“Build the best product, do no unnecessary harm, use business to inspire and implement solutions to the environmental crisis.” This is Patagonia’s mission statement, and explains pretty well what they are all about.
The founder of Patagonia is Yvon Chouinard, who began selling climbing equipment he’d created in 1957 through his business Chouinard Equipment. He continued doing this till 1965 when he become partners with Tom Frost in order to improve his products and meet demand.
As well as being renowned for high quality performance outdoor wear, Patagonia has a wide array of benefits for the environment, including their apparel being made using some recycled polyester and only organic cotton. Let’s look at a few of these benefits:
One Percent for the Planet:
Yvon Chouinard was one of the founders of One Percent for the Planet, the idea came from Patagonia’s original policy of giving 1% of all sales to environmental organisations.
The Footprint Chronicles:
The Footprint Chronicles is an interactive page on the Patagonia website that also you to see where their farms, factories and textile mills are on a world map. When you select somewhere it tells you a bit about the facility, how long they’ve worked with Patagonia, number of employees, gender mix, language and what is produced their e.g. organic cotton, upcycled accessories. It gives transparency and allows people to see exactly where Patagonia products have come from!
Common Threads Recycling Programme:
This is where the company and customers have to work together. This programme was launched in 2005 with the aim of making all of their products recyclable. This programme encourages both Patagonia and customers to reduce, reuse, repair and recycle items in order for the programme to work properly. The programme allows customers to bring back any Patagonia item which holds a Common Threads label and put it in a special recycling bin. Patagonia uses the old items to create new items, lowering the amount of virgin fabric they use. They aimed to make all of their clothes recyclable and they achieved this in Autumn 2011.
We’ve discussed only a few ways Patagonia helps the environment as we couldn’t possibly mention them all in one post. What do you think of Patagonia?
Featured: Patagonia Arbor Daypack – 26L, Patagonia Centered Cropped Pants – Navy, Patagonia Cross Back Tank Top – Black, Patagonia Mens Better Sweater Jacket – Navy & Red, Patagonia Mens Torrentshell Pullover – Brown