The Responsible Company
Issue No 1: Patagonia
Editor’s Note
Welcome to the inaugural issue of Unsustainable where our mission is to learn and share how sustainable and regenerative brands make better products that last longer.
To save our planet, we need to produce and consume fewer, better things. Products that are good for both people, planet, and profit, to create and make way for the emerging restorative economy and reverse climate change.
Ninety percent of a product’s environmental impact is decided in the design stage: from product quality and recycled materials to built-in reduction, repair, reuse, repurpose, recirculation, and recycling. So that’s where we’ll start.
The name Unsustainable is inspired by Patagonia’s – for many people – provocative statement from earlier this year, that no brand is sustainable and that sustainability is a constant learning process, not the end goal.
Unsustainable is a weekly newsletter, where you’ll get access to fifty sustainability stories and insights every year from trailblazing brands, get to know the organizations powering the circular economy, and learn about new innovations and technologies.
All for $2.50 dollars (reg. $5 dollars) per issue if you take advantage of our introductory offer for 50 percent off for the first year. One percent of sales will go directly to Stripe Climate to fund permanent carbon removal technologies.
Enjoy the read about our first brand, Patagonia. It was a natural choice: one of the most admired brands in the world, a pioneer and trailblazer within sustainable and regenerative product design, manufacturing, and climate change activism.
For people, planet, and profit,
Per Håkansson (follow on LinkedIn), Publisher and founding editor
PS. Feel free to like, comment, and repost on LinkedIn.
Table of Contents
Patagonia’s Story
Patagonia started out as an “easy-to-milk cash cow”, not an activist company focused on saving the planet. It was an offshoot from Chouinard Equipment for Alpinists who made high-quality mountain-climbing gear for a small community of dirtbag climbers.
The intention was to create a clean and easy company compared to forging steel pitons and cutting aluminum chocks in a sweaty workshop ten hours per day. Little did they then know, that ordinary cotton is one of the most toxic materials around.
The early team, a bunch of bright, restless, and unconventional group of surfers, climbers, travelers, and academics, with a shared passion for the natural world, were driven to learn and make, gradually discovering the harm of their own business.
During the 70s and 80s Patagonia becomes aware of their own harmful environmental practices as well as their social impact. They begin experimenting with small-scale solutions, joining Fair Trade, and donating money to grassroots organizations.
It’s not until 1991, when they lay off 20 percent of their workforce, having managed their company “too carelessly”, buying too much inventory, sold to few items, hired too many people, and lacked sufficient savings, when they make their first big pivot.
The layoffs ignite a new era of introspection, activism, and business. No stone is left unturned, from reviewing materials and supply chains to working conditions at their factories. Their learnings are transformed into actions over the following decades.
The next big pivot happens in 2011 when they run the now legendary “Don’t Buy This Jacket” ad in New York Times on Black Friday, become a certified B Corp, and turn their recycling and repurposing initiative Common Threads into Worn Wear.
The third big pivot happened last year when the Chouinard family donate all shares to the Patagonia Purpose Trust, making earth their only shareholder. This creates a massive amount of publicity, support, awareness, and positive impact across the world.
Key Milestones
1972 – When Chouinard Equipment, the predecessor to Patagonia, learned that their popular steel pitons were harmful to the environment because they needed repeated hammering during both placement and removal, the company pivoted to making aluminum chocks that could be wedged in and removed without hammer. This was the first time they realized that their business made harm to the environment.
1973 – Patagonia, Inc. is founded by Yvon Chouinard in Ventura, California, inspired by the 1968 trip to Mount Fitz Roy, Patagonia, which becomes their logotype.
1985 – Committing to donate 10 percent of annual profit to small grassroots groups, inspired by the young biologist Mark Capelli’s activism to save the Ventura River.
1991 – The company is laying off 150 people, about 20 percent of the workforce, after having managed the company “too carelessly” for two years. Formulates the business statement “Build the best product, cause no unnecessary harm, and use business to inspire and implement solutions to the environmental crisis”. Commissions study to assess the environmental impacts of the four fibers most commonly used in their clothes: cotton, polyester, nylon, and wool. Learns that cotton is not much more “natural” than nylon.
1996 – Every garment made in cotton by Patagonia is now organic.
2002 – Yvon Chouinard co-creates 1% for the Planet with Craig Mathews, founder of the Yellowstone angler’s shop, Blue Ribbon Flies. Today 1% for the Planet has 5,400 members in sixty countries, donating $435 million (2023) to 4,000 groups every year.
2005 – Introducing Footprint, a mini-website to “examine and communicate the full breadth of Patagonia’s life and habits as a company.” Initiates the Common Threads Garment Recycling Program, inviting customers to recycle worn-out Capilene underwear, which in 2011 opens up to all garments for recycling or repurposing, and changes name to Worn Wear, who’s motto is “better than new”.
2007 – Patagonia becomes the first brand partner to Bluesign, an independent verification company screening fabric chemicals to minimize environment harm. Today close to 1,000 brands, manufacturers, and chemical suppliers have partnered with Bluesign, including nine of out ten of Patagonia’s material suppliers.
2011 – The ad “Don’t Buy This Jacket” runs in New York Times on Black Friday, encouraging people to consume less, inspired by an Esprit ad campaign from 1990. Patagonia becomes certified as B Corp by the B Lab.
