Impakter
  • News
    • Culture
      • Art
      • Cinema
      • Entertainment
      • Literature
      • Music
      • Photography
    • Style
      • Architecture
      • Design
      • Fashion
      • Foodscape
      • Lifestyle
    • Society
      • Business
      • Foreign Affairs & Politics
      • Health
      • Tech
      • Science
      • Start-up
    • Impact
      • Environment
      • Eco Life
      • Circular Economy
      • COP26
      • CityLife
        • Copenhagen
        • San Francisco
        • Seattle
        • Sydney
      • Sustainability Series
        • SDGs Series
        • Shape Your Future
        • 2030: Dream or Reality
      • Philanthropy
        • United Nations
        • NGO & Charities
        • Essays
  • Business Hub
  • Sustainability Index
  • Partners
  • About
    • Team
    • Contributors
    • Global Leaders
    • Write for Impakter
      • Republishing Content
      • Permissions and Copyright
      • Privacy Policy
    • Contact
No Result
View All Result
  • News
    • Culture
      • Art
      • Cinema
      • Entertainment
      • Literature
      • Music
      • Photography
    • Style
      • Architecture
      • Design
      • Fashion
      • Foodscape
      • Lifestyle
    • Society
      • Business
      • Foreign Affairs & Politics
      • Health
      • Tech
      • Science
      • Start-up
    • Impact
      • Environment
      • Eco Life
      • Circular Economy
      • COP26
      • CityLife
        • Copenhagen
        • San Francisco
        • Seattle
        • Sydney
      • Sustainability Series
        • SDGs Series
        • Shape Your Future
        • 2030: Dream or Reality
      • Philanthropy
        • United Nations
        • NGO & Charities
        • Essays
  • Business Hub
  • Sustainability Index
  • Partners
  • About
    • Team
    • Contributors
    • Global Leaders
    • Write for Impakter
      • Republishing Content
      • Permissions and Copyright
      • Privacy Policy
    • Contact
No Result
View All Result
Impakter
No Result
View All Result
Home Society Climate Change

Patagonia Founder Donates the $3bn Company: “Earth Is Now Our Only Shareholder”

The company has been given away to trusts that will use the profits to fight the climate crisis

byBelinda Teoh
September 16, 2022
in Climate Change, Corporations, Environment, NGO & Charities, Philanthropy, Society
OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA

OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA

Share on FacebookShare on Twitter

“I never wanted to be a businessman. I started as a craftsman, making climbing gear for my friends and myself, then got into apparel,” the founder of Patagonia Yvon Chouinard explains how he started the company in 1973. 

Today, his firm is worth $3 billion, according to the New York Times.

Chouinard announced on Wednesday that he is giving away the outdoor apparel business in an effort to tackle the environmental crisis and climate change.

Hey, friends, we just gave our company to planet Earth. OK, it’s more nuanced than that, but we’re closed today to celebrate this new plan to save our one and only home. We’ll be back online tomorrow.https://t.co/fvRFDgOzVZ

— Patagonia (@patagonia) September 14, 2022

In a letter published on Patagonia’s website, Chouinard stated that the decision to donate is the most recent development in the company’s long-running experiment in ethical business. Throughout his five-decade career, Chouinard’s strategy involved connecting his company to environmental conservation and political activity. 

Patagonia continues to make products using fewer toxic components that harm the environment as well as to donate 1% of profits, primarily to local environmental NGOs.


Related articles: Tesla Removed From S&P 500 ESG Index, Musk: “ESG Is a Scam” | A Stitch in Time – The Patagonia Principle

In 2015, the business sued former President Donald Trump after denouncing him and other members of his administration for weakening protections for public lands.

It also modified its mission statement in 2018 to read: “We’re in business to save our home planet.”

More recently, after popular Wyoming ski resort owners sponsored a fundraiser with Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (Ga.) and other Republicans who support Trump, Patagonia declared it would no longer sell its goods there in 2021.

The decision to donate the company is thus far from being Chouinard’s first or only environmental statement. 

In his letter announcing the donation, he underlined the drawbacks of either selling Patagonia and donating the money, or going public.

By selling, Chouinard says there would be no guarantee that the new owner would preserve the business’s beliefs or ensure that all of the employees would keep their positions. 

Making the company public, on the other hand, would have been a “disaster,” Chouinard asserts, explaining that public firms, even those with the best of intentions, face too much pressure to prioritise short-term profit above long-term vitality and accountability.

