What if We Shopped to Live, Instead of Lived to Shop?
How a tiny mountaineering company turned into the most successful, life-saving business model for the 21st century’s climate crisis
I’ll be the first to admit that during the past few years I have consistently shopped for materialistic luxury goods which brought me a sense of happiness and fulfillment. It was the self-confidence these items brought me as I swanned around campus feeling ‘cool’ that drew me in time and time again. This might be relatable for some of you.
But then I read a book which transformed this self-confidence into an alarming lack of confidence for our planet’s future. It wasn’t just what I learned about our planet’s current crisis that stuck with me. It was the embarrassment that I was only just finding out the true nature of it. The utter naivety of never posing the question:
What is the cost of everything I see around me on a daily basis?
The book I read was Yvon Chouinard’s Let My People Go Surfing which talks about the climate crisis and how Patagonia has grown a successful business whilst also becoming the leading brand in global sustainability.
Before we delve into how Patagonia has formed such a business model, let us first talk a few facts and projections from researchers that turned me from a climate change skeptic into a real worrier for all of our safety on this planet:
- Rising sea levels could increase 20–30 feet. At 20 feet the majority of Florida and around a quarter of New York would be underwater. 145 million people worldwide live 3 feet or less above sea level and 10% of the world’s population lives less than 30 feet from the current sea level. 11 of the 16 megacities (those with 15million people plus) such as Los Angeles and Shanghai are built on coasts.
- The affluence of a global population predicted to be 9 billion by 2053, is increasing by 2.5–3% per year. By 2050, globally we will be at 300–500% above the carrying capacity of our planet to renew itself. As Yvon puts it, ‘You don’t need an MBA to know that’s bankruptcy’.
- Researchers project that at current progression future warming will result in an increase of 2,000 to 10,000 deaths annually in each of 209 US cities.
- The consequences of climate change are projected to eventually lead to a contraction of 30% in the world’s economy.
- Excess hyperthermia deaths in the US are projected to increase by over 700%
- Carbon Emissions are suffocating our atmosphere. Reports from emissions specialists like the Tyndall Center’s Kevin Anderson (as well as others) state that the relentless drive for economic growth created so much excess carbon accumulation in our atmosphere over the past two decades that countries would need to cut their carbon emissions by around 8–10% annually. To put this in perspective, the International Energy Agency has suggested emissions could fall by 8% in 2020, a year which has been scattered with temporary economic lockdowns worldwide.
So that’s just a handful. Pretty bleak right?
Gloomy projections aside for a moment. Enter the importance of business modeling.
A business model is the single most influential internal aspect of how a company contributes to its external environment. The majority of the current worldwide business landscape is filled with modeling and corporate strategy centered around the dated economic goal of prioritizing business growth at all costs. Add to the mix the largest, most powerful governments, such as the US and China, having a shared goal of narrow-minded GDP growth. What does this equate to?
The single biggest threat to humanity in history.
Now let’s talk about Patagonia. Below is a passage from their value section.
‘We begin with the premise that all life on Earth is facing a critical time, during which survivability will be the issue that increasingly dominates public concern. Where survivability is not the issue, the quality of the human experience of life may be, as well the decline in the health of the natural world as reflected in the loss of biodiversity, cultural diversity, and the planet’s life support systems”
“The root cause of this situation include basic values embodied in our economic system, including the values of the corporate world. Primary among problematic corporate values are the primacy of expansion and short-term profit over such other considerations as quality, sustainability, environmental and human health, and successful communities”
“The fundamental goal of this corporation is to operate in such a manner that we are fully aware of the above conditions, and attempt to reorder the hierarchy of corporate values while producing goods that enhance both human and environmental conditions”
The truth is if every business and corporation set out modeling around these key values:
A. I would not be writing this article
B. Neither of us would even know what ‘Climate Change’ is
C. You’d have your 5 minutes back
These values were not drawn up in the past 5 or 10 years when other companies only just started opening their eyes to the environmental damage they have caused. Albeit at a sort of squint. These values were stated by one of Patagonia’s directors Jerry Mander in 1991. Patagonia has since implemented these values into all of their business philosophies to date.
