DEPARTMENT OF FASHION TECHNOLOGY

SEMESTER-VI

SUSTAINABLE PRODUCTION
(Floating Subject)

Sustainable Initiatives Taken By

the Company- PATAGONIA

END TERM JURY SUBMISSION

Submitted to:
The Jury Members
Submitted by:
Debdeep Ghosh
(BFT/17/184)
 PATAGONIA
Sustainable
Initiatives Taken By
the Company

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ACKNOWLEDGEMENT

This assignment of me would not have been possible without the kind support and help
of many individuals. I would like to extend my sincere thanks to all of them.
I am highly indebted to our faculty Mr. Bikas Agrawal for giving me this chance and his
guidance and constant supervision as well as for providing necessary information
regarding the project & also for his support in completing the project.
My thanks and appreciations also goes to my friends in developing the assignment and
people who have willingly helped me out with their abilities. THANK YOU.

- Debdeep Ghosh

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ABSTRACT

This report examines the sustainable initiatives taken by the company Patagonia over the
years so that they in no way affect the plant with the harmful effects of apparel production.
We will come across various initiatives the company has taken to take care of its
environment, workers, employees and most importantly Patagonia tries to make products
that are ecofriendly. In this report we will also come across the various collaboration
Patagonia has done over the years to take sustainable steps for the industry.

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CONTENTS

Sl. TOPIC PAGE

No. No.
1 INTRODUCTION 7

2 OVERVIEW 7

3 STORES ALL OVER WORLD 8

4 WOMEN’S 9

5 MEN’S 10

6 KIDS 10

7 COLLECTIONS 11

8 MATERIALS USED 11

9 PATAGONIA BRAND MANIFESTS SUCCESS THROUGH 15

ENVIRONMENTAL ACTIVISM
10 CORE VALUES 15
• BUILD THE BEST PRODUCT 15
• HARMLESS MEASURES 16
• USE BUSINESS TO PROTECT NATURE 16
• NO BOUND BY CONVENTION 16
11 SUSTAINABLE INITIATIVES 16
• 1% FOR THE PLANET 16
• COMMOM THREADS INITIATIVE 16
• HOMEGROWN WETSUITS 17
• CONSERVATION ALLIANCE 18
• BLUESIGN STANSARS 18
• CONSERVACION PATAGONICA 19
• PATAGONIA PROVISIONS 19
12 OTHER INITIATVES 20

13 FURTHER SOCIAL N ENVIRONMENTAL INITIATIVES 20

• GONE MARCHING 21
• KEYSTONE XL 21
• THE NEW LOCALISM 22
• WORN WEAR HITS THE ROAD
23
• THE UNACCEPTABLY HIGH COST OF LABOUR
• SUSTAINABLE APPAREL COALITION 25
• WILD AND SCENIC FILM FESTIVAL 25
• FOR BIRDS OF A FEATHER 25
• VOTE THE ENVIRONMENT 26
• B CORP 27
• DENIM A FILTHY BUSINESS 27

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 • TRUTH TO MATERIALS 28
• PROVISIONS 30
• $20 MILLION AND CHANGE 32
• UPCYCLING FOR ANOTHER GO-ROUND
32
• THE FOOTPRINT CHRONICLES
• FIRE SAFETY INITIATIVE 33
• A TAILORED APPROACH 33
14 CONCLUSION 34

15 REFERRENCE 35

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INTRODUCTION

The roots of the Patagonia brand were founded by avid climber

Yvon Chouinard in 1953 at the young age of 14. As a member of
the Southern California Falconry Club, Chouinard’s interest in
rock climbing sprouted from the desire to improve his ability to catch and train hawks and
falcons.

OVERVIEW
Patagonia, Inc. was founded in 1973 and is based in Ventura, California. Its logo is the
outline of Mount Fitz Roy, the border between Chile and Argentina, in the region of
Patagonia.

