Patagonia Transfers Ownership to Environmental Nonprofit

Outdoor clothing brand Patagonia has proclaimed that they are committed to saving planet Earth from environmental disaster no matter what the cost.

In order to ensure that the brand will continue its mission and not stray away in pursuit of profit and growth, Patagonia founder Yvon Chouinard has transferred total ownership of the company to the Patagonia Purpose Trust and nonprofit Holdfast Collective.

More specifically, the Holdfast Collective now owns all the nonvoting stock (98% of the total stock), while the Patagonia Purpose Trust owns all the voting stock (2% of the total stock).

According to Patagonia, profits that are not reinvested back into the brand will be payed out as an annual dividend estimated to be roughly $100 million to the Holdfast Collective, which will be used to combat climate change.

“It’s been a half-century since we began our experiment in responsible business,” says Chouinard. “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.”

“Two years ago, the Chouinard family challenged a few of us to develop a new structure with two central goals,” adds Ryan Gellert, CEO of Patagonia. “They wanted us to both protect the purpose of the business and immediately and perpetually release more funding to fight the environmental crisis. We believe this new structure delivers on both and we hope it will inspire a new way of doing business that puts people and planet first.”