By Yvon Chouinard



I don’t like to think of myself as a businessman. I’ve made no secret that I hold a fairly skeptical view of the business world. That said, Patagonia, the company my wife and I founded four decades ago, has grown up to be — by global standards — a medium-size business. And that bestows on our family a serious responsibility. The last line of Patagonia’s mission statement is “… use business to inspire and implement solutions to the environmental crisis.” We’ve always taken that seriously.

Three examples: Every year for 30 years, Patagonia has donated one percent of its sales to grassroots environmental organizations. We helped initiate the Sustainable Apparel Coalition, an organization of companies that produces more than a third of the clothing and footwear on the planet. In a very short time, the Coalition has launched an index of social and environmental performance that designers (and eventually consumers) can use to make better decisions when developing products or choosing materials. And last year we became one of California’s first B Corps (benefit corporations), which means that the values that helped make our company successful are now etched into our legal charter.

Now is the time for Patagonia to take the next logical step: to reach out beyond the framework of the apparel and outdoor industries. Today, my family and I are happy to launch $20 Million & Change, an internal fund to help like-minded, responsible start-up companies bring about positive benefit to the environment.

With the launch of this fund, we have reorganized Patagonia and our other businesses within a new holding company called Patagonia Works. While most holding companies are about diversification, Patagonia Works is dedicated to a single cause: using business to help solve the environmental crisis. Rose Marcario, who has been COO and CFO of Patagonia’s apparel company, will now take on a new role as President and CEO of Patagonia Works. Rose has been instrumental in tripling profits for our company. We now want to apply her business acumen and keen sense of social and environmental responsibility to new companies in five critical areas: clothing, yes, but also food, water, energy and waste. Rose has been responsible for the launch of Patagonia Provisions, which will soon expand beyond our Wild Salmon Jerky (wild-caught in natal waters by First Nations tribes) to other foods that, like our jerky, are more thoughtfully sourced. The food business is, as much as the apparel or energy industries, environmentally broken. It takes more from the planet than it gives back. We aim to find ways to get what we want to eat by working with nature rather than against it. 

Casey Sheahan will continue to serve as President and CEO of Patagonia, Inc., the clothing company at the heart of Patagonia Works.

Others might see Patagonia Works and $20 Million & Change as revolutionary business ventures; we think both are just next logical steps to doing business more responsibly. Economic growth for the past two centuries has been tied to an ever-spiraling carbon bonfire. Business – and human – success in the next 100 years will have to come from working with nature rather than using it up. That is a necessity, not a luxury as it’s seen now in most business quarters. We invite and encourage all companies to start to work with us in that direction.

To apply for funding or seek information regarding the $20 Million & Change program, please email: info@patagoniaworks.com or call (805) 667-2300.

Best regards,

Yvon Chouinard
Founder of Patagonia Works

Photo by Tim Davis

 

By Fitz & Becca Cahall

We're back for our third annual Live from 5Point event. The sun was shining, but Steve's Guitars was at capacity. Today we present the first two stories from Kevin Pearce and Chris Davenport. In 2009, Kevin was one of the best snowboarders in the world. On a training run, he had a major accident (his story is chronicled in the film The Crash Reel). Today, he talks about finding happiness after suffering a traumatic brain injury.

Chris' career as a big mountain skier is impressive – numerous first ski descents of peaks, traveled around the world to ski, a two-time world champion. But I've always been impressed by Chris' creativity in the mission he chooses. Today, he talks about the aesthetics of the lines he chooses and what he loves about mountains, especially those close to home.

Listen to "Live from 5Point Vol. 5"
(mp3 - right-click to download)

Visit dirtbagdiaries.com to download the music from "Live from 5Point Vol. 5", listen to The Shorts and pledge your support for the show. You can subscribe to the podcast via iTunes and RSS, or connect with the Dirtbag Diaries community on Facebook and Twitter.

[Graphic by Walker Cahall]

By Ryan Peterson



As with any creative endeavor, the process of building is fraught with self-doubt. But when I showed a draft of my film, sea-swallow’d to my friend Teplin Cahall 5 months ago, I got a boost. You see, Tep can't talk. He was born that way. Because of this and some associated developmental issues, he sees the world a little differently than do the rest of us.

One gauges Tep’s thoughts and feelings on a matter by the glints of ecstasy or tears of rage that accumulate in his eyes, and the alternately soothing or garish noises that his vocal chords are able to emit. His emotions are pure, raw, unfiltered by the complications of the wide world. He’s like an animal - innocent, instinctual, knowing only truth. In this way, if you can decipher his notes and read his analyses, Tep is the best critic a friend could ever have. To date, according to his dad, Fitz, Tep has watched sea-swallow’d several hundred times. I take this as approval.  
I should disclose something here. Tep is no kind of savant. It’s just that he’s 18 months old, and like most 18-month-olds his linguistic skills are sharpening by the day. Before long he’ll be like the rest of us, powdered daily by complex ideas and dollars that shape our convictions about how the world should work. Maybe as he ages he’ll be tempted, like some of us, to overlook unequivocal truths and go with flows dictated more by subjective social waves. Or maybe like others of us, he’ll stay transfixed by pure, simple, healthy images of the miracle of life, such as those I was humbled to swim beside during filming. Whatever we are today, we were all like Tep once.
 
In any event, making something that can make a baby sit stone still and smile for seven minutes straight might be my proudest accomplishment.


 
I hope you enjoy sea-swallow’d as much as Tep does.
 
If you do: TAKE ACTION NOW at SaveBristolBay.org. Let the EPA know that you support their Bristol Bay [Alaska] Watershed Assessment Plan, which finds that large-scale, open-pit mining development—such as that proposed by the Pebble Mine—would likely have unprecedented, disastrous consequences for the region’s salmon-based ecosystem and the vibrant industries that depend on it today for economy, culture, and spirit. Your voice will be heard and will help give the Administration the courage it needs to stop the mine before it gets started. This is the BEST shot we’ve got.

The public comment period ends May 31, 2013. Weigh in. It’s really freaking important.
 
Thanks to so many for so much support on this project, including Patagonia. Unlike the Pebble Mine, Patagonia is, as always, in the right place at the right time.
 
Ryan Peterson
 
P.S. Tep encourages all small children to watch sea-swallow’d. Show it to them and watch what happens.

[With thanks to Travis Rummel, Save Bristol Bay and Trout Unlimited.]