* . *
  • About
  • Advertise
  • Privacy & Policy
  • Contact
Monday, September 8, 2025
Earth-News
  • Home
  • Business
  • Entertainment
    Monumental Sports & Entertainment Sets Corporate Direction at Nasdaq – PR Newswire

    Monumental Sports & Entertainment Reveals Bold New Corporate Vision at Nasdaq

    The Secret to What Made ‘CarJack’ Work on As the World Turns – yahoo.com

    The Surprising Secret Behind ‘CarJack’s’ Success on As the World Turns

    Victor Garber on his viral “And Just Like That” toilet scene: ‘I was delighted to be doing something ridiculous’ (exclusive) – yahoo.com

    Victor Garber on his viral “And Just Like That” toilet scene: ‘I was delighted to be doing something ridiculous’ (exclusive) – yahoo.com

    Pendulum Announce Homecoming 2026 Australian Tour – yahoo.com

    Pendulum Announces Thrilling Homecoming Tour Across Australia in 2026

    ITV Studios Launches New Entertainment Label – Global Bulletin – IMDb

    ITV Studios Unveils Exciting New Entertainment Label

    TS Entertainment bringing Malibu Jack’s to former Owensboro mall – Lane Report

    TS Entertainment Launches Malibu Jack’s at Former Owensboro Mall Location

  • General
  • Health
  • News

    Cracking the Code: Why China’s Economic Challenges Aren’t Shaking Markets, Unlike America’s” – Bloomberg

    Trump’s Narrow Window to Spread the Truth About Harris

    Trump’s Narrow Window to Spread the Truth About Harris

    Israel-Gaza war live updates: Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh assassinated in Iran, group says

    Israel-Gaza war live updates: Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh assassinated in Iran, group says

    PAP Boss to Niger Delta Youths, Stay Away from the Protest

    PAP Boss to Niger Delta Youths, Stay Away from the Protest

    Court Restricts Protests In Lagos To Freedom, Peace Park

    Court Restricts Protests In Lagos To Freedom, Peace Park

    Fans React to Jazz Jennings’ Inspiring Weight Loss Journey

    Fans React to Jazz Jennings’ Inspiring Weight Loss Journey

    Trending Tags

    • Trump Inauguration
    • United Stated
    • White House
    • Market Stories
    • Election Results
  • Science
  • Sports
  • Technology
    AI will reshape internet, create jobs in West Virginia says High Technology Foundation’s Estep – WV News

    How AI Is Set to Transform the Internet and Boost Job Growth in West Virginia

    Industry partner provides Ferris State Plastics Engineering Technology students with state-of-the-art equipment to gain in-demand skills – Ferris State University

    Industry Partner Equips Ferris State Plastics Engineering Students with Cutting-Edge Technology to Boost In-Demand Skills

    Health Technology Ecosystem – Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services | CMS (.gov)

    Discover the Future of Health Technology: Innovations Revolutionizing Patient Care

    Coherent Joins LLNL’s STARFIRE Diode Technology Working Group to Advance Inertial Fusion Energy – GlobeNewswire

    Coherent Partners with LLNL’s STARFIRE Team to Drive Breakthroughs in Inertial Fusion Energy

    Gene Associated With Deadly Heart Disease in Golden Retrievers Identified – Technology Networks

    Breakthrough Discovery Uncovers Gene Behind Deadly Heart Disease in Golden Retrievers

    Monkey Island LNG Picks ConocoPhillips’ Liquefaction Technology – Hart Energy

    Monkey Island LNG Selects ConocoPhillips’ Advanced Liquefaction Technology for Next-Gen Energy Solutions

    Trending Tags

    • Nintendo Switch
    • CES 2017
    • Playstation 4 Pro
    • Mark Zuckerberg
No Result
View All Result
  • Home
  • Business
  • Entertainment
    Monumental Sports & Entertainment Sets Corporate Direction at Nasdaq – PR Newswire

    Monumental Sports & Entertainment Reveals Bold New Corporate Vision at Nasdaq

    The Secret to What Made ‘CarJack’ Work on As the World Turns – yahoo.com

    The Surprising Secret Behind ‘CarJack’s’ Success on As the World Turns

    Victor Garber on his viral “And Just Like That” toilet scene: ‘I was delighted to be doing something ridiculous’ (exclusive) – yahoo.com

