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“Our current system of extractive capitalism is preventing the transformation required of us,” environmental activist Ayana Young once said on her podcast, For the Wild. “We need to rewire ourselves as a species and change the economic system that is destroying nature and producing escalating inequalities.”
Patagonia founder Yvon Chouinard shares this belief, and it has driven many of the decisions he has made as head of the outdoor apparel company. The fierce environmentalist is committed to protecting the natural world.
Led by his passion, Patagonia has long been on the forefront of efforts to protect the environment. It became one of the first companies to use renewable energy and print catalogs on recycled paper. It later started using organic cotton. And as the climate crisis has worsened, the California-based company’s commitment to protecting the environment has deepened.
In 2002, it established 1% for the Planet, a global network of businesses and individuals committed to donating at least 1% of their annual revenue to environmental causes.
In 2018, Patagonia adopted a new mission statement: “We’re in business to save our home planet.” Four years later, Chouinard followed through on that statement by changing the company’s business model, transferring ownership of the company to the Patagonia Purpose Trust, which protects the company’s values, and the nonprofit Holdfast Collective, which uses the company’s profits to fight the environmental crisis.
Patagonia engages customers in activism by helping them find ways to contribute nationally and in their own communities, including Patagonia Action Works, the digital platform connecting individuals with environmental grassroots organizations.
This platform, along with the new ownership model, partners with like-minded companies, and other initiatives it oversees are aimed at empowering all of us to do what we can to protect the environment and save the future.
“It’s been a half-century since we began our experiment in responsible business,” Chouinard said in 2023. “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.”
Many people want to help, but it’s easy to feel overwhelmed. The news cycle is filled with coverage of threats to just about everything we hold dear, making it easy for concerned individuals to lose sight of environmental initiatives.
On Patagonia Action Works, you can enter your zip code and the issues you’re most passionate about, and connect with vetted organizations you can donate to and petitions you can sign. The platform can also help identify volunteer opportunities and events in your area to attend in person and virtually.
How They Do It
Growing threats to the Grand Canyon, including uranium mining, proposed land developments, and natural water management, prompted a group of river runners to invite prominent environmental activist Huey Johnson on a rafting trip in 1983. They discussed their concerns during the outing and it made a big impression on him. Two years later, he helped establish the Grand Canyon Trust.
Since its inception, the organization has undertaken many initiatives to protect the region. It advocates for better water policies and leads one of the country’s biggest forest restoration projects. In 2004, the Trust helped a campaign that led to the removal of 16 million tons of radioactive waste from the Colorado River, all while making a concerted effort to support the rights of Native peoples by amplifying their voices and promoting environmental and social justice issues.
Patagonia Action Works has helped the Trust reach a larger audience. In 2018, the program launched an email campaign to raise awareness of the Trust’s efforts to defend the canyon from uranium mining. That led to almost 1,000 new petition signatures in one week, from supporters in more than 40 states and three countries. Later that year, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that the Grand Canyon mining ban should remain in place.
“We operate as leanly as possible,” said the Trust’s communications director, Ashley Davidson. “We only very rarely boost our content online, so Patagonia Action Works has…allowed us to reach new and much larger audiences while keeping our dollars in program work for maximum impact.”
Patagonia Action Works has also helped people like you connect with environmental organizations that will immediately benefit from your time and skills. There are endless volunteer opportunities, from an afternoon of physical labor, like removing trash or debris from a river or planting trees, to specific skill sets and jobs that need to get done. Maybe you can help with marketing, graphic design, event planning, educational outreach, or social media, or provide legal counsel. Any skill you have can be matched with an organization that needs you. And giving your time means an organization can direct their funds and resources strategically for maximum impact.
How They Do It
In 1996, officials from Yellowstone National Park and the Montana Department of Livestock slaughtered almost 1,100 wild bison that had migrated outside the park in search of food during a harsh winter. Rosalie Little Thunder, a Lakota activist, and videographer Mike Mease responded to the decimation by establishing the Buffalo Field Campaign. Its mission is to stop the harassment and slaughter of Yellowstone’s wild bison, protect their habitat, and work with Indigenous Americans to honor the animals’ cultural and spiritual importance.
Patagonia has supported the Buffalo Field Campaign from the outset. Since then, the Campaign has used Patagonia Action Works to find skilled and passionate volunteers to help protect Yellowstone’s wild bison. In 2008, efforts by Patagonia and volunteers led to an initiative in which Montana residents could register their vehicles with license plates that read, “Montana, Let Buffalo Roam.” A portion of the fees supported the Campaign. In 2018, the Campaign used the platform to recruit volunteers to create two new billboards, an educational slideshow, and several new graphic designs for its campaigns.
To better protect the natural world, Patagonia has worked with many organizations including those that have joined the 1% for the Planet network and the Conservation Alliance, whose mission is to fund and advocate for the protection of wild places and outdoor spaces in North America.
