Billionaires like MacKenzie Scott, Bill Gates, Warren Buffett, Charles Feeney, George Soros and Michael Bloomberg are known to be some of the biggest philanthropists in modern times. But Yvon Chouinard, the billionaire founder of the American outdoor apparel brand Patagonia, has joined the list by pledging his entire company to fight climate change.
Chouinard has transferred the ownership of the company, which earns nearly $100 million in profits according to an NYT report, to a specially-designed trust and a non-government organisation (NGO). The trust and NGO will use the proceeds to fight climate change.
"Earth is now our only shareholder,” wrote Chouinard in a letter. “If we have any hope of a thriving planet — much less a business — it is going to take all of us doing what we can with the resources we have. This is what we can do.”
The 83-year-old’s decision may be surprising in the way it's playing out but for anyone who knows about Patagonia and Chouinard, the question always was ‘how’ and ‘when,’ not ‘if.’
Chouinard made a name for himself in the 1960s as a rock climber, making ascents across mountain ranges in North America. Chouinard’s father was a handyman, mechanic and plumber. With his passion for rock climbing, Chouinard decided to learn blacksmithing to make his own tools and later turned it into a small business, Chouinard Equipment.
In 1973, Chouinard established Patagonia as an apparel maker that could provide rugged clothing for outdoor hobbies like rock climbing. Chouinard had already made a name for himself in rock climbing with his tools company, and Patagonia quickly expanded to other outdoor sports like surfing.
While climate pledges and corporate responsibility are concepts that most companies are only discovering recently, Chouinard’s passion for the environment meant that both his companies always had the environment as their first priority.
“I never wanted to be a businessman,” said Chouinard in his open letter. “As we began to witness the extent of global warming and ecological destruction, and our own contribution to it, Patagonia committed to using our company to change the way business was done.”
Chouinard’s idea was to lead by example. “If we could do the right thing while making enough to pay the bills, we could influence customers and other businesses, and maybe change the system along the way,” he added.
The idea of being a billionaire always rubbed Chouinard the wrong way. “I was in Forbes magazine listed as a billionaire, which really, really pissed me off. I don’t have $1bn in the bank. I don’t drive Lexuses,” the self-proclaimed craftsman told the NYT.
For decades, Chouinard demonstrated that having a successful business doesn’t need to come at the expense of the environment or one’s morals. With his decision to give away his fortune, the mountain-climber-craftsman-environmentalist-philanthropist-businessman highlights that his convictions matter more to him than money.