Patagonia is a privately held outdoor clothing that

generates yearly
sales of
approximately
$540 million.
Patagonia’s
clothing has been developed and marketed toward a
variety of outdoor sports, travel, and everyday wear. The
company has integrated core beliefs and values into every
product it produces and is known for its innovative
designs, exceptional quality, and environmental ingenuity.
Its high integrity and commitment to the environment has
placed Patagonia on the Ethisphere Institute’s “World’s
Most Ethical Companies” list for six consecutive years
since the list was first developed in 2007.

PATAGONIA CORE VALUES

● Quality: Pursuit of ever-greater quality in everything we do.

● Integrity: Relationships built on integrity and respect.
● Environmentalism: Serve as a catalyst for personal and corporate action.
● Not Bound by Convention: Our success—and much of the fun—lies in developing
innovative ways to do things.

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PATAGONIA STORES ALL OVER WORLD

1. Patagonia Atlanta
2. Patagonia Austin
3. Patagonia Boston
4. Patagonia Boulder
5. Patagonia Bowery
6. Patagonia Buenos Aires
7. Patagonia Burleigh Heads
8. Patagonia Byron Bay
9. Patagonia Cardiff by the Sea
10. Patagonia Chamonix
11. Patagonia Chicago Lincoln Park
12. Patagonia Chicago The Magnificent Mile®
13. Patagonia Cortina
14. Patagonia Denver
15. Patagonia Dublin
16. Patagonia Hale’iwa
17. Patagonia Honolulu
18. Patagonia Innsbruck
19. Patagonia Manchester
20. Patagonia Manly
21. Patagonia Meatpacking
22. Patagonia Milan
23. Patagonia Montebelluna
24. Patagonia Munich
25. Patagonia Nashville
26. Patagonia Outlet Dillon
27. Patagonia Outlet Freeport
28. Patagonia Outlet Reno
29. Patagonia Outlet Salt Lake City
30. Patagonia Outlet Santa Cruz
31. Patagonia Palo Alto
32. Patagonia Pasadena
33. Patagonia Pittsburgh
34. Patagonia Portland
35. Patagonia Prague
36. Patagonia San Francisco
37. Patagonia Santa Monica

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 38. Patagonia Seattle
39. Patagonia Smith Street Outlet
40. Patagonia SoHo
41. Patagonia St. Paul
42. Patagonia Sydney
43. Patagonia Toronto
44. Patagonia Torquay
45. Patagonia Upper West Side
46. Patagonia Vancouver Patagonia Ventura
47. Patagonia Washington DC
48. Patagonia Westport
49. Surfboards by Fletcher Chouinard Designs

PATAGONIA PRODUCTS

Patagonia caters to a lot of variety which includes the following:

WOMEN’S
Jackets & Vests
Fleece
Sweatshirts & Hoodies
Sweaters
Shirts
T-ShirtsPants & Jeans
Shorts
Dresses & Skirts
Overalls & Jumpsuits
Swimwear
Wetsuits
Waders & Gear
Baselayers
Underwear
Socks
Hats & Accessories
Workwear
Sport Gears

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MEN’S
Jackets & Vests
Fleece
Sweatshirts & Hoodies
Sweaters
Shirts
T-Shirts
Pants & Jeans
Shorts
Boardshorts
Wetsuits
Baselayers
Underwear
Socks
Hats & Accessories
Workwear
Sports Gear

PACK AND GEAR

Sleeping Bags
Black Hole™ Bags
Backpacks
Laptop Bags
Totes, Slings & Waist Packs
Duffel & Travel Bags
Technical Packs
Water Protective Bags
Water Bottles & More
Gear Care

KIDS
Swimwear, Boardshorts & Rashguards
Babies & Toddlers
Boys'
Girls'
Sports Gear

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COLLECTION
Patagonia Essentials
Workwear
Gerry Lopez Camouflage Print
Pataloha
Better Sweater®
Cotton Collection
Seasonal Prints & Graphics

MATERIALS USED

Recycled Cotton Recycled Polyester

Hemp Cotton in Conversion

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H2No® Performance Standard Non-fluorinated DWR

