Patagonia founder Yvon Chouinard announced yesterday that he’s given away the $3 billion company to a charitable trust and environmental non-profit, to widespread praise.
“We've been talking about a new form of conscious capitalism for years, led by leaders like Whole Foods Market founder John Mackey, but this is a very significant signal to industry towards that direction,” says Lewis Perkins, president of the Apparel Impact Institute, which recently announced a $250 million climate fund aimed at decarbonizing the fashion supply chain.
The Holdfast Collective owns the company’s non-voting stock and will “use every dollar received from Patagonia to protect nature and biodiversity, support thriving communities and fight the environmental crisis”. This means all the profits not reinvested back into the business will be distributed as an annual dividend to help fight the climate crisis, with a projected value of roughly $100 million.
While there’s plenty of applause, there are also questions about whether the move will shift anything about how other brands or the industry more broadly operate.