The founder of Patagonia has donated the multi-billion-dollar company to fight the climate crisis
While some billionaires are busy indulging in carbon-intensive space races and designing bendy submarines, the founder of outdoor goods shop Patagonia, Yvon Chouinard, has done something truly impressive – he’s given his three billion-dollar company to a trust to fund the fight against climate change.
Hey, friends, we just gave our company to planet Earth. OK, it’s more nuanced than that, but we’re closed today to celebrate this new plan to save our one and only home. We’ll be back online tomorrow.https://t.co/fvRFDgOzVZ
— Patagonia (@patagonia) September 14, 2022
The rock climber and philanthropist had already put environmentalism and employee welfare at the heart of Patagonia’s business model, in case you’d ever wondered if there’s any such thing as a good billionaire. Former billionaire, we should say.
In an open letter, entitled ‘Earth is now our only shareholder’, Chouinard said –
‘Instead of “going public,” you could say we’re “going purpose.” Instead of extracting value from nature and transforming it into wealth for investors, we’ll use the wealth Patagonia creates to protect the source of all wealth.’
The structure devised for this step in Patagonia’s evolution could well become the philanthropical model for businesses aiming to be completely ethical.
Now I know why I spent all that money buying Patagonia kit. https://t.co/LeXovUkQCa
— Feargal Sharkey (@Feargal_Sharkey) September 14, 2022
Good on Patagonia's founder for proving that the only way to be a good billionaire is to stop being a billionaire altogether https://t.co/n4Woox9O9L
— Brian Merchant (@bcmerchant) September 14, 2022
This is incredible. Blessings to Yvon Chouinard and his family. https://t.co/VSpO0OPsG7
— Charlotte Clymer 🏳️⚧️🇺🇦 (@cmclymer) September 14, 2022
Absolutely incredible https://t.co/PC0LXlwceH
— Josh Gad (@joshgad) September 15, 2022
The world really can be different friends https://t.co/N16QUNOObA?
— Amanda Gorman (@TheAmandaGorman) September 14, 2022
Some people wondered how his heirs might view the move.
the Patagonia heirs today pic.twitter.com/MDo6oPW57Y
— Jessica Blankenship (@blanketboat) September 14, 2022
If they’re a chip off the old block, they’re probably cheering him on.
Tiernan Douieb had a hope we all share.
I hope this will trigger a guilty feeling amongst billionaires to do the same but it’s more likely some newspapers will call him a ‘champagne socialist’, complain that outdoor clothing is woke & insist he’s only doing this because his family live on Earth so it’s selfish really https://t.co/0YkyUiMN6J
— Tiernan Douieb (@TiernanDouieb) September 14, 2022
Elon, Jeff, King Charles – the balls are in your courts.
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