By: Briana Muller
Over the past 46 years, Patagonia has become a billion-dollar global brand, making it the ultimate example of a do-good-and-do-well company. Patagonia was founded in 1973 by Chouinard, who is passionate about saving the environment. Alongside his company, he spent decades and millions of dollars trying to fight for environmental causes around the world and investing in more sustainable practices. Ten years ago, Yvon Chouinard started getting into the food business, launching Patagonia Provisions. This organization works on regenerative agriculture. Patagonia has always used organic cotton, except now they are taking it a step further by enhancing it with this new process. Chouinard brought these principles into his cotton supply chain for his apparel company, Patagonia.
Patagonia joined and promoted the B corporation movement along with other large companies. These businesses pledged to donate 1% of their profits to environmental groups. These businesses have been able to raise more than $225 million since 2002. Chouinard is more focused than ever, especially with the rise of climate change and increase in the number of protests. Just eight months ago, he wrote a new mission statement for his company, “Patagonia is in business to save our home planet.” He continues to prove this through his sustainable business practices by selling refurbished and recycled clothing. For example, there is the “Patagonia Product Care” page on their website where it offers instructions on how to properly wash and dry Patagonia clothing. This is to ensure so Patagonia products have a long life cycle. Furthermore, there is a recycling page where it instructs customers on how to recycle their Patagonia apparel.
The Patagonia company as a whole is based off regenerative agriculture. This is a 4-step process that helps fight climate change. The secret is that it hides carbon instead of producing it. The first step is to create healthy soil during photosynthesis in which carbon-based sugars are forced out from the plant’s roots and feed into the bacteria and fungi in nearby soil. Those microorganisms turn soil minerals into nutrients that fight disease and feed plants. The second step is to avoid pesticides to fight off insects and physically do it oneself. The third step is to plant cover crops, such as chickpeas. These crops make the soil tough enough to last during difficult conditions and help control pests., This also allows the farmers to have another crop to sell and increase their income. The fourth and final step is to use low-till farming. Plants store a significant amount of carbon in their roots; tilling weakens the soil and releases the stored carbon into the atmosphere. Low-till farming or no-till farming allows the carbon to stay in the soil. Even when the roots decay, the CO2 emissions take a long time to reach the atmosphere and earth’s surface.
Chouinard made a commitment for Patagonia to be free of fossil-fuels by 2025. Patagonia has invested in companies who are working on growing synthetic fibers from plants rather than petroleum. They are also going around to suppliers and to convince them to utilize healthier practices and cleaner energy. For example, an employee in the fabric lab took a visit to one of their suppliers in Japan and saw they were buying energy from coal-fired power plants. He suggested they switch over to green power and the guy never thought of using it. Here they are in 2019, a giant Japanese factory, using green power, costing them $7,000 more per year.
In terms of the upcoming presidential election, Chouinard states that, “we’re going to be very, very active. We’re going to spend a lot of money and basically say, vote the climate deniers out. Anyone who is a climate denier or even on the fence, vote them out because they are evil. They are out to destroy our planet, and we’re not going to stand for it.” Chouinard is passionate about saving our planet. He proves not only his passion, but his devotion to be environmentally conscious through the business practices he established as founder of Patagonia and Patagonia Provisions. In conclusion, I find Patagonia to be one of very few companies that can be considered a “green business.”
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