Fighting Climate Change: Patagonia Founder Makes Corporate Donation

Patagonia founder Chouinard has transferred his multi-billion dollar apparel company to a charitable foundation. All profits are to go to the fight against climate change – that’s $100 million this year alone.

The founder of the Californian outdoor clothing manufacturer Patagonia, Yvon Chouinard, has transferred his company to a non-profit foundation. The 83-year-old wants to make his assets available for environmental protection – especially for measures to combat climate change.

Accordingly, founder Chouinard and his family gave up control of the company in August. A part of the shares went to a trust company, a much larger one to a newly established foundation called Holdfast Collective. “Earth is now our sole shareholder,” Chouinard wrote in an open letter posted on Patagonia’s website.

“We had to find a way to put more money into fighting this crisis while keeping the company’s values ​​intact,” continued Chouinard. All profits that are not directly reinvested in the company should go to the foundation. According to the New York Times, that’s $100 million this year alone. The family has already donated $50 million to this. “Hopefully this will influence a new form of capitalism that doesn’t end up with a few rich people and a bunch of poor people,” Chouinard told the newspaper.

Estimated value: three billion dollars

Chouinard founded Patagonia almost 50 years ago and has always been mindful of environmental and climate protection when managing the company. For example, the company carefully selects the raw materials it uses based on ecological criteria and donates one percent of sales to environmental organizations every year. According to the New York Times, Patagonia is valued at $3 billion.

Chouinard said he was considering selling the company and donating the proceeds. “But we would not then have been sure that a new owner would have retained our values ​​and continued to employ our team of people around the world.”

With the path chosen, Patagonia remains a commercially oriented company with a board of directors and a managing director. The Chouinard family will no longer receive any money from the company, but will remain represented on the company’s board and oversee the foundation and environmental organization to which profits will be donated.

If you’re to have any hope of a livable planet in the next 50 years, you have to do whatever you can with the resources at your disposal, Chouinard said in the statement. “Earth’s resources are not infinite and it is clear that we have already exceeded their limits.”