is setting the bar very high as an environmental advocate and sustainable business. Here is their credo: “Our definition of quality includes a mandate for building products and working with processes that cause the least harm to the environment. We evaluate raw materials, invest in innovative technologies, rigorously police our waste and use a portion of our sales to support groups working to make a real difference. We acknowledge that the wild world we love best is disappearing. That is why those of us who work here share a strong commitment to protecting undomesticated lands and waters. We believe in using business to inspire solutions to the environmental crisis.”
This outdoor clothing and gear company donated $29 million to grassroots environmental organizations and participates in countless activities that advocate for the preservation of the planet. All of this is exceedingly commendable, but the way Patagonia has handled itself from a pr standpoint is what really sets an example for other businesses.
Patagonia’s official Web site features “the footprint chronicles,” that map out where certain product materials come from, the pros and cons of their products from an environmental basis, and what the company is doing to improve. For example, Patagonia’s Vitaliti strappy dress’ materials are shipped from the Middle East and Asia and are not recyclable. The chronicles explain, “Because we buy spandex as a commodity we can’t trace its environmental impacts to its sources. Moreover, we can’t recycle products made of cotton/poly blends.” Then, they promise, “Vitaliti is in many ways an environmentally conscious fabric, but it needs to be recyclable. We need to find the supply chain of our spandex to determine its environmental footprint.” There are ten products examined by the chronicles and they are changed each season.
This is the most transparent corporate behavior that lives in a time of greenwashing. If only all businesses were this fearlessly honest.
