
If you’re a business owner (or have any influence over your boss), please consider becoming a member of this socially and environmentally progressive group. By contributing 1% of total annual sales to grassroots environmental groups, members of 1% for the Planet affect real change. And members receive other benefits: The satisfaction of paving the way for more corporate responsibility in the business community and the recognition, support and patronage of conscientious consumers who value serious commitment to the environment.
Patagonia films
Featured videos:
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Patagonia’s Founder – Yvon Chouinard
If you don’t do it correcty, there’s nothing to be gained.
Patagonia Founder | Yvon Chouinard | Talks at Google
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/people/Yvon-Chouinard/100053120027508/
ARTICLES
Exclusive: Patagonia founder Yvon Chouinard talks about the sustainability myth, the problem with Amazon—and why it’s not too late to save the planet
Patagonia’s Yvon Chouinard set the standard for how a business can mitigate the ravages of capitalism on earth’s environment. At 81 years old, he’s just getting started.
“You want the truth? It’s hopeless. It’s completely hopeless.” That’s what Patagonia founder and chairman Yvon Chouinard told the L.A. Times about the plight of the earth amid climate change. In 1994. Regardless, Chouinard and his company have spent decades—and millions of dollars—fighting for environmental causes around the world while investing in more sustainable business practices. What’s more, Patagonia has embraced and promoted the B Corporation movement, while Chouinard led such efforts as 1% for the Planet, a collective of companies that pledged to donate 1% of sales to environmental groups and has raised more than $225 million since 2002. Meanwhile, over the past 46 years, Patagonia has become a billion-dollar global brand, making it the ultimate do-good-and-do-well company.
But Chouinard remains unsatisfied. The 81-year-old is more focused than ever on demonstrating, by Patagonia’s example, the lengths a company can go to protect the planet. During a break from fishing near his Wyoming home, Chouinard is both passionate and wry in discussing his business philosophy, what we get wrong about sustainability, why he’s so excited about regenerative agriculture, and Patagonia’s rising political machine.
Fast Company: How do we cope with the idea that to be in business means we are polluters and hurting the planet?
Yvon Chouinard: Everything man does creates more harm than good. We have to accept that fact and not delude ourselves into thinking something is sustainable. Then you can try to achieve a situation where you’re causing the least amount of harm possible. That’s the spin we put on it. It’s a never-ending summit. You’re just climbing forever. You’ll never get to the top, but it’s the journey.
FC: About eight months ago, you wrote a new mission statement for the company: “Patagonia is in business to save our home planet.” What impact has that had so far?
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The Patagonia Adventure: Yvon Chouinard’s Stubborn Desire to Redefine Business
An Inspiring Business Leader Who Built a Clothing Brand Dedicated to Environmental Stewardship
Nearly 60 years ago, Yvon Chouinard bought a few tools at a junkyard, taught himself blacksmithing and made rock-climbing hardware that he sold from the trunk of his car. Chouinard had no lofty goal in mind. He simply wanted to make enough money to go climbing and to make better climbing equipment. Even after he hired a few friends, rented space and formed a company called Chouinard Equipment, its first catalog — a one-page sheet of items and prices — warned customers not to expect fast delivery during the summer. That was climbing season.
Those humble beginnings spawned Patagonia, the global outdoor clothing and gear company widely admired for its values-laden business practices and financial success. Chouinard (pronounced shwee-nar) didn’t set out to make Patagonia one of the world’s most socially responsible and influential companies. But he has continued to do business his own way by defying conventional business wisdom. How? By putting the earth first, by making products that last, by telling customers to buy fewer of them, by sharing earnings with grassroots environmental groups, by spreading the gospel of sustainability far and wide, and, yes, by telling people who work there that, so long as their jobs get done, they can surf when the waves are up, ski when the powder’s fresh, and climb mountains when the urge strikes.
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- Yvon Chouinard is founder of outdoor wear maker Patagonia, based in Ventura, California.
- Since Patagonia was founded in 1984, it has has an open office plan – not even Chouinard, the owner, has his own office.
- His apparel business took off in the 1970s when Chouinard imported rugby shirts from England and sold them to climbers.
- Since 1985, Patagonia has set aside 1% of sales to finance grassroots environmental groups in the U.S. and abroad. Revenues hit $800 million in 2017.
- In May 2013 Patagonia launched Tin Shed Ventures which provides seed funding to environmentally and socially responsible start-ups.
Patagonia founder Yvon Chouinard on democracy
Tin Shed Ventures
Tin Shed Ventures is Patagonia’s corporate venture capital fund, which invests in start-ups that offer solutions to the environmental crisis. Originally launched as $20 Million and Change in May 2013, Tin Shed Ventures partners with businesses focused on building renewable energy infrastructure, practicing regenerative organic agriculture, conserving water, diverting waste and creating sustainable materials.
The Tin Shed name is rooted in Patagonia’s history. In 1957, a young climber named Yvon Chouinard decided to make his own reusable hardware. Using supplies procured from a junkyard, he taught himself how to blacksmith. By 1970, Chouinard Equipment had become the largest supplier of climbing hardware in North America—produced in a tin shed in Ventura, California. But there was a problem. The company’s gear was damaging the rock as popular routes had to endure repeated hammering of steel pitons. So Chouinard decided to phase out of the piton business, even though it comprised 70 percent of the company’s sales at the time. He introduced an alternative: aluminum chocks that could be wedged in the rock and removed by hand, rather than hammered and left behind.
The audacious move worked. Within a few months, the new chocks sold faster than they could be made. Patagonia has since expanded from a climbing hardware company into a global outdoor apparel brand with $800 million in sales while maintaining a strict commitment to sustainability in its products and supply chain. Tin Shed Ventures is funding the next generation of responsible business leaders who share these core values.
We started the fund because we felt existing models for start-up capital were broken. Traditional investors tend to focus on short-term growth and profit, then quickly flip the companies in which they invest. We take a completely different approach to investing. We place environmental and social returns on equal footing with financial returns and provide long-term, patient capital that helps to support forward-thinking entrepreneurs for the long haul. Overall, our aim is to support like-minded start-ups that embody Patagonia’s mission statement – “We are in business to save our home planet.”
Because we take this unconventional approach, our coalition of companies has been able to do some incredible things. In addition to investments aiming to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, save water and regenerate soil health, our solar investments are providing clean energy for thousands of households throughout the US. We consistently rally together with fellow B Corps to develop solutions to the environmental crisis and magnify the impact of our investments.
Ultimately, the goal of Tin Shed Ventures is to prove that business—and investments—can be engines for positive change. We’re excited to fund and mentor the next generation of responsible businesses, and we hope other investors will join us in doing so.