https://www.cnn.com/2018/11/29/business/patagonia-10-million-tax-climate-change-trnd/index.html
In November of 2018, Patagonia CEO Rose Marcario posted a letter on LinkedIn stating that Patagonia would be donating $10 million of “last year’s irresponsible tax cut” to grassroots environmental programs. Due to Donald Trump’s tax reform, Patagonia saved $10 million in tax breaks, and keeping in line with their core values, decided that the money would be much better used by environmental organizations than it would be by them. Marcario expressed urgency and concern in her letter, stating that the governments’ response to climate change is “woefully inadequate” and that “denial is just evil.”
I have been interested in Patagonia’s unique business model since I learned about their commitment to sustainability. Patagonia is revolutionizing the way we look at business, paving the way for others to consider more political, social, and environmental initiatives throughout their business practices. The brand is incredible because they are proving that profits and sustainability are not a tradeoff. They maintain above average growth in comparison to their competitors like The North Face, Columbia, and Marmot, while fully committing to these sustainable initiatives. Patagonia understands that their business will not reverse the disastrous effects of climate change. Their main goal is to use their business to inspire other businesses to practice sustainability, and show them that profits and growth are not sacrificed when you consider the environment. Patagonia founder Yvon Chouinard explained in his book Let My People Go Surfing that “It’s okay to be eccentric, as long as you are rich; otherwise you’re just crazy” (Chouinard 2005).
I think this statement is powerful because it is a callout to governments who are not acting with urgency in response to the dire need for radical change. Patagonia is showing businesses that they can take it upon themselves to create changes that align with their values instead of waiting for governments to step up.
Chouinard, Y. Let My People Go Surfing (New York: The Penguin Press, 2005), p.160.
I love this story! I too, am very interested in Patagonia’s business model and I commend them for their stance on the responsibility of corporations to practice business sustainably. They continue to fuel my “fangirl” by doing things just like this. In my opinion, it is about time that companies make public opinion statements on unjust political behaviours. For a for-profit company to disregard tax cuts and deem them as irresponsible is exemplary, and I hope that other businesses understand the value of taking such approach and follow suit.
I chose this company for a project for another course because you have sparked such an interest. It is so true that with great power comes great responsibility, and it’s going to take companies like Patagonia to demonstrate how critical it is to act upon the urgency we currently face with respect to climate change. As such a large company, Patagonia possesses the voice to prove to governments and political leaders (i.e. Trump and his apparent lack of interest in climate change) that we are all responsible for improving the state of our planet. Great read – thanks for sharing, Cobo!
It’s truly exciting that you decided to write about Patagonia! What I like the most of this company is how sustainability is assessed in a completely decentralized way: every single stakeholder needs to be part of it – consumers, the civil society, NGOs, universities, other corporations within their orbit of influence and every single employee. But not only this, their sustainability approach embraces several directions: they create value from waste (by, for instance, recycling plastic bottles to generate wool); they encourage sufficiency (by educating its clients about the codes of the five R’s and aiming a reduced consumption of goods), and they apply social sustainability (by holding some practices as maternity leave, flexible working hours and paid time off to support local environmental groups). It’s actually a fantastic example of how to successfully tackle different dimensions of sustainability in one single business model!
Patagonia is incredible! Not only are they advocating for change, but we see change ACTUALLY being implemented. A lot of companies are all talk – however, actions speak louder than words. Patagonia donating their tax cut to grassroots environmental activists completely aligns with their values. I love that Patagonia is showing the world that you don’t have to give up on profits to become more sustainable. I have hope that because Patagonia is an industry leader, they can influence and instigate change in other companies and in their customers in terms of consumer behavior!
This news story is headlining everywhere I go!
Patagonia is definitely a leader in sustainability, but do you think they are able to make these radical changes because they are already in the limelight? In other words, people are already aware of Patagonia as a brand, therefore care that they are making these choices. But what about for smaller, local brands? Does this alienate their ability to benefit from being sustainable? Just something to think about 🙂