Patagonia Founder Yvon Chouinard Gives Company Away To Combat Climate Crisis

Outdoor sports apparel company Patagonia is continuing its mission of giving back to environmental causes in a huge way. This move will be much more substantive than just tweeting a photo of a landscape on Earth Day and not much, like many other brands are guilty of.

Yvon Chouinard, a rock climber, philanthropist and entrepreneur who founded the company in the 70s, announced in a statement on the Patagonia website yesterday that he will be giving the company away and transforming it into a nonprofit dedicated to fighting climate change.

He said in his statement that he was proud of what the company has previously done, including committing 1% of sales to environmental causes. However, given the increased number and severity of climate disasters worldwide, their efforts were not enough.”

“We needed to find a way to put more money into fighting the crisis while keeping the company’s business intact,” said Chouinard.

The statement also mentioned that he and his family had considered going public or selling the company, but worried it would cause “too much pressure to create short-term gain at the expense of long-term vitality and responsibility.”

Chouinard also clarified the financial plan in slightly more detail, noting “the money we make after reinvesting the business will be distributed as a dividend to help fight the crisis.”

He also indicated that he and all other shareholders would be relinquishing all of their voting & non-voting stocks into a Trust controlled by the Holdfast Collective.

A Q&A segment described Holdfast as a registered nonprofit whose mission is to “fight the environmental crisis, protect nature and biodiversity, and support thriving communities, as quickly as possible.”

Its nonprofit status means this group has the ability to “advocate for causes and political candidates in addition to making grants and investments in our planet.”