Nylon Organic Cotton

Polyester Polyurethane

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PTFE (Polytetrafluoroethylene) Recycled Cashmere

Recycled Down Recycled wool

REFIBRA®lyocell Regenerative Organic Certification Pilot Cotton

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Spandex TENCEL® Lyocell

UPF Treatment Wool

Yulex® Natural Rubber Fluorinated DWR

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PATAGONIA BRAND MANIFESTS SUCCESS THROUGH
ENVIRONMENTAL ACTIVISM
Retail brands often concern themselves exclusively with low-cost manufacturing prices,
affordable materials, and fast production rates with little consideration for the
environmental impact their practices are having. However, the same cannot be said for
the retail giant and environmental advocate, Patagonia.
Initially built as a small company that focused on climbing tools, the evolution of
Patagonia’s brand has focused on high quality and ethically-sourced products with roots
in environmental sustainability. With the mission statement of “We’re in business to
save our home planet” steering Patagonia’s every move, this company has
transformed from a fashionable, outdoor-wear retail company to an environmental
advocate where the product comes second.

With this in mind, he began to create and sell iron pitons in the backyard of his parents’
house in Burbank, California, later going into partnership with aeronautical engineer, Tom
Frost, due to the demand of Chouinard’s products. This venture, called Chouinard
Equipment, became the largest supplier of climbing hardware in the U.S. by 1970.
Intriguingly, this was also the point in history where their mission began to change.
Labeled an “environmental villain” due to their pitons damaging the rocks they
were installed within, Chounard’s team developed alternative aluminum chocks as
one of their first initiatives to become more environmentally friendly.
This passion for environmentally sustainable solutions continued even as Chouinard
began to phase himself out of the climbing equipment business in the late 1980s,
creating his now iconic clothing brand, Patagonia. Chouinard Equipment was
renamed Black Diamond Equipment as a sibling company of Patagonia, and has similarly
become well known for their sustainability initiatives.

PATAGONIA CORE VALUES TOWARDS ENVIRONMENTAL ASPECTS

Since the early 2000s, the Patagonia brand’s environmental efforts have spiked
enormously. Patagonia’s four core values include

1. Build the best product

Our criteria for the best product rests on function, repairability, and, foremost,
durability. Among the most direct ways we can limit ecological impacts is with
goods that last for generations or can be recycled so the materials in them remain
in use. Making the best product matters for saving the planet.

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 2. Cause no unnecessary harm
We know that our business activity—from lighting stores to dyeing shirts—is part
of the problem. We work steadily to change our business practices and share what
we’ve learned. But we recognize that this is not enough. We seek not only to do
less harm, but more good.

3. Use business to protect nature

The challenges we face as a society require leadership. Once we identify a
problem, we act. We embrace risk and act to protect and restore the stability,
integrity and beauty of the web of life.

4. Not bound by convention

Our success—and much of the fun—lies in developing new ways to do things.

SUSTAINABLE ENVIRONMENTAL INITIAVES TAKEN BY PATAGONIA

From utilizing sustainable materials such as fleece made from recycled plastic,
organic cotton, fiber made from wood pulp, and more– to their involvement in
countless initiatives, Patagonia’s scope of environmental causes has no end.
Among their many initiatives include:

• 1% FOR THE PLANET:

The organization 1% for the Planet is an

alliance of businesses that donate part of
their proceeds to environmental
organizations to support sustainability and
the preservation of the environment. Since
1985 Patagonia has committed to
donate 1 percent of its sales to
environmental organizations around the
world that work to conserve and restore the natural environment. Since it started
to support 1% for the Planet, Patagonia has contributed more than $46 million in
donations. Yvon Chouinard has also partnered with other like minded entrepreneurs to
create a nonprofit that encourages other companies to join the initiative.

• COMMON THREADS INITIATIVE:

This initiative embraces the concept of “Reduce, Repair, Reuse, Recycle,

Reimagine.” The Common Threads Initiative is a partnership with Patagonia and their

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customers to buy and use clothes more sustainably. Patagonia’s ultimate aim is to
close the loop on the lifecycle of its products. To reduce the amount of products that
customers do purchase from Patagonia, the company seeks to make quality products
that will last a long time.
Patagonia also posts advice on
its website for consumers on
how to take care of problems
with their clothes so they will
not have to be thrown away,
such as ways to get rid of
stains.

