Unusual step
Patagonia founder sells company
09/15/2022 02:24 am
In 1973, the passionate climber Yvon Chouinard founded the outdoor label Patagonia. Over the years, the company has developed into a pioneer when it comes to sustainability. The company owner is now handing over his company. In the future, all profits will be invested in environmental protection.
The founder and previous owner of outdoor company Patagonia, Yvon Chouinard, has donated his company to charitable foundations. The 83-year-old wants to make his assets available for environmental protection – especially for measures to combat climate change. “We had to find a way to put more money into fighting this crisis while keeping the company’s values intact,” Chouinard said in a statement on Patagonia’s website.
According to the “New York Times”, Patagonia’s company value amounts to around 3.0 billion dollars (3.01 billion euros). All profits – according to the report about 100 million dollars a year – that are not reinvested in the company are to be used in the future via two foundations created especially for this purpose for the fight against global warming and for nature conservation. “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.
Chouinard founded Patagonia in 1973. In 2002, the company co-founded the “Alliance One Percent for the Planet”. Its members undertake to donate ten percent of their profits to environmental organizations. Since 2011, Patagonia has operated as a so-called Benefit Foundation, a legal status that several US states have introduced. In addition to profit, the companies concerned also have public welfare goals.
“I didn’t know what to do with the company because I never wanted a company,” Chouinard told the New York Times to justify his current move. “I didn’t want to be a businessman. Now I could die tomorrow and the company will do the right thing for the next 50 years and I don’t have to be there anymore.”