So, if you’re thinking Patagonia talks the talk. How has this shaped their business operations?
Below are some of the interesting ways of how these values have made Patagonia the global leader of sustainable business:
- In 1991, Patagonia began an environmental assessment program to examine the negative externalities their products were having on the environment, which led also to increased profitability.
- Nearly 70 percent of Patagonia’s products are made from recycled materials, including plastic bottles, and the goal is to use 100 percent renewable or recycled materials by 2025.
- Consistently using their power to petition for positive environmental changes, often by challenging harmful government policy. A recent example includes their opposition against Trump’s drilling of the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge.
- Since 1986, the company has contributed at least 1 percent of annual sales to the preservation and restoration of the natural environment.
- They strive to make everything sustainable and durable. By simply keeping clothing in use just 9 extra months, the related carbon, waste, and water footprints are reduced by 20 to 30 percent each, according to the UK based company WRAP.
- In 2002, Chouinard and Craig Mathews created a non-profit organization called 1% for the Planet which is open for all businesses to join. Through this pledge, Patagonia has provided more than $100 million to Grassroot organizations and facilitated in the training and education of thousands of young activists over the past 35 years.
So what is my point?
It’s not the strongest species that survives, nor the most intelligent, but the one most responsive to change — Charles Darwin
I am completely aware that life is not as simple as picking up a pen, drawing a line through your company values, and to copy in Jerry’s values from 1991. The largest globally operated businesses that profit the most from emissions and negative environmental externalities will not just revamp their model and switch their prioritization of profits to the environment.
The point of this article is to draw attention to the leading example of how one global company does it.
Let me rephrase slightly. Not just ‘how’ they do it, but just that they ‘do it’. That’s all that matters. Others doing it too can be the difference between overcoming the climate crisis we are now in.
Taking responsibilities and real actions from values that prioritize the very planet you operate within. From a tiny maker of mountaineering gear to the global leader of sustainability. No sugar coating or marketing facade, Patagonia does it. And so can anyone else. Anyone reading this, who is in a position to influence the modeling of their business, can draw inspiration from this.
Now let me just pause the passionate rant for a second. Aside from all this talk of businesses and modeling. There are two other players crucial in the sustainability game who it is important to also mention: Consumers and Government.
As consumers, we can shop more sustainably. Buy only what you need, as those clothes you have in excess are either thrown out or given to charity. The reality is that only 10–15% of donated clothing is even resold, the rest is thrown away.
Now of course it is a great feeling when we purchase that new luxury pair of jeans or an expensive branded hoody from companies who everyone else loves too. However, the reality of the majority of these high-end luxury brands is that they have a negative environmental impact and thus contribute to the exponentially worsening climate crisis.
Ultimately I cannot tell you what you can and cannot buy, the choice is entirely yours. But as stated above, brands like Patagonia, are an example of the best kind of clothing company to buy from to contribute to a more sustainable planet.
Alongside consumers, we have the government. The most influential and controversial player in the sustainability game and thankfully another, much longer story for a different article. A brief example of their key role is seen from Yvon’s explanation of their impact: if the US were to begin taxing polluters, ending the subsidization of wasteful industries such as oil and industrial agriculture, place levy taxes on all nonrenewable resources, and correspondingly reduce the taxes on income, it would be the biggest step we could make toward becoming a sustainable society.
We as consumers and our governments need to do more. We all shop. Just in vastly different capacities. So let’s try and shop to live. Instead of living to shop.
The focus of this article is to give people inspiration with the best living, breathing example of a company turned community who from day one has a business model for this planet:
‘I knew, after thirty-five years, why I was in business… I wanted to create in Patagonia a model other businesses could look to in their own searches for environmental stewardship and sustainability’ — Yvon Chouinard
In a world full of sheep, perhaps we should follow the crow?
Sources
For more information on Patagonia and their business model, see Yvon’s Chouinard’s book ‘let my people go surfing’
(1) http://www.vice.com/read/what-actually-happens-to-donated-clothes
(2)https://www.healthaffairs.org/do/10.1377/hblog20181218.278288/full/
(4) http://www.wrap.org.uk/content/wrap-reveals-uks-%C2%A330-billion-unused-wardrobe