If you own a business (or have any influence over your boss), a great way to join the fight is to become a 1% for the Planet member. By giving this small percentage to local environmental groups, which Patagonia has been doing on its own since 1985, you can give back in a meaningful way.
How They Do It
“I look at our philanthropy not as not charity but as the cost of doing business,” Yvon Chouinard says in the book Dirtbag Billionaire, a new biography of Chouinard and the company he founded. Indeed, Patagonia has given millions of dollars to environmental causes and has helped other companies make contributions, too.
In 1989, it co-founded the Conservation Alliance with REI, The North Face, and Kelty. The alliance, which includes more than 200 companies, collects annual dues from its members, and 100% of those funds are granted to grassroots nonprofit organizations working to protect threatened habitats and outdoor recreation. It has given about $34.5 million to more than 317 organizations since it was founded. That money has helped protect 124 million acres and 4,964 river miles, remove or halt 43 dams, purchase 22 climbing areas, and designate five marine reserves and one national marine sanctuary.
Last year, Patagonia launched the Home Planet Fund, an independent nonprofit organization that supports Indigenous and local communities on the frontlines of the climate crisis. Those communities use the funds to implement nature-based solutions to protect the climate and biodiversity. Established with $20 million in seed funding, Patagonia’s single largest donation, the fund has five grant-giving programs that serve and protect 1% of the planet’s land and waters.
It is easy to feel political fatigue these days, but becoming politically active and supporting candidates who are committed to protecting the natural world could energize you. The Vote the Environment initiative does just that, encouraging voters to prioritize environmental issues. Other initiatives have included giving employees paid time off to vote and canvas.
Environmentalists have always staged protests to oppose destructive projects and have mounted legal challenges to hold politicians accountable. And Patagonia has been right by their side.
How They Do It
In 2017, Patagonia made national news when, alongside a coalition of Native American and grassroots groups, it sued President Donald Trump for ordering Utah’s Bears Ears and Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monuments significantly reduced. Only hours after the announcement, Patagonia had changed its homepage to a single sentence: “The President Stole Your Land.” The fight has continued since then because national parks and federal lands continue to be threatened by the Trump administration, with massive budget cuts and layoffs to the National Park System currently in progress.
The Holdfast Collective, because of its 501(c)(4) tax status, can make politically oriented contributions. Last year, it gave half a million dollars to a group working to protect a California law that restricts new oil and gas operations near residential areas.
Heading into the 2020 elections, Patagonia included the phrase “Vote the Assholes Out” on the label for the company’s Road to Regenerative Standup shorts. The reference was to candidates who deny that climate change is real. Images of the label made the rounds on social media, a reminder that voting our values remains one of the biggest ways we can affect change.
Since 2017, the Trump administration has been responsible for dozens of regulatory and executive actions aimed at opening more national lands and waters to commercial development and fossil fuel extraction.
For example, the administration has taken steps to rescind the 2001 Roadless Rule, which has protected nearly 60 million acres of national forests from logging and road construction. These areas are now vulnerable to commercial timber harvesting.
The government’s retreat from protecting wild lands has made initiatives spearheaded by environmental groups and activists more important than ever.
If you’re looking for somewhere to start, Patagonia Action Works has an interactive map to find environmental groups that focus on land, water, biodiversity, and other areas. Use the map to find an organization whose work inspires you.
How They Do It
Environmentalists sounded the alarm in 2019, when an Alabama-based mining company proposed a large titanium dioxide mine on Trail Ridge, an area on the border of the Okefenokee Swamp. The swamp, in the southeastern corner of Georgia, provides a habitat for threatened and endangered species such as red-cockaded woodpeckers, indigo snakes, and many others. It is renowned for its amphibian populations.
The Holdfast Collective, with a minimal staff to ensure that as much of the money as possible goes directly to environmental causes, stepped in to help. It contributed $2 million to a $60 million land purchase aimed at halting the project. The purchase, led by the Conservation Fund, secured roughly 8,000 acres of land from the mining company, staving off a possible environmental disaster.
“This step toward protecting the Okefenokee Swamp is great news for all Georgians and our beloved natural treasure,” U.S. Sen. Jon Ossoff said. “For years, I’ve been sounding the alarm that strip mining near the Okefenokee Swamp poses irreversible damage to an irreplaceable natural resource.”
A Work In Progress
As the climate crisis worsens, businesses are well positioned to make a difference by supporting grassroots initiatives. Patagonia has gone one step further by committing to helping individuals find ways to support these initiatives, too. As Patagonia’s impact report makes clear, the company is as committed to the environment as it is to generating profit from sales of outdoor apparel and gear.
Yvon Chouinard’s rationale is clear. “Without a stable climate and natural resources,” he once said, “there can be no stable market for customers, no assets to employ workers, and ultimately, no sustainable business to generate profit for shareholders.”
