Patagonia’s billionaire boss has given the company to a charitable trust to help fight climate change.
Under the new structure, any profit that’s not reinvested into the company will go towards fighting climate change – a figure which is expected to be around £87 million a year.
Yvon Chouinard, the founder of the outdoor clothing brand Patagonia, said: “Despite its immensity, the Earth’s resources are not infinite, and it’s clear we’ve exceeded its limits.
“Instead of extracting value from nature and transforming it into wealth, we are using the wealth Patagonia creates to protect the source.”
Chouinard had considered selling Patagonia and donating the money to charity or, alternatively, he considered taking the company public.
However, he decided against giving up control of the business and said: “Even public companies with good intentions are under too much pressure to create short-term gain at the expense of long-term vitality and responsibility.”
Chouinard’s family leads the Patagonia Purpose Trust, which remains the company’s controlling shareholder but now only owns two per cent of its total stock.
The remaining 98 per cent of the stock is now owned by the Holdfast Collective, which is a charity “dedicated to fighting the environmental crisis”. The Patagonia Purpose Trust will guide the charity’s philanthropy.
But who is the billionaire founder behind the radical business move?
Who is Yvon Chouinard?
Yvon Chouinard, 83, was born on November 9, 1938, in Maine, US.
When he was 14, Chouinard began climbing with the Southern California Falconry Club, sparking a lifelong passion for rock climbing.
As a teenager, he taught himself how to blacksmith and made his own climbing tools, which he started selling to his friends, allowing him to support himself so he could spend time surfing in California.
In 1965, Chouinard partnered with Tom Frost on Chouinard Equipment, which redesigned and improved climbing tools. By 1970, their company was the largest supplier of climbing hardware in the US.
But the apparel company, Patagonia, took off in the 1970s. In 1970, while climbing in Scotland, Chouinard wore a rugby shirt to go rock climbing – the collar stopped the hardware slings from cutting into his neck.
His friends in the US asked where they could buy one so, by 1972, Chouinard began selling clothing items, too, and Patagonia was born.
Since 1985, Patagonia has donated one per cent of sales to grassroots environmental groups in the US and internationally.
In 2013, Patagonia launched Tin Shed Ventures, which funds environmentally and socially responsible start-ups.
Patagonia’s revenue hit $800 million in 2017 and Chouinard is thought to be worth $1.2 billion.
He married his wife, Malinda, in 1971, and they have two children, Claire and Fletcher. The couple live in Ventura, California.
As well as a rock climber, Chouinard is also a surfer, skier, kayaker, gardener, and falconer.