    Victor Garber on his viral “And Just Like That” toilet scene: ‘I was delighted to be doing something ridiculous’ (exclusive) – yahoo.com

    Pendulum Announce Homecoming 2026 Australian Tour – yahoo.com

    Pendulum Announces Thrilling Homecoming Tour Across Australia in 2026

    ITV Studios Launches New Entertainment Label – Global Bulletin – IMDb

    ITV Studios Unveils Exciting New Entertainment Label

    TS Entertainment bringing Malibu Jack’s to former Owensboro mall – Lane Report

    TS Entertainment Launches Malibu Jack’s at Former Owensboro Mall Location

  • General
  • Health
  • News

    Cracking the Code: Why China’s Economic Challenges Aren’t Shaking Markets, Unlike America’s” – Bloomberg

    Trump’s Narrow Window to Spread the Truth About Harris

    Trump’s Narrow Window to Spread the Truth About Harris

    Israel-Gaza war live updates: Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh assassinated in Iran, group says

    Israel-Gaza war live updates: Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh assassinated in Iran, group says

    PAP Boss to Niger Delta Youths, Stay Away from the Protest

    PAP Boss to Niger Delta Youths, Stay Away from the Protest

    Court Restricts Protests In Lagos To Freedom, Peace Park

    Court Restricts Protests In Lagos To Freedom, Peace Park

    Fans React to Jazz Jennings’ Inspiring Weight Loss Journey

    Fans React to Jazz Jennings’ Inspiring Weight Loss Journey

    Trending Tags

    • Trump Inauguration
    • United Stated
    • White House
    • Market Stories
    • Election Results
  • Science
  • Sports
  • Technology
    AI will reshape internet, create jobs in West Virginia says High Technology Foundation’s Estep – WV News

    How AI Is Set to Transform the Internet and Boost Job Growth in West Virginia

    Industry partner provides Ferris State Plastics Engineering Technology students with state-of-the-art equipment to gain in-demand skills – Ferris State University

    Industry Partner Equips Ferris State Plastics Engineering Students with Cutting-Edge Technology to Boost In-Demand Skills

    Health Technology Ecosystem – Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services | CMS (.gov)

    Discover the Future of Health Technology: Innovations Revolutionizing Patient Care

    Coherent Joins LLNL’s STARFIRE Diode Technology Working Group to Advance Inertial Fusion Energy – GlobeNewswire

    Coherent Partners with LLNL’s STARFIRE Team to Drive Breakthroughs in Inertial Fusion Energy

    Gene Associated With Deadly Heart Disease in Golden Retrievers Identified – Technology Networks

    Breakthrough Discovery Uncovers Gene Behind Deadly Heart Disease in Golden Retrievers

    Monkey Island LNG Picks ConocoPhillips’ Liquefaction Technology – Hart Energy

    Monkey Island LNG Selects ConocoPhillips’ Advanced Liquefaction Technology for Next-Gen Energy Solutions

    Trending Tags

    • Nintendo Switch
    • CES 2017
    • Playstation 4 Pro
    • Mark Zuckerberg
No Result
View All Result
Earth-News
No Result
View All Result
Home General

How to Be Like Patagonia: 3 Lessons in Responsible Business

November 13, 2023
in General
Share on FacebookShare on Twitter

Among corporate sustainability professionals, I often hear a behind-the-scenes code phrase: “We’re not Patagonia.” I’m doing the best I can, it implies, but: 

…our business was built on a model that is fundamentally bad for the environment.
…our customers will buy our products regardless of how sustainable they are.
…our impact on nature is far away and indirect.
…paying our workers more would threaten profitability.
…truly engaging with communities is expensive and risky.
…company leadership and investors aren’t bought in.
…pushing any harder could endanger my job.

It’s a catch-all for the reasons a company can’t or won’t transform anything from products to packaging to marketing to supply chains to lobbying. And the number of times I’ve heard variations of it in my 20 years in the field is both a testament to Patagonia’s continued leadership as well as an indication of why businesses are not delivering on sustainability commitments.

