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Billionaire founder of outdoor clothing giant Patagonia transfers family ownership of company to fight climate change
- Founder of adventure apparel giant Patagonia is giving away the company
- Company ownership is transferred to a non-profit organization and trust
- Patagonia will still be run for profit, but cash goes entirely to the environment
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The billionaire founder of the outdoor clothing brand Patagonia is giving the company away to a trust that will use his profits to fight the climate crisis.
Yvon Chouinard, 83, said Wednesday that he would transfer his family’s property to the trust and a nonprofit organization rather than sell the company or disclose it.
Chouinard became famous for alpine climbs in Yosemite National Park and has a net worth of $1.2 billion.
“Every year, the money we earn after reinvesting in the company is paid out as dividends to help fight the crisis,” he wrote in an open letter on the company’s website.
Patagonia will now be owned by Patagonia Purpose Trust, while non-voting shares will go to the Holdfast Collective and all profits will be invested in environmental issues
Founder Yvon Chouinard (pictured), a trailblazing mountaineer, founded the company in the 1970s in California
“Instead of taking value from nature and turning it into wealth for investors, we use the wealth that Patagonia creates to protect the source of all wealth.”
Patagonia, valued at about $3 billion, will continue to operate as a private for-profit corporation, but the Chouinard family, who controlled the company until last month, will no longer own the company.
The company’s voting shares are being transferred to the Patagonia Purpose Trust, while non-voting shares have been donated to the Holdfast Collective – a non-profit organization dedicated to fighting the environmental crisis and protecting wildlife.
The trust will be overseen by members of the family, including his husband and two adult children.
The company is worth approximately $3 billion and is closely associated with environmental awareness
While wealthy individuals often make financial contributions to charitable causes, the New York Times said the structure of the Patagonia founder’s action meant he and his family would receive no financial benefit — and would in effect receive a tax bill from the donation.
Chouinard and Patagonia have a history of pioneering environmental activism in business.
In 2002, Yvon Chouinard founded 1% for the planet and Patagonia became the first company to devote 1% of annual sales to the environment