“It’s been half a century since we started our responsible business experiment. If we are to hope for a prosperous and vibrant planet in another 50 years, we must all do our best with the resources we have. As a businessman, despite the fact that I never wanted to be one, I do my part. Instead of extracting value from nature and turning it into profit, we will use the prosperity of Patagonia to protect the true source of all wealth. We make the Earth our sole shareholder “like this Yvon Chouinard, founder of Patagoniaannounced a new life for the brand, even more focused on protecting the environment.
From that moment on, the Chouinard family, consisting of Yvon, his wife Malinda Pennoyer and children Claire and Fletcher, transferred all ownership rights to two new organizations: Patagonia Purpose Trust andcollective holding. Looking more closely, we find that Patagonia Purpose Trust now owns all the voting shares of the company (2% of the total shares) and was created to create a permanent legal structure protecting the purpose and values of Patagonia.
In an additional way,collective holding owns all non-voting shares (98% of total) e he will use every dollar that Patagonia receives to protect nature and biodiversity.focusing on the protection of undeveloped lands around the world. So every year I excess profitthat is, those who have not reinvested in the company’s business will distributed by Patagonia in the form of dividendscollective holdingto help deal with the climate crisis. The company says it expects to earn around $100 million in annual dividends this way, depending on business performance.
“Our sole shareholder is now the planet” Yvon Chouinard wrote a heartfelt letter to his staff, setting an example and challenging the rest of the fashion world – but not only. When every dollar not reinvested in a company is distributed as a dividend to protect the planet, Patagonia can demonstrate that capitalism can be put to the service of the planet. And this is not a lesson taken for granted. This breakthrough may have been first made by none other than climbing pioneer Yvon Chouinard, who climbed California’s Yosemite Valley in the 1960s, slept in his car and ate cans of cat food, living in complete harmony with nature.
How The newspaper “New York Timesthe ideals of Yvon Chouinard and his wife were embodied in Patagonia, founded in 1973 as a mountain gear brand, has grown into a fashion powerhouse.. Patagonia was one of the first companies to take giant strides towards sustainability: pioneering organic cotton, donating proceeds to childcare, ending compulsive shopping. Even today that he is a millionaire, Chouinard wears old clothes, drives an outdated Subaru, and has no computer or cell phone. and spends time between the modest homes of Ventura and Jackson, Wyoming. For decades, Patagonia has given 1% of its sales to charity.in favor of environmental activism in particular, and in recent years it has become even more politically active, so much so that last July Patagonia offered bail to employees arrested for pro-abortion demonstrations.
The move to donate the brand is also the brainchild of the pandemic: mid 2020 Yvon Chounard – He speaks The newspaper “New York Times – starts telling his closest advisors, including Ryan Gellert, the company’s CEO, that if they can’t find a sustainable alternative to the business model, he’s ready to sell the company. Using the code name Project Chacabuco, a reference to a fishing spot in Chile, a small group of Patagonian lawyers and council members. started working on some features. In December, the Shunar family, the entire team and consultants gathered above the Ventura Hills, surrounded by oak trees and avocado orchards. There they had the idea that it could help save the Earth.
Source: Elle