Patagonia’s once novel approach to sustainable materials, reducing emissions, prioritizing social good–and style of communicating about it all–is taught in sustainability grad programs everywhere. The company made fleece from plastic soda bottles, starting in 1993. It provocatively launched its ‘Don’t Buy This Jacket’ anti-consumption campaign on Black Friday in 2011. The company targets carbon neutrality by 2025 — and looks beyond that toward taking gross emissions to zero. 

When sustainability professionals shrug, “We’re not Patagonia,” it’s not for lack of Patagonia trying to show them how to be. A new book (released in September), The Future of the Responsible Company: What We’ve Learned from Patagonia’s First 50 Years, by Vincent Stanley with company founder Yvon Chouinard, builds (with 75 percent new content) upon their book The Responsible Company, published in 2012, which laid out their thesis around harm reduction, quality products and worker culture. The refresh, according to the book’s preface, is intended to account for the “dramatic shifts” that “have taken place in the world and at Patagonia” since the original version. 

It expounds on what it means to be responsible to six audiences: owners/shareholders, workers, customers, community, nature and society, with candid examples from Patagonia’s own challenges getting it right. 

With the book’s advice in mind, I spoke with author Vincent Stanley, director of Patagonia philosophy (that’s his real title), about what makes the company different, and why its methods seem so hard for other businesses to emulate. It comes down to three main themes.

“We are the same as every other business in 99% of our needs, our aspirations, our operations. There’s not that much difference.”

Patagonia doesn’t make or sell low-quality products 
It had a head start on this. “One of the things that helped direct our fate,” said Stanley, “was the fact that we came out of building climbing gear.” In that business, customers “are trusting their lives to the quality of what you’re making.” 

Patagonia’s predisposition for high quality, at least in part, led to a high price point. As a result, the company, which remains on the small size of big, with $1.5 billion in annual revenue, can afford to be sustainable: It has both the social license and the capital. 

But it isn’t always easy. Stanley says that the company’s laser-focus on premium quality apparel “mostly came about in a negative way, in which we would discover something that we were doing, or was being done in the supply chain in our name, that we were ashamed of, and that we wanted to change.” Perfluorinated compounds (aka PFAS) are an example. Recently, after a phase-out process that took 15 years, the company announced it’s converting all of its “durable water-repellent membranes and finishes to non-fluorinated alternatives by 2025.”

All that R&D adds costs, and Patagonia’s customers will pay part of that to stay dry. So what if you don’t have that pricing wiggle room? “Being the lowest-cost provider really works against a lot of [what] needs to be done to improve performance,” he acknowledges, while giving due respect to McDonald’s and Walmart for their efforts to change the systems they work within in order to do better.

Patagonia sweats the small stuff and the big stuff 
Toward the end of the book, The Future of the Responsible Company includes a long checklist of what I would deem “small stuff,” from mulching your landscaping to providing low-emission employee transportation options. Many sustainability professionals remain mired in pushing for things like this and never making it to the big, systemic changes — new business models, approaches to energy and water and alternatives to fossil fuels. For that reason, I tend to have little patience for these at-the-margins initiatives. Why does Patagonia spend time on them, and why recommend them to others?  

“You have to look at material impacts,” he acknowledges. “For us, more than 90% of our impact is in the materials that we use. But it makes a difference to our approach to our material use to pay attention to every activity…it keeps you honest, in a way. It also keeps everybody engaged.” He pointed out that Patagonia’s trade show booths are reused for 10 years, and fully recycled at end of life. 

Patagonia doesn’t make excuses
In chapter two, the new book reveals that “Patagonia was meant to be an easy-to-milk cash cow, not a risk-taking, environment-obsessed, navel-gazing company,” but that the founder and staff’s love for the outdoors – and protecting their favorite surf breaks and mountain passes – organically predisposed them to ask questions about environmental impact, like the many downsides of cotton. Their own life transitions — having kids — led to social innovations like onsite daycare. And their interest in transparency was inspired by employees’ curiosity and desire to explain what they were learning. All of these reinforced the company’s positive reputation among those who share its values.

I asked Stanley, “What do you say to those who respond to your recommendations with ‘Well, Patagonia is different. They get to do things differently, and we don’t.’”  

