Patagonia’s Owner Has Given Away His Company—Proving Fashion Can Be a Force for Good

glamour.com:

.“It’s been a half-century since we began our experiment,” Chouinard, 83, said in a statement. “If we have any hope of a thriving planet 50 years from now, it demands all of us doing all we can with the resources we have.

As the business leader I never wanted to be, I am doing my part. Instead of extracting value from nature and transforming it into wealth, we are using the wealth Patagonia creates to protect the source.

We’re making Earth our only shareholder. I am dead serious about saving this planet.”Chouinard and his family have handed 98 percent of their shares to a newly-created non-profit, named the Holdfast Collective, which will now receive an estimated $100 million a year—comprising all the profits from Patagonia that aren’t invested back into the company.

The remaining two percent of their shares have been transferred to a trust, which is designed to ensure the company is staying true to its purpose and values.The outdoors company, which achieved B-Corp status back in 2012, will continue to donate one percent of all its sales every year to grassroot activists.