When Yvon Chouinard and his team started Patagonia Inc., they were looking for a cash cow. The company he had already built selling specialist mountain-climbing gear, Chouinard Equipment Ltd., had been struggling financially and needed something to support it.
And he stresses that their efforts did not make them a sustainable company: “No human economic activity is sustainable. We believe we have no right to apply that word to our business activity until work does not interfere with nature’s capacity to regenerate itself and support a rich variety of life.”
The triple bottom line is often cited as a standard of responsibility, recognizing the social, environmental and economic aspects of a company. But while profit is easy to measure, the nonfinancial components lack rigour and a universal standard. Mr. Stanley recommends the B Impact Assessment tool, used to evaluate for-profit companies like Patagonia that want to recognize obligations beyond the shareholders.
Still, Jon Miller and Lucy Parker, who advise those executives on responding to critical social issues, believe corporate leaders must become activists. They have seen it happen with people they work with, who move from “somebody should be doing something about these societal issues” to deciding they will.