{"id":348458,"date":"2022-10-31T13:47:00","date_gmt":"2022-10-31T17:47:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/knightlife.paceacademy.org\/knightlynews\/?p=348458"},"modified":"2022-10-31T11:12:12","modified_gmt":"2022-10-31T15:12:12","slug":"patagonias-next-chapter-founder-gives-away-the-company%ef%bf%bc","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/knightlife.paceacademy.org\/knightlynews\/2022\/10\/31\/patagonias-next-chapter-founder-gives-away-the-company%ef%bf%bc\/","title":{"rendered":"Patagonia’s Next Chapter: Founder Gives Away the Company\ufffc"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

On Sept. 21, Patagonia founder Yvon Chouinard announced that he is giving away his company to combat climate change. Founded in 1973 and valued at $3 billion, Patagonia is now being transferred to a trust and a nonprofit organization. Through a letter posted on the company\u2019s website, Chouinard writes his new plans for the company. \u201cEarth is now our only shareholder,\u201d said Chouinard. \u201c100% of the company\u2019s voting stock transfers to the Patagonia Trust, created to protect the company\u2019s values, and 100% of the nonvoting stock had been given to the Holdfast Collective, a nonprofit dedicated to fighting the environmental crisis and defending nature.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n

This decision to donate the company was made by Chouinard in response to the growing concern for our planet. Patagonia\u2019s missions and values focus on addressing climate issues, and Chouinard wants to elevate the company\u2019s mission by using its wealth as a dividend to help fight the crisis. The entire nonvoting stock (98 percent of the entire stock) is owned by Holdfast Collective, and each year Patagonia\u2019s profits that are not reinvested back into the business will be distributed as a dividend to Holdfast Collective. If the company continues to be successful, it is estimated that it will pay out an annual dividend of $100 million.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Patagonia is now \u201cgoing purpose\u201d and \u201cusing the wealth they create to protect the source of all wealth,\u201d said the letter Chouinard wrote. Patagonia\u2019s actions prior to this new chapter \u201cwas not enough,\u201d wrote Chouinard. The company gave away 1% of sales each year and became a certified B Corp and a California benefit corporation, which writes the company\u2019s values into a corporate charter to ensure that they would be preserved. Chouinard wants to take an extra step toward maintaining the purpose of Patagonia by putting more money into the environmental crisis. To highlight the company\u2019s new direction, Patagonia tweeted, \u201cWe\u2019re closed today to celebrate this new plan to save our one and only home. We\u2019ll be back online tomorrow.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Chouinard\u2019s main focus is oriented around preserving the integrity and mission of Patagonia and to continue responding to environmental issues by altering the company based on what is beneficial for the Earth. To end the letter, Chouinard wrote, \u201cDespite its immensity, the Earth\u2019s resources are not infinite, and it\u2019s clear we\u2019ve exceeded its limits. But it\u2019s also resilient. We can save our planet if we commit to it.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n

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Yvon Chouinard, age 83, writes a letter announcing his decision to give away Patagonia after owning it for 50 years. (PHOTO: Campbell Brewer) <\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

On Sept. 21, Patagonia founder Yvon Chouinard announced that he is giving away his company to combat climate change. Founded in 1973 and valued at $3 billion, Patagonia is now being transferred to a trust and a nonprofit organization. Through a letter posted on the company\u2019s website, Chouinard writes hisContinue Reading<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":475,"featured_media":348460,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[174],"tags":[],"class_list":["entry","author-","post-348458","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-news"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/knightlife.paceacademy.org\/knightlynews\/files\/2022\/09\/Screen-Shot-2022-09-27-at-1.50.01-PM.png?fit=1900%2C1070&ssl=1","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p1TYqQ-1sEi","jetpack-related-posts":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/knightlife.paceacademy.org\/knightlynews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/348458","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/knightlife.paceacademy.org\/knightlynews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/knightlife.paceacademy.org\/knightlynews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/knightlife.paceacademy.org\/knightlynews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/475"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/knightlife.paceacademy.org\/knightlynews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=348458"}],"version-history":[{"count":8,"href":"https:\/\/knightlife.paceacademy.org\/knightlynews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/348458\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":348960,"href":"https:\/\/knightlife.paceacademy.org\/knightlynews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/348458\/revisions\/348960"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/knightlife.paceacademy.org\/knightlynews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/348460"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/knightlife.paceacademy.org\/knightlynews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=348458"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/knightlife.paceacademy.org\/knightlynews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=348458"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/knightlife.paceacademy.org\/knightlynews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=348458"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}