“There’s always a good excuse for falling short,” he said. “I remember when [Patagonia was] very small, and people within the company, when we would be debating on what to do, they’d say, ‘Well, we’re too small a company to do that.’ And then we got to a certain size, and in the same debates, I’d hear, ‘Oh, well, we’re too big a company to do that.’ I would really discourage people from coming up with — or accepting — excuses. There are always things that we can’t do. But it’s not a good habit to get into to say, ‘Oh, well, you know, Patagonia is Patagonia, and they’re a one-off.’ We are the same as every other business [in] 99% of our needs, our aspirations, our operations. There’s not that much difference. So if we can do something— and we’re still in business, and we’re still profitable — I think people might pay attention to that.” 

>>> Read full article>>>
Copyright for syndicated content belongs to the linked Source : GreenBiz – https://www.greenbiz.com/article/how-be-patagonia-3-lessons-responsible-business

Previous Post

How Microsoft and P&G are planning to replenish more water than they use

Next Post

Baird/STR Hotel Stock Index down 2.4% in October

‘It’s time we restore small-town America’: Bancroft Republican announces run for Iowa’s 4th Congressional District – weareiowa.com

‘It’s time we restore small-town America’: Bancroft Republican announces run for Iowa’s 4th Congressional District – weareiowa.com

September 8, 2025
Invasive flathead catfish now top predators in Susquehanna River in Pennsylvania – Phys.org

Invasive Flathead Catfish Rise to Top Predator Status in Pennsylvania’s Susquehanna River

September 8, 2025
Column | Is whole milk better than low-fat? Here’s what the science says. – The Washington Post

Column | Is whole milk better than low-fat? Here’s what the science says. – The Washington Post

September 8, 2025
Ripple will launch their Fall 2025 Watershed Science Field Season following DayOne – Montana Tech

Ripple Launches Exciting Fall 2025 Watershed Science Field Season

September 8, 2025
Cancer risk according to lifestyle risk score trajectories: a population-based cohort study – Nature

Cancer risk according to lifestyle risk score trajectories: a population-based cohort study – Nature

September 8, 2025
AI will reshape internet, create jobs in West Virginia says High Technology Foundation’s Estep – WV News

How AI Is Set to Transform the Internet and Boost Job Growth in West Virginia

September 8, 2025
University of Missouri changes student ticket claim process to lottery – KOMU 8

University of Missouri Launches Exciting New Lottery System for Student Ticket Claims

September 8, 2025
Poland vs Finland: UEFA World Cup Qualifiers stats & head-to-head – BBC

Poland vs Finland: Key Stats and Head-to-Head Showdown in UEFA World Cup Qualifiers

September 8, 2025
Putin Ally Issues Dire Warning About Russian Economy – Newsweek

Putin Ally Issues Stark Warning About Russia’s Economic Future

September 8, 2025
Monumental Sports & Entertainment Sets Corporate Direction at Nasdaq – PR Newswire

Monumental Sports & Entertainment Reveals Bold New Corporate Vision at Nasdaq

September 8, 2025

Categories

Archives

September 2025
MTWTFSS
1234567
891011121314
15161718192021
22232425262728
2930 
« Aug    
Earth-News.info

The Earth News is an independent English-language daily published Website from all around the World News

Browse by Category

  • Business (20,132)
  • Ecology (813)
  • Economy (830)
  • Entertainment (21,708)
  • General (16,922)
  • Health (9,872)
  • Lifestyle (844)
  • News (22,149)
  • People (833)
  • Politics (838)
  • Science (16,040)
  • Sports (21,330)
  • Technology (15,811)
  • World (812)

Recent News

‘It’s time we restore small-town America’: Bancroft Republican announces run for Iowa’s 4th Congressional District – weareiowa.com

‘It’s time we restore small-town America’: Bancroft Republican announces run for Iowa’s 4th Congressional District – weareiowa.com

September 8, 2025
Invasive flathead catfish now top predators in Susquehanna River in Pennsylvania – Phys.org

Invasive Flathead Catfish Rise to Top Predator Status in Pennsylvania’s Susquehanna River

September 8, 2025
  • About
  • Advertise
  • Privacy & Policy
  • Contact

© 2023 earth-news.info

No Result
View All Result

© 2023 earth-news.info

No Result
View All Result

© 2023 earth-news.info

Go to mobile version