Patagonia founder Yvon Chouinard says, “Every time we’ve made a decision to do the right thing it ended up being good business.”
In 2011 Patagonia posted $500 million in sales. The Ventura, California-based outdoor apparel company has grown close to 30% for the past two years running while simultaneously setting the highest possible standards for sustainability.
Here are some of the practices Patagonia has instituted to make it one of the most successful and innovative companies around:
• Common Threads Initiative: About 24,000 individuals have taken a pledge to actually buy less, and when they do buy, to make their purchases of used goods. Patagonia has teamed up with eBay to make it as easy as possible for people to adhere to this pledge, and then buy and sell their gear from each other. So far their customers have resold Patagonia items for about $500,000.
“Smart consumption is built around resource conservation,” says Rick Ridgeway, VP of environmental initiatives.
• Sustainable Apparel Coalition: Patagonia organized thirty global apparel companies, including Walmart and Nike, to join together and set sustainability best practices.
• Music Collective: Artists can donate unreleased tracks of their music with the net profits given to the artist’s favorite environmental charities.
• Provisions: Organized to focus on sustainable fishing, Patagonia will inaugurate an organic wild-salmon jerky this coming year.
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