Patagonia, all brand profits to save the planet. Founder Chouinard’s Announcement: “The Earth is Now Our Only Shareholder”

“We just donated our company to Planet Earth. Now our only contributor is the planetWith these words Yvonne ChouinardFounder Patagonia, An American sportswear brand has announced that it has sold the company to a self-created non-profit organization and to a specially created fund so that all of the company’s profits will, from now on, be tangibly invested in fight climate change. Definitely a brave, undoubtedly pioneering and totally generous decision. An act of true love for our planet that can be translated into action It aims to try to stop the drift, that climate, which is already showing its devastating importance. “Hopefully this will affect one A new form of capitalism Chouinard explained in an interview with The New York Times. The 83-year-old aims to ensure “as much money as possible for the people actively working to save the planet”. All the earnings From Patagonia (Review 3 billion dollars), thus, will contribute to the fight against Climate change.

The unusual move comes at a time of increasing pressure on billionaires and corporations, whose pro-world rhetoric is often overshadowed by their contributions to the problems they claim they want to solve. “Hopefully this will impact a new form of capitalism that doesn’t end with so few rich and so many poor, we’re giving the most money to the people who are actively working to save the planet,” Chouinard explained. Specifically, the 98% of the shares Moved to Holdfast group, nonprofit organization; the rest 2% Al Patagonia Purpose Box, which will be managed by family members to verify that all profits are actually used to conserve the environment. For this donation Chouinard paid more than seventeen million in taxes.

Patagonia has always been distinguished as a company that is keen on protecting the environment, and ranks itself as Benefit Company. “We became a B Corp and Benefit Corporation certified company in California by writing our values ​​into the bylaws to maintain them,” the owner explains on the company’s website. In 2018 came the change of pace: “We changed our company’s goal to: ‘We are working to save our planet.

Not only profit maximization, but also an attempt to contribute to environmental protection understandable public good. “I never wanted to be businessman‘,” Chouinard shortened. “I started out as a craftsman, producing climbing gear for me and my friends, and then devoted myself to artistic clothing.” The reason for the decision was to discoverEnvironmental effects which even Patagonia was leaving behind: “Since we began touching the damage caused by global warming and environmental destruction, we at Patagonia have committed to changing the way we think and do business in concrete terms,” Chouinard concludes.