The second part of the process involves repairing products. Patagonia offers to
repair products for free if it appears that Patagonia is responsible for the need. If
not, Patagonia offers to repair the product at a “fair price” and tries to have the product
back to the consumer in 10 business days. Next,
Patagonia encourages users who no longer want their
products to donate them to a charity or sell them.
Patagonia offers consumers the ability to sell their
products through their Common Threads website or
through eBay. However, if the product is worn out, then
Patagonia will take the product and recycle it into
something else. Since 2005 Patagonia has turned 34
tons of recycled clothes into new clothes. Finally,
Patagonia urges its stakeholders to reimagine a world
where goods are only purchased when nature can
replace them. By engaging in the Common Threads Initiative, Patagonia hopes to create
a closed loop system in which its products never end up in a landfill.

• HOMEGROWN WETSUITS
Historically we had to drill for wetsuits, now we’re growing them.

After the war ended, President Truman

ordered the shutdown of all guayule
production facilities, torched some 21
million pounds of surplus rubber, and
officially classified all documents related
to its production. Our search to build a
better wetsuit led us to a partnership

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 with Yulex, a
company making
plant-based rubbers
derived from guayule
stems. Extracted in a
water-based
separation process
that produces little
waste, we’re now
blending natural guayule rubber (60%) into Patagonia®
wetsuits to reduce our dependence on petroleum-
based neoprene. We’ve also made this proprietary rubber
available to the rest of the surf industry. Because when
volumes go up, prices go down; and when more surfers can
choose less harmful wetsuits, we all win.

• CONSERVATION ALLIANCE:

The Conservation Alliance was co-founded by Patagonia in 1989. The purpose of the
Conservation Alliance is to encourage businesses in the outdoor industry to
contribute to environmental organizations. Throughout the years the Conservation
Alliance has grown beyond its four founders to include over 170 businesses. The
Conservation Alliance donated $900,000 in 2010. Patagonia remains actively involved
with the Conservation Alliance and maintains a seat of the board.

• BLUESIGN® STANDARD:

Patagonia is currently working with bluesign® technologies in its quest to reduce

resource consumption. For those resources that cannot be reduced, bluesign
helps Patagonia to use more sustainable resources that will have less of a negative
impact on the environment. Those who work with bluesign must adhere to a set of
rigorous standards, and bluesign will audit its partners— including Patagonia—to
determine how many of their processes meet these standards. Bluesign standards for
improvement cover five areas:
o resource productivity,
o consumer safety,
o water emissions,
o air emissions
o occupational health.

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Some of the more environmentally damaging and unhealthy aspects of the textile industry
are the chemicals used in the process.
Bluesign has included three color coded categories for chemicals such as dyes:
• blue for “safe” chemicals,
• gray for those requiring special handling,
• black for “forbidden” chemicals.
The goal is to totally eliminate these “black” chemicals through the adoption of alternative
chemicals or processes. So far Patagonia has 16 percent of its products that qualify as
“bluesign-approved fabrics,” with the goal to increase this to 100 percent by 2015.

• CONSERVACION PATAGONICA

Conservacion Patagonia is an effort by Patagonia

employees to create a national park in South America. Some
Patagonia employees have traveled to South America to aid in
the construction of this national park. Employees have engaged
in activities such as trail construction and the restoration of the
park’s grasslands. This provides them with direct experience
in helping to 7 restore and preserve the environment—the
very goals that Patagonia itself embraces. The park is estimated to be about 650,000
acres upon completion.