“Truth be told, there were no good options available. So, we created our own,” Chouinard writes in the letter.

Instead of “going public,” they referred to the move as “going purpose,” saying that they would utilise the money Patagonia makes to safeguard the source of all wealth rather than taking value from nature and turning it into more wealth for investors.

“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,” said the founder. 

How it works

The Patagonia Purpose Trust, established to preserve the company’s ideals, gets 100% of the company’s voting stock, while the Holdfast Collective, a nonprofit organisation devoted to addressing the environmental crisis and protecting nature, receives 100% of the company’s nonvoting stock. 

Patagonia will provide the financing; each year, a dividend will be paid out from the profits after reinvesting in the company to aid in the crisis.

BREAKING: Patagonia founder gives away the $3 billion company to a pair of trusts, with a mandate to give all profits (~$100 million/year) to fight the climate crisis.

This is a real game-changer, raising the bar on what a socially conscious business can look like.

— Tristan Snell (@TristanSnell) September 14, 2022

“It’s been nearly 50 years since we began our experiment in responsible business, and we are just getting started. If we have any hope of a thriving planet — much less a thriving business — 50 years from now, it is going to take all of us doing what we can with the resources we have. This is another way we’ve found to do our part,” Chouinard concludes at the end of his letter.


Editor’s Note: The opinions expressed here by the authors are their own, not those of Impakter.com — In the Featured Photo: Patagonia logo on Patagonia’s clothing. Featured Photo Credit: Wikimedia Commons.

Tags: Climate ChangeClimate CrisisEarthPatagonia
Previous Post

FortyGuard, Using Data to Fight Extreme Heat

Next Post

Interview With Peace and Skin: Skincare as a Stress-Relief

Belinda Teoh

Belinda Teoh

At Impakter, Belinda Teoh works as an editorial intern. She is a Malaysian who presently resides in the UK and is a journalism student at Bournemouth University. She works as an editor and writer for the university's Nerve Now and BUzz News publications. She is interested in writing about human rights, crime, justice, and popular culture. If she's not writing in her free time, she would be swimming or being a foodie abroad!

Related Posts

FAO Director-General speaking at theUN 2023 Water Conference
Environment

UN 2023 Water Conference: FAO Calls for Responsive and Innovative Drought Financing Mechanisms

March 24, 2023
Climate Homicide
Climate Change

Could US Oil Companies Be Tried for ‘Climate Homicide’?

March 24, 2023
carbon capture
Climate Change

Promising New Carbon Capture Method: Climate Fix or False Hope?

March 24, 2023
Next Post
skincare tools

Interview With Peace and Skin: Skincare as a Stress-Relief

Recent News

FAO Director-General speaking at theUN 2023 Water Conference

UN 2023 Water Conference: FAO Calls for Responsive and Innovative Drought Financing Mechanisms

March 24, 2023
Climate Homicide

Could US Oil Companies Be Tried for ‘Climate Homicide’?

March 24, 2023
carbon capture

Promising New Carbon Capture Method: Climate Fix or False Hope?

March 24, 2023
impakter-logo-light

Impakter informs you through the eco news site and empowers your sustainable lifestyle with its eco products marketplace.

Visit here IMPAKTER ECO for your eco products needs.

Registered Office Address

32 Lots Road, London
SW10 0QJ, United Kingdom


IMPAKTER Limited

Company number: 10806931

Impakter is a publication that is identified by the following International Standard Serial Number (ISSN) is the following 2515-9569 (Printed) and 2515-9577 (online – Website).


Office Hours - Monday to Friday

9.30am - 5.00pm CEST


Email

stories [at] impakter.com

About Us

  • Team
  • Contributors
  • Privacy Policy
  • Contact
  • Partners

By Audience

  • Lifestyle
  • Green Finance
  • Culture
  • Society
  • Style
  • Impact

Impakter Platforms

  • Media
  • Index

© 2023 IMPAKTER. All rights reserved.

No Result
View All Result
  • News
    • Culture
    • Style
    • Society
    • Impact
  • Business Hub
  • Sustainability Index
  • About
    • Team
    • Partners
    • Contact
    • Privacy Policy

© 2023 IMPAKTER. All rights reserved.

Impakter.com uses cookies to enhance your experience when visiting the website and to serve you with advertisements that might interest you. By continuing to use this site, you agree to our use of cookies. Visit our Privacy and Cookie Policy.