Scripting a story for inspiring generations to follow, the billionaire founder of Patagonia Yvon Chouinard has given his entire company to fight the global menace of Climate change.
Transforming his passion for rock climbing into one of the world’s most valued and successful sporting brands, Chouinard moved to give away his company to a uniquely structured trust and non for profit organization that will be using the company’s entire profit into saving the planet.
The company in its move declaration said, “As of now, Earth is our only shareholder, all profits, in perpetuity, will go to our mission to ‘save our home planet’.”
Chouinard, 83 alongside his wife and two children with a pack of lawyers associated with the company created a structured move that will allow Patagonia to function as a profitable entity whose profits will be directed to the environmental benefits only.
Chouinard in a statement said, “If we have any hope of a thriving planet – much less a thriving business – 50 years from now, it is going to take all of us doing what we can with the resources we have.”
In the move, Chouinard’s family donated 2% of all the stock and the authority of decision-making to a trust that from now on will oversee the mission and will lay down the roadmap of the company’s future ahead.
Whereas the rest of the 98% will be handed over to a non for profit entity called Holdfast Collective, which will be using every single penny from the profit to tackle the menace of the environmental crisis, in protecting nature and biodiversity, and support the communities to thrive at the earliest.
Every single year the money that is made by Patagonia after the reinvestment in the business will be distributed to the non for profit entity in fighting the environmental crisis.
The statement that details the move from Chouinard and his family tells, that the structure was designed to avoid selling the company or taking it public, which might have meant a change in the values of the brand.
“Instead of ‘going public’, you could say we’re ‘going purpose’,” said Chouinard. “Instead of extracting value from nature and transforming it into wealth for investors, we’ll use the wealth Patagonia creates to protect the source of all wealth.”
The emphasis on its move was made by Chouinard in leveling earth as their only shareholder. Chouinard and Patagonia have long been groundbreakers in environmental activism and employee benefits.
It was during the 1980s when for the first time the company began donating 1% of its sales to environmental groups, a program that was formalized in 2001. The initiative resulted in a total donation of a whopping $140 million for the preservation and restoration of the natural environment.
Patagonia also holds the tag of being one of the earliest companies to become a b-corp, submitting to certification as meeting environmental and social standards.
Recently in its ground-breaking move, the company changed its motto and mission to: “We’re in business to save our home planet.”
The journey of the founder of Patagonia began with the business of fashioning metal climbing pitons (or spikes to wedge into cracks while rock climbing).
During the public interaction, he said, “I was in Forbes magazine listed as a billionaire, which really, really pissed me off, I don’t have $1bn in the bank. I don’t drive Lexuses.”
The Chouinards are among the frontrunner in charity, philanthropy, and working for the trust, as has been seen by several American media reports.