A leading retailer of outdoor gear maps the green road to success
By Dan Swartz
Let My People Go Surfing: The Education of a Reluctant Businessman
By Yvon Chouinard, Penguin Group, 260 pp.
"There is no business to be done on a dead planet." - David Bower
The founder and owner of outdoor-wear company Patagonia, Yvon Chouinard, has authored an interesting and inspiring - if somewhat repetitive - business memoir. Some highlights are genuinely amusing, such as the company's 'Pledge-a-Picket' programme. For every protester outside its stores (opposing Pagatonia's support for Planned Parenthood), the company pledged to give ten dollars to the 'controversial' reproductive health organisation. The boycott quickly collapsed.
As an outdoorsy person, one thing I have never been able to come to terms with is the environmental impact of the equipment I use. Even if my fleece is made from recycled PET bottles, isn't it far better not to make the bottles in the first place? Then again, should the fleece be made from raw materials? If neither option is available, how am I to stay warm? Organic wool and down feather jacket also have huge environmental impacts, even if the sheep and geese are free-range and organically fed.
Man on a mission
I was long aware of Patagonia's touted environmental values, but usually opted for rival outfitters L.L. Bean when in a pinch. At the time, I was still on the fence about my environmental values, mostly because I had massive student loans to consider, and Patagonia's products were a bit more high-end than I could afford. However, as Chouinard describes, Patagonia has been far ahead of the pack from the get-go. Through innovation, research and commitment, Patagonia has been able to make environmentally-friendly outdoor products and clothing more accessible, as well as more affordable. While even Chouinard dismisses 'sustainable manufacturing' as "an oxymoron," the company strives to achieve it nonetheless, and the results are both interesting and inspiring.
Consider the following: 1) Post-sale care and maintenance of clothing causes up to four times the environmental harm as its manufacture. For example, machine drying does more to shorten the life of a piece of clothing than actual wear. So, buy used, don't iron or dry clean, wash in cold water and line dry. 2) Thomas Power of the University of Montana has found that "only 10 to 15 percent of what Americans spend on goods and services is necessary for survival." They spend the other 85 to 90 percent on upgrades in quality. 3) The single greatest use of energy in product lifespan is transport. As a result, Patagonia encourages transport by boat, and discourages next-day service by plane.
Patagonia's mission in part states that its aim to "make the best product, cause no unnecessary harm, and use business to inspire and implement solutions to the environmental crisis... Our bottom line is the amount of good that the business has accomplished over the year...Using business to implement and inspire solutions to the environmental crisis." It claims to measure success by the number of trees not cut, kilograms of pesticides not used, wilderness areas created or preserved.
"It's ok to be eccentric, as long as you are rich," Chouinard writes. "Otherwise you are just crazy." But the 71-year-old climber-entrepreneur has made eccentricity work by tying profits to the quality of products and services, not to the environment. "Having useful products allows you to expand your mission," he explains.
Trailblazing
Following the Socratic maxim that "an unexamined life is not worth living," Patagonia has been a key innovator sustainable manufacturing and corporate social responsibility. It was the first company in the US to start on-site day-care for employees and to provide 60 days paid paternity/maternity leave. Many of its products are reusable and multifunctional, such as its first major product innovation, the reusable and less environmentally intrusive piton. During the 1980s it phased out plastic bags in waste baskets, saving USD 1200 per annum. Each employee is responsible for their own recycling, while special baskets for wet waste are provided at the office. The company also removed coffee cups at the company cafe, saving USD 800 annually, and discontinued styrofoam cups. Reusable cardboard boxes in the mailroom have saved 1,000 dollars a year, and Patagonia has installed compact fluorescent light bulbs, painted the ceilings in reflective colours, added skylights and installed solar panels.
In 1986, Patagonia decided to donate 10 percent of profits each year to small environmental and social NGOs. It also 'tithes' 1 percent of sales or 10 percent of pre-tax profits for environmental causes (whichever is greater), and since 1985, Patagonia has channelled more than USD 38 million to more than 1,000 organisations. In 1988, Patagonia launched its first of many national environmental campaigns, to de-urbanise Yosemite Valley. Since then, it has founded Friends of Ventura River to save salmon and the river; campaigned against GATT, and against GMOs.
In 1996, Patagonia conducted life-cycle analysis of the four major fibres it uses: cotton, wool, polyester and nylon. Cotton had the worst impact. Twenty-five percent of insecticides and 10 percent of the pesticides used annually worldwide are used in cotton production. Even though organic cotton was 50 to 100 percent more expensive, the company switched over a two-year period to 100-percent organic cotton. In addition, Patagonia removed its thermal underwear stock from cardboard and Ziploc bags, and instead rolled them up in a simple rubber band. This simple change not only saved 12 tonnes of packaging and USD 150,000, but sales went up 25 percent because customers could better see and feel the product. The company has also eliminated PVC from its entire product line, save lifejackets.
Finally, Patagonia is a great place to work. Comprehensive health care is provided for all, including part-time employees, and Patagonia provides matching funds for employee donations to environmental/ social groups. Furthermore, employees can leave on two months paid leave to work on an environmental project. Let My People Go Surfing describes in detail the company's job-sharing and flexible-working-hours programme.
Difficult questions
This is a book that has really made me think. As a small business owner whose profile is environmental, I have had to consider many of the same issues as Chouinard. Some issues have to do with environmental impact, such as: Do I use locally produced organic Hungarian milk that's packaged in non-sustainable, multi-layered cartons? Or should I import organic milk from Germany delivered in refillable bottles? Or even more fundamentally, do I serve organic Fair Trade coffee at all, considering its large transport footprint? Moreover, I've had to consider why I'm 'in business' to begin with. What defines quality or a degree of excellence at Treehugger Dan's? Also, if my company has slow growth or no growth, how do I become more efficient each year? Since I'm an environmentalist first and businessman second, I, like Chouinard, have had to learn a great deal to achieve the right sort of balance.
Patagonia's not a perfect company, but at least it's trying with verve and sincerity to achieve perfection, as Yvon Chouinard's entrepreneurial chronicle clearly demonstrates.
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