Patagonia: The Only Company Making a Difference

OLYMPUS+DIGITAL+CAMERA

@Epicsunwarrior

OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA

Montana Poe, Sports Editor

A half-century after founding the outdoor apparel-maker Patagonia, Yvon Chouinard, is selling Patagonia. Patagonia is an outdoor clothing company that sells outdoor appliances, shoes, and gear for sports. Yvon Chouinard is the founder of the clothing company Patagonia and this last week he sold his entire company. The purpose of selling Patagonia is to help the fight against climate change and now there is enough money to do so. However, selling the company does help the climate and also the business because the profits will go way up. Patagonia will be known as the company that will help our planet’s climate and gives us all more time.

Patagonia was founded in 1973 by Yvon Chouinard and the company helps the people who live in vast forests, natural reserves, and steep mountains. Yvon’s family helped make Patagonia a resource for people who live outside or camp outside. Yvon said, “As we began to witness the extent of global warming and ecological destruction, and our own contribution to it, Patagonia committed to using our company to change the way business was done.” Yvon saw that the problem would not stop until someone did something to help the world one step at a time. So The Chouinards donated 98 percent of Patagonia to a non-profit organization to help fight against climate change happening. The trust, which will be overseen by members of the family and their closest advisers, intends to ensure that Patagonia makes good on its commitments to run a socially responsible business and give away its profits for good.

By giving away the bulk of their assets during their lifetime with Patagonia there will be a new start for Yvon’s family. Yvon’s wife Malinda and their two children, Fletcher and Claire, are both in their 40s and have established themselves among the country’s most charitable families. It states in The New York Times “This family is a way outlier when you consider that most billionaires give only a tiny fraction of their net worth away every year.” Once everyone starts making a difference, we will see a better and brighter future for us and the next generation after us.