Patagonia family give all their shares to Climate change foundation

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jimbob
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Patagonia family give all their shares to Climate change foundation

Post by jimbob » Wed Sep 14, 2022 9:19 pm

https://www.nytimes.com/2022/09/14/clim ... qma25l8yGc

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 combat climate change and protect undeveloped land around the globe.
Have you considered stupidity as an explanation

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bjn
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Re: Patagonia family give all their shares to Climate change foundation

Post by bjn » Thu Sep 15, 2022 3:30 am

Well then, if I have to buy any outdoor gear I know who I’m buying it from.

IvanV
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Re: Patagonia family give all their shares to Climate change foundation

Post by IvanV » Thu Sep 15, 2022 8:42 am

Curiously, it was not Yvon Chouinard founder of Patagonia, but Douglas Tompkins, founder of North Face, who controversially purchased about 3,000 sq km of Chilean Patagonia to protect it from development. He has also bought around 500 sq km in adjacent Argentinean Patagonia, though with an ultimate aim of expanding it to 20 times that area. These areas have been, or will be eventually, donated to the relevant national park administrations, after conservation work and other arrangements for their long-term preservation.

These purchases were controversial with the local populations in each case. They felt upset about sovereignty that some foreigner had bought a large area of land and then prevented what was going on there. I don't know if it was Tompkins or someone else, but when I was in the Esquel area of Argentinean Patagonia, around 25 years ago, I was made aware of the purchase by a foreigner of a large estate in the area, up to then used for cattle-running and forestry, and stopped those activities to being rewilding it. This immediately resulted in the loss of local jobs, as his conservation activities required far less labour than the former agricultural and forestry activities. 25 years later, there is now some up-market tourism activities in the Esquel area, based on "private reserves". So possibly eventually this kind of activity has eventually enabled a new kind of employment, though I don't know how it compares to what was lost, and what specific pieces of land this refers.

So we can say that rewilding is great. And one would feel especially suitable in an area like Patagonia where huge areas of wilderness have been and continue to be lost, with a very scanty local population, who you think could leave rather more of the land to nature. But let us not forget that it needs to be done in a way consistent with the reasonable needs of the local population, who can find themselves out of jobs.

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Bird on a Fire
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Re: Patagonia family give all their shares to Climate change foundation

Post by Bird on a Fire » Thu Sep 15, 2022 8:53 am

I saw a presentation about a decade ago at the Birdfair at Rutland Water, about a partnership between Patagonia and the World Land Trust, who buy up huge areas of threatened habitat to be managed sustainably by locals https://www.worldlandtrust.org/

Good to hear that they seem to be genuinely good people, and yes I'll keep them in mind when I come to replace my knackered field gear.
We have the right to a clean, healthy, sustainable environment.

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Re: Patagonia family give all their shares to Climate change foundation

Post by TopBadger » Thu Sep 15, 2022 9:00 am

I had some Patagonia walking shoes years ago - they were brilliant... and I need some new walking shoes... so I think I know where I'll be buying.
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