‘Earth is now our only shareholder’
Patagonia founder gives away the $3bn company to environmental causes...
A half century after founding the outdoor apparel maker Patagonia, Yvon Chouinard, the eccentric rock climber who became a reluctant billionaire with his unconventional spin on capitalism, has given the company away.
Rather than selling the company or taking it public, Mr. Chouinard, his wife and two adult children have transferred their ownership of Patagonia, valued at about $3 billion, to a specially designed trust and a nonprofit organization. They were created to preserve the company’s independence and ensure that all of its profits — some $100 million a year — are used to fund environmental projects and protect undeveloped land around the globe.
The unusual move comes at a moment of growing scrutiny for billionaires and corporations, whose rhetoric about making the world a better place is often overshadowed by their contributions to the very problems they claim to want to solve.
At the same time, Mr. Chouinard’s relinquishment of the family fortune is in keeping with his longstanding disregard for business norms, and his lifelong love for the environment.
“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,” Mr. Chouinard, 83, said in an exclusive interview. “We are going to give away the maximum amount of money to people who are actively working on saving this planet.”
Patagonia will continue to operate as a private, for-profit corporation based in Ventura, Calif., selling more than $1 billion worth of jackets, hats and ski pants each year. But the Chouinards, who controlled Patagonia until last month, no longer own the company.
In August, the family irrevocably transferred all the company’s voting stock, equivalent to 2 percent of the overall shares, into a newly established entity known as the Patagonia Purpose Trust.
The trust, which will be overseen by members of the family and their closest advisers, is intended to ensure that Patagonia makes good on its commitment to run a socially responsible business and give away its profits. Because the Chouinards donated their shares to a trust, the family will pay about $17.5 million in taxes on the gift.
Hopefully this is not just a way to evade taxation. Maybe, it is a feel-bad move (water resistant clothing is full of dangerous forever chemicals). But this move from destroying the environment to word and help for a thriving environment is truly awesome!
skeptical of any elites’ intentions
His generosity is noble, but this earth is passing away and all of humanity is corrupt and not to be trusted. I hearken back to the timeless words of our loving saviour... (who by the way is coming back and quickly.) put not faith and trust and riches where moth and rust corrupt! This place called earth is just a temporary human truck stop where those who trust in the saviour who purchased our salvation journey on to a mindblowing eternal home, where every moment will forever mindblowing and never a dull moment where no disease, sadness, crime, evil exists. Chew on that.