Patagonia Founder Gives Away Entire Company To Fight Climate Change

Topline

Patagonia founder Yvon Chouinard and his family—who made a 10-figure fortune from his outdoor outfitter empire—have relinquished their ownership of the 49-year-old company, transferring it to trusts and nonprofit organizations and pledging Wednesday to redirect Patagonia’s future profits toward fighting climate change.

Patagonia founder Yvon Chouinard is photographed in Ventura, where he once forged pitons for … [+] mountaineers.

Los Angeles Times via Getty Images

Key Facts

All of the company’s nonvoting shares—or 98% of total shares—are now owned by a new organization called the Holdfast Collective, a 501(c)(4) that Patagonia says will use every dollar not reinvested into the company to support nature and biodiversity and to “fight the environmental crisis” (Patagonia has already donated $50 million).

The company’s voting shares are now owned by the Patagonia Purpose Trust, another new entity the company says will “enshrine Patagonia’s purpose and values” and “demonstrate as a for-profit business that capitalism can work for the planet.”

Depending on Patagonia’s performance, the company projects it could pay out to the Holdfast Collective an annual dividend of about $100 million—the organization hasn’t specified how it plans on using the money.

Chouinard wrote in an open letter that he considered selling the company and donating the proceeds or even going public, but he decided to transfer its ownership to keep the company’s workers employed and maintain Patagonia’s values.

Ryan Gellert will stay on as chief executive, and the Chouinard family will continue to sit on Patagonia’s board, the company said.

Terry Kellog, Yvon Chouinard and Tom Brokaw attends 1% for The Planet Fete Major Environmental … [+] Accomplishments cocktail party on February 11, 2009 in New York City.

Getty Images

Crucial Quote

“Hopefully this will influence a new form of capitalism that doesn’t end up with a few rich people and a bunch of poor people,” Chouinard told the New York Times, which first reported the news. “We are going to give away the maximum amount of money to people who are actively working on saving this planet.”

Forbes Valuation

We estimated Chouinard to be worth $1.2 billion before he relinquished control of the company. He is no longer a billionaire.

Surprising Fact

The Chouinard family’s decision to give up the company was partly set in motion when Forbes listed Chouinard as a billionaire, he told the New York Times. His inclusion on the list “really pissed me off,” he said, because he didn’t have $1 billion in the bank and doesn’t “drive Lexuses.” Forbes first included Chouinard in its lists in 2017 based on the value of Patagonia, not the cash in his bank account.

Key Background

Chouinard, who founded Patagonia in 1973, is a longtime environmentalist, and for years his company has donated 1% of sales to grassroots activists. The company was one of a handful that continued to pay employees amid Covid-19 store closures, and in 2018 Patagonia donated an additional $10 million to organizations fighting climate change, a sum it said it saved after former President Donald Trump lowered the corporate tax rate, which the company called “irresponsible.” Last year, Patagonia announced the company would stop selling its popular vests with corporate logos because their inclusion in a design “reduces the life span of a garment, often by a lot, for trivial reasons.” In 2011, Patagonia ran a Black Friday ad in the New York Times asking customers not to buy its products, and to instead reuse or repair items they already own.