• PATAGONIA PROVISIONS

Yvon Chouinard continues to remain proactive not

only in addressing Patagonia’s goals but also in
including other businesses and stakeholders in the
company’s environmental vision.
One of the firm’s more recent ventures includes Patagonia Provisions. In this initiative,
Patagonia partners with First Nation fishermen in British Columbia to offer
sustainable Pacific smoked salmon and jerky products.
Patagonia embarked upon this initiative to combat the
unsustainable harvesting of salmon populations. While
farmed salmon seems like a viable alternative, the
chemicals and pollution at these farms concerned
Patagonia founder Yvon Chouinard. Inspired by Patagonia’s
earlier quest to source sustainable cotton, the firm began
investigating ways to offer salmon that was not only
sustainably sourced but also healthier. The company
partnered with fish conservation program SkeenaWild

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to look into sustainable sourcing techniques, identifying many native practices
from First Nation peoples that appeared to be the most sustainable. The resulting
fish processing plant in British Columbia actively partners with nonprofit
conservation organizations to ensure sustainable fishing practices. The firm also
investigated ways of smoking the salmon to create quality salmon jerky. With this
new venture, Patagonia hopes to be profitable, sustainable, and influential toward other
companies looking to pursue similar practices in preserving and restoring the
environment.

OTHER INITIATIVES

Patagonia has also invested in a number of other initiatives spanning from supply chain
tracking to responsible water consumption. One of Patagonia’s major goals with these
environmental initiatives is to get other stakeholders involved in the common mission of
environmental protection and appreciation. The following are some of Patagonia’s other
projects:
● Patagonia Music Collective: Patagonia partnered with musicians to create the
Patagonia Music Collective. This partnership sells “benefit tracks” on iTunes for 99
cents. All proceeds are donated to environmental causes.
● The Footprint Chronicles: Patagonia provides an interactive site that enables
users to track the environmental impact of certain Patagonia products throughout
the supply chain from design through delivery.
● Our Common Waters: This campaign seeks to educate stakeholders about the
growing crisis of water consumption. As the demand for water grows among the
human population, businesses will have to do a better job of conserving these
critical resources. Patagonia is investigating the amount of water it consumes to
find ways to reduce its water footprint.
● Voice Your Choice: Voice Your Choice gets consumers involved in determining
to which
● Environmental organizations Patagonia should donate money. Each store is
provided with $5,000 to distribute to three environmental organizations. Store
customers can then vote on the top three. The winning store receives $2,500, the
second winner receives $1,500, and the third receives $1,000.

FURTHER ENVIRONMENTAL AND SOCIAL INITIATIVES

Over the years, Patagonia has teamed up with other corporations to develop and create
initiatives aimed at reducing the environmental footprint businesses leave behind. They
have pioneered revolutions in clothing technology development and manufacturing.

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Patagonia has also been an innovative force in creating programs that deal with the
environmental crisis head on, as demonstrated by the initiatives below.

• GONE MARCHING

We close our NYC stores so employees can attend the People’s Climate March
We cannot sit idly by while large special interests
destroy the planet for profit without regard for our
children and grandchildren.

The march was organized by a dozen or so

environmental, labor and social justice groups.
It came on the heels of flooding, drought,
wildfires and erratic weather worldwide, and
the National Oceanic and Atmospheric
Administration’s announcement that 2014 was
on the way toward becoming the hottest year on record—
which it was.
Inspired by a request from employees in our NYC stores to join
the march, we didn’t open our retail doors in the city until 3
p.m. We also invited customers to join us at our Upper West Side
store for a pre-march community gathering with representatives
from Protect Our
Winters, Catskill Mountainkeeper, New Yorkers
Against Fracking and HeadCount, sweetening
the event with giveaways, coffee and bagels
before taking to the streets.

• KEYSTONE XL

In February 2015, President Obama

vetoed legislation passed by Congress
authorizing construction of the Keystone
XL tar sands oil pipeline. A veto doesn’t
mean the pipeline will never be built. But the
current oil glut makes the economics less
attractive, and the likelihood the State Department will decide the pipeline is against our
national interest will stall it for the foreseeable future.
Campaigns to stop mines and oil fields, take out dams, restore rivers, and secure
permanent protection for endangered species and environmentally sensitive areas

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can take decades. And sometimes they’re unsuccessful. So when they do succeed, even
in part, it’s important to take a moment to recognize the progress made. Patagonia has
had a hand in three long-term campaigns that this year saw movement in the right
direction. There is a long way to go before declaring victory for any of them, but we
wanted to note these important successes.