2012 – Patagonia and Yulex introduce the first alternative to neoprene wetsuits, made from plant-based rubber with improved performance and thermal value.
2013 – Founding Tin Shed Ventures to invest in companies, mostly startups, that use business to reduce environmental harm and address the climate crisis. This venture accelerates their learnings within sustainability and regenerative innovations.
2014 – Patagonia invests in the branded resale platform Trove and three years later launches its own resale platform Worn Wear, powered by Trove.
2018 – Simplifying business statement to “We’re in business to save the home planet.”
2022 – The Yvon Chouinard family donate all their shares to the Patagonia Purpose Trust and the Holdfast Collective, so called steward-ownership, for profit to be used to address climate change and protect land. Patagonia partners with creative textile platform Makers Unite to open the United Repair Centre in Amsterdam.
2023 – Patagonia turns 50 years old, looking forward to the next 50 years with a campaign about resilience, simplicity, human powered, and purpose.
Insights and Actions
The clue to Patagonia’s early engagement and leadership in sustainability lies in the team’s personal and close relationship with nature, always striving for great product quality, and their self-awareness in how their business is hurting the environment.
Science writer Daniel Goleman clarifies: “Know your impacts, favor improvement, share what you learn.” It’s a very simple advice that works in sequence, beginning with understanding what harms are caused by the company and its supply chain.
Vincent Stanley, Patagonia’s Director of Philosophy says: “Engage your team, with as broad participation as possible, to find out the worst things your company does, what costs it the most in profit, what most risks its reputation, and what will be the easiest to correct.”
When most companies instinctively tries to hide their flaws, Patagonia is openly admitting to any harm they are doing to the environment, knowing that it’s not the end but rather the beginning of an opportunity to improve and share new learnings.
“Every time we do the right thing, we make more money”, says founder Yvon Chouinard. It’s been part of the Patagonia culture since they transitioned from the harmful steel pitons to aluminum chocks in the early 70s. It’s now part of the company’s DNA.
Instead of talking about sustainability, Patagonia favors the word responsible. From their perspective, a responsible company takes full responsibility for their products throughout the full lifecycle, including impact on people and planet.
How to make products that last longer
Know your impacts: Becoming aware of what harm your business is doing to the environment and people is the first step in becoming sustainable, regenerative, or what Patagonia likes to call a responsible company. This is about creating a culture of honesty, authenticity, and transparency, allowing for the truth to come out and be addressed. Without knowing the problem, there won’t be a solution.
Favor improvements: Once there is a clear company-wide understanding of the impact, the focus can shift towards finding and experimenting with viable solutions in new materials, business models, and partnerships. Patagonia has created a small environmental team to spread knowledge internally and to participate in the evaluation of materials and new suppliers. Their venture fund Tin Shed is bringing in new innovations and technologies to become better.
Share what you learn: Patagonia has a site called Footprint where they share their progress and shortcomings to hold themselves accountable in the eye of the public. They also spend much of their communication on educating customers and have become active in politics and external projects over the past decade. This openness to constantly share what they learn is critical to getting feedback and creating impact. By making their knowledge public, they accelerate progress.
For a longer list of recommendations, read the newly released book The Future of The Responsible Company by Yvon Chouinard and Vincent Stanley.
What’s next for Patagonia?
The activist company Patagonia is following the “Eisenhower Principle”: "Whenever I run into a problem I can't solve, I always make it bigger. I can never solve it by trying to make it smaller, but if I make it big enough, I can begin to see the outlines of a solution.”
That means to identify the big unsustainable problems within the current economic system and create new solutions all the way back to the source of the problem. When in doubt, zoom out, and ask yourself: what is causing long term harm to our planet?
By making earth the only shareholder, Patagonia aligned its purpose with its structure. It’s still a for-profit company which reinvests profits and pays employee bonuses, but the dividends are now going to environmental and social projects.
About 97 percent of the environmental harm is happening in the supply chain so that’s where the focus will be for the foreseeable future. This means making better products that last longer but also revive and restore land and sea.
Future projects in the pipeline at Patagonia:
Stop using newly drilled oil as feedstock for polyester and nylon materials
Switch to regenerative cotton and hemp for all natural-fiber clothes
Make new Patagonia Provisions products that solve problems in the food supply
Build public and political awareness around small-scale farming and fishing
Protect and restore vulnerable, degraded, and critically important land and water
Invest in restoration ecology, reconciliation ecology, and rewilding projects
Support communities most impacted by environmental injustice
Patagonia is expanding their ambition of making better products that last longer from durable, functional, and versatile outdoor clothing doing less environmental harm to actively restoring and regenerating our planet, being The Responsible Company.
Unsustainable is a weekly newsletter for professionals focused on brands that make better products that last longer. If you’re interested in how to live a simpler and sustainable lifestyle, consuming fewer, better things, subscribe to our sister publication Fewer Better Things.
Fantastic first issue, Per. I know the Patagonia story well, and you’ve shed new light it, as well as articulated clear insights and actions. Much appreciated and looking forward to future issues.
I feel like this paragraph really sums up the massive difference between Patagonia and most other organizations:
“When most companies instinctively tries to hide their flaws, Patagonia is openly admitting to any harm they are doing to the environment, knowing that it’s not the end but rather the beginning of an opportunity to improve and share new learnings.”
Cheers! 🍻