Patagonia the Poster Company of Environmental Change
Most people view Patagonia as just another high-end outdoor clothing brand, but they are much more than that, they are an agent of environmental change. To most people when they think of Patagonia they think of the classic fleece that the company makes. However the brand should be thought of as more than that because they are such an environmentally accomplished company.
The things — such as programs, donations, etc. — that Patagonia does for the environment actually make an impact and that is why they are such an important company in the in the world today. One of their first big “impacts” started in 1985 when they started donating 10% of profits or 1% of sales — whichever was greater — to grassroots groups all around the world. From then on the company has been doing it every year. Then in 2016 they donated all the sales from Black Friday to grassroots groups. When Patagonia makes these donations it is to many different grassroots groups because they believe it is better to donate a little to multiple groups instead of all the profits to just one.
The next step the company took in becoming an agent of environmental change was to tackle the issue of non-organic cotton. Patagonia had researched the topic and found that the working conditions were harmful to their workers and that run-off of the chemicals being used during the farming of this non-organic cotton created problems elsewhere. So in 1994 they decided to have all their products be made with organic cotton by the beginning of 1996. They achieved this goal and have been using organic cotton ever since.
What is the next step for a company that cares about the environment? To make their products Fair Trade Certified, they started this in 2014. What this means is that the workers get to work in an environment that is safe and they get living wages — so enough money for housing, food, healthcare, and a little bit of disposable income. With this they were spreading their goal of making the conditions their workers are in livable, which they started in 1996 when they switched over to organic cotton. Being Fair Trade Certified is a little tougher to do. But since 2014 they have made great efforts and succeeded in expanding the certification to many of their workers.
One of their biggest and most recent successes was with national parks. Since 2012 Patagonia had been lobbying for President Obama to sign off on protecting 1.35 million acres of public lands. On December 28, 2016 their wish came true and Obama signed off on protecting the land. This success however was threatened under the newly elected president, Trump. The new president wanted to destroy natural space without any real reasons and Patagonia took a strong stance against Trump. Luckily he has not succeeded so far in destroying our beautiful natural lands.
“Build the best product, cause no unnecessary harm, use business to inspire and implement solutions to the environmental crisis”. That is Patagonia’s mission, this mission displays just how deeply they care about the environment. The company is constantly trying to be better than it was, it seems as though they never stop. If you were to go onto their website and look at all the programs and organizations that they are involved with it might surprise you. I know it surprised me. The projects that I mentioned here are only the tip of the iceberg when it comes to Patagonia’s involvement with the environment.
Environmental issues are not emphasized enough for how important they are, issues like climate change and environmental education. That’s why companies and people like Patagonia are so important to the future of the Earth. Since in our current society there are so many companies and people that either don’t care about the environment or don’t know enough about the situation to care. The situation being that we have been neglecting the health of this planet that we call “home”. If we continue to neglect it we eventually won’t have somewhere to call “home” because it will be gone.