• THE NEW LOCALISM

The New Localism campaign recognizes we can no longer pass through remote, wild
places and trust they will remain that way. Brought to life through stories of athlete
ambassadors and activists, it engages our community to protect threatened places
that are home to the sports that inspire our adventures and the products our
company makes. In spring 2015 we launched campaigns linked to running, surfing
and climbing.

● Mile for Mile

Patagonia Park, in the Aysén region of Chile, is now open to the public. The park
sweeps from the northern ice cap, down to the Baker River and out to the arid
borderlands of Argentina. e. Patagonia has been involved in this project from
day one, working with nonprofit Conservación Patagónica. Conservación
Patagónica plans to build more than 50 miles of new trails in the park to
provide greater access to its amazing places.

● Protect Punta de Lobos Por Siempre

Chile’s Punta de Lobos, one of the world’s best left points for surfing, is
home to Patagonia surf ambassador Ramón Navarro. Members of his
community, led by Ramón and supported by our partners at Save The
Waves, have been working to protect the point’s waves, heritage and
environment. Preserving the way of life of multigenerational fishing families like
the Navarros goes hand in hand with safeguarding the rich marine and terrestrial
biodiversity of Chile’s coast. We support their efforts to protect Punta de Lobos
forever—por siempre! In April 2015, we launched a new Chris Malloy film, The
Fisherman’s Son, which tells Ramón’s life story of surfing and activism. Building
on the film, we’ve supported a crowd-sourced fundraising campaign led by
Save The Waves that leverages our marketing channels to protect Ramón’s
home break and coastline.

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 ● Defined by the Line
If you’re a climber, chances are you’ve dreamt of climbing here or, better yet, you
actually have. It’s a region in southeastern Utah that includes some of the
most perfect (and the most crumbly) climbing on earth: Cedar Mesa, Valley
of the Gods, the Abajo Mountains and, dear to climbers, Indian Creek. We’re
supporting a coalition of groups, led by the Friends of Cedar Mesa and Utah
Diné Bikéyah, in protecting Bears Ears

• WORN WEAR HITS THE ROAD

To perpetuate the long and storied lives of Patagonia

clothing and gear, we launched our Worn Wear repair
tour from San Francisco in April 2015 on a 21-stop,
six-week adventure. A pair of biodiesel repair
trucks—one built by artist/surfer Jay Nelson using
redwood reclaimed from giant wine barrels—began the trip from California to
Boston doing free clothing repairs, teaching people
how to fix their gear and selling used Patagonia
clothing. In advance of tour stops, we asked our customers
to bring us their well loved clothing in need of a fix. And if
they didn’t have any Patagonia clothing, we offered them
our used gear for sale.
By keeping our clothing in
use for just nine additional
months, we can reduce the related carbon, waste and
water footprint by an estimated 20 to 30 percent.

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 • SUSTAINABLE APPAREL COALITION

Six years ago we asked Walmart to partner with us to create a group of companies
making or selling apparel to standardize the way we all measured sustainability.
We were pleased when they accepted our invitation to work together and used their
influence to enlist other companies. We called ourselves the Sustainable Apparel
Coalition—the SAC.
Today the coalition is the largest apparel trade organization in the world, with over
160 members representing more than 300 brands. Together SAC members produce
about 40 percent of the entire global output of apparel, footwear and home textiles.
One measures the environmental impacts of finished-goods factories, mills and
dye houses, and a second one measures their social and labor impacts. A third tool
measures the environmental impacts of SAC companies themselves, and a fourth
looks at their social and labor impacts.

