Patagonia has decided donate full profits to environmental causes
Today (September 14), the US-based outdoor company Patagonia is forming the Patagonia Purpose Trust and the Holdfast Collective to hold its stock.
All shares of the company’s voting stock will be owned by the Trust. The Trust’s overseers will cast votes to guarantee the corporation lives up to its stated goals to minimising its negative effects on the environment and society.
Meanwhile, the Collective will have sole ownership of all shares with no voting rights. It is being established so that any surplus funds generated by Patagonia that are not earmarked for use within the company or its value chain can be put toward charitable and environmental causes. The preservation of natural resources and the recovery of lost biodiversity are two of Patagonia’s proclaimed focuses.
All told, it is expected that the Collective would funnel around $100 million annually into the projects it backs.
It was during Yvon Chouinard’s tenure as Patagonia’s owner that the company joined the 1% for the Planet project. Twenty years later, the method has been implemented by more than 5,000 businesses. According to Chouinard, Earth is portrayed as the sole shareholder in the corporation because of the decision to go further and establish the Trust and Collective today. Instead of “going public,” he remarked, the corporation was “going purpose.”
He stated, “If we have any hope of a thriving planet 50 years from now, it demands all of us doing all we can with the resources we have. As the business leader I never wanted to be, I am doing my part. Instead of extracting value from nature and transforming it into wealth, we are using the wealth Patagonia creates to protect the source.”
Claire and Fletcher Chouinard will remain with the company and will be in charge of monitoring the Collective’s strategic decisions.
Patagonia board member and marine biologist Dr. Ayana Elizabeth Johnson has argued that in order to solve the climate and natural problems and address social issues, enterprises “can not continue to adhere to the prevailing economic model.” As a result, she has issued a call to action to other businesses, urging them to “step up” and stop creating riches for their shareholders in favour of supporting solutions to humanity’s most pressing problems.