Sustainable Living: Patagonia's push for a better business

I have been wearing Patagonia winter clothes since before I could walk. My mother would bundle me up in snow pants, sweaters, and polar fleeces before letting me out into the January snow drifts to play until my nose was running and I couldn't feel my toes. If I'm honest I grew up in a family that runs on Patagonia polar fleece, sporting them for hikes across the Adirondack mountains, paddles through the cold lakes, and walks through the Chester County countryside. Even the shirt shown above has lived a long full life, with many more years left in it as far as I can see. I purchased that shirt when I was 16 on a family trip to Oregon, I wanted a long sleeve top that made me look rugged and outdoorsy. Now it finds its most use as a studio shirt, holding off the blustery AC while working through the night.  Even now I wear it as an easy and comfortable over shirt while I sit at my kitchen table. Had I known that a $40 shirt would last me 5 years while looking brand new I might have bought two, but instead I will wear this shirt until it is too bedraggled to be used any longer. Then I will carefully send it back to Patagonia, making use of the Closed Loop system they have proudly put into place.

Patagonia has jumped into sustainable business practices with gusto, implementing their Closed Loop system, using organic materials, fair labor, and continuing to change their practices as they learn of more sustainable options. Founder Yvon Chouinard has said "Living the examined life is a pain in the ass.” Indeed, as Patagonia began to examine their business practices in 1996 they also began their journey into becoming a Responsible Company through realizations of their global impact. After employees began to complain of headaches in 1988 they switched to all organic cotton by 1996, thus removing harmful pesticides from their supply chain. From there the company moved on to examine their entire supply chain, creating a public access Footprint Chronicles allowing consumers to see the overall impact and life cycle of the products they consume. As they worked through the supply chain they also partnered with a responsibility specialist to insure anyone who constructed a Patagonia product received fair pay and benefits. Soon they were examining all aspects of their business, from where they were spending energy, to how much paper they used in catalogs and the recycled content in all of their products.

But even with this herculean effort to create a more responsible and sustainable company Patagonia feels it still has a long way to go. Their official page on sustainable business practices ends with a statement that both admits guilt and looks forward in a hopeful light. "In the end, Patagonia may never be completely responsible. We have a long way to go and we don’t have a map – but we do have a way to read the terrain and to take the next step, and then the next." With far reaching plans to improve their sustainability efforts in the coming years Patagonia has shown both initiative and success in their growing principles, with the company profit showing gains in a time when other large retailers are floundering. That success led to their 1% for the Planet initiative, donating 1% of their total sales to organizations focused on environmental conservation. In 2013 alone they donated $5,602,433 to 773 non profits across the globe. 

Okay, so Patagonia is sustainable, responsible, and dedicated, why should you care? Well as a consumer it means quite a lot. Companies like Patagonia can only take these steps if they are assured their profits will not suffer for these choices. Profit will always be the most important deciding factor in a business, no matter how responsible they may be. By consciously choosing to be clients of sustainable companies you send a strong message that you are taking that factor into consideration when deciding where to spend your money. "Green" marketing is quickly becoming one of the most common deciding factors among consumers, as more and more people are accepting their role in protecting the planet. I will 100% of the time choose the more "green" option if the pricing is comparable to the other non green options. I see this as my little vote, a hint to companies that sustainable products are more profitable than the other options. And while I understand that I alone mean nothing to a company I also recognize that the number of people casting their seemingly arbitrary vote in the grocery store or mall is growing and that together we have a very powerful voice. Because at the end of the day, it doesn't matter if the company is owned by the staunchest climate change denier on the planet; if they're losing business to more sustainable companies and can pin point that that is why they are losing the business, they will move mountains to jump on that green band wagon. 

I will admit, I was going to be a life-long Patagonia consumer even if they weren't the most sustainable outdoor wear I could find. It's comfortable, familiar, and if we're being honest very well made. But the fact that a company dedicated to creating clothing that allows us to explore and enjoy this planet has also dedicated themselves to protecting it just feels right. It's almost a no brainer, if they contribute to the destruction of our wilderness how will they profit from the wanderlust of those who seek to explore? I occasionally feel that this shirt deserves more than just late nights in a studio. I should climb an Alp, raft down the Colorado River, descend a rocky cliff. But at the end of the day this is my reality, and thus it's nice to have a shirt that both works and gives me that tiny little "feel good spark" when I think of the care that went to making sure this piece of cloth will not harm this big beautiful planet. For after all, if your favorite long sleeve tee can't give you the warm and fuzzies, is it really worth wearing?