• WILD & SCENIC FILM FESTIVAL

Considered one of the nation’s premiere environmental and adventure film festivals, the
Wild & Scenic Film Festival combines stellar filmmaking with a call to action. Wild &
Scenic events inform and inspire solutions to restore the earth, creating a positive
future for the next generation. Each year, nearly 30,000 festivalgoers are exposed to
films about nature, activism, adventure, conservation, water, climate change, wildlife,
agriculture and indigenous cultures. With Patagonia’s financial support, Wild & Scenic
On Tour generated more than $200,000 in new funding and 3,000 new members.

• FOR BIRDS OF A FEATHER

NSF International adopts our Traceable down Standard

Down is warm and fluffy. But the treatment of down-bearing birds often is not. In some
countries it’s still legal to force-feed them to fatten their livers to make foie gras.
And in some it’s still legal to live-pluck them to yield more down. Inhumane as these

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practices are, they still go on. There are steps companies can take to ensure down-
bearing birds are not mistreated. We’ve worked hard on this issue and after seven years
have developed and implemented a thorough animal-welfare program for our down
supply chain. As of fall 2014, all Patagonia down products contain only 100%
Traceable Down that can be traced back to birds that were never force-fed and
never live-plucked. It’s the highest assurance of animal welfare and traceability in
the apparel industry. In the interest of animal welfare beyond our down supply
chain, we want to provide other companies with a similar path forward. So last year
we asked NSF International to adopt our Traceable Down Standard as the basis for a
global standard—one that is both achievable and scalable.

• VOTE THE ENVIRONMENT

Patagonia supports candidates who push hard for renewable energy, clean water
and air, and turn away from risky, carbon-intensive fuels. We support leaders who
will act on behalf of the future and the planet. We face a great crisis: climate change,
extinction and destruction of wild places. And many people worked hard to bring out the
vote in the midterm elections. Many voted with the environment on their minds and in their
hearts. You are not alone!

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B CORP: USING BUSINESS TO SOLVE SOCIAL AND ENVIRONMENTAL
PROBLEMS

B Lab, the nonprofit that certifies B Corps and serves the global movement of
entrepreneurs using business to solve social and environmental problems, commended
us for our environmental grants program and campaigns, supply chain monitoring and
performance, and our employee culture.
● Governance: Board includes independent members to represent interests of
community and environment; works within industry to develop social and
environmental standards; shares financials with employees.

● Workers: Extends health benefits to part-time, retail, warehouse staff; 50 percent

of full-time employees participate in external professional development; greater
than 80 percent coverage of health insurance premiums for full-time workers.

● Community: One hundred percent of significant suppliers made transparent on

the website; greater than 40 percent of management are women or ethnic
minorities; greater than 25 percent of employees took time off for community
service; 1 percent of sales donated to environmental NGOs.

● Environment: 75 percent of materials used are environmentally preferred

(organic, recycled, etc.); 30 percent of suppliers meet bluesign® standards for
environmentally advanced apparel manufacturing; some facilities LEED .

• BECAUSE DENIM IS FILTHY BUSINESS

Made with organic cotton, Fair Trade Certified™ for sewing, and dyed using an
innovative process that uses 84 percent less water, 30 percent less energy and
emits 25 percent less CO2 than conventional synthetic indigo denim dyeing.
Knowing how conventional cotton is grown and denim is made, we’re out to change the
industry with the fall 2015 introduction of Patagonia® Denim jeans. Like all of our cotton
products, we make them with 100% organic cotton grown without synthetic
fertilizers, pesticides or herbicides. We dye them using an innovative process that
enables us to reduce dramatically water, energy and chemical use, and produce
less carbon dioxide compared to conventional denim dying processes. And they’re
Fair Trade Certified™ for sewing, which benefits workers. Though the cotton used to
make denim fabric is a natural fiber, conventionally grown cotton is one of the dirtiest
crops on the planet. The chemicals used to grow it can pollute water and air. Organic
cotton agriculture uses no GMO seeds or synthetic chemicals; instead it leverages

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nature-based solutions to manage pests and build
healthy soil. That’s why since 1996 we’ve used
only organic cotton.
To dye denim, most producers use synthetic indigo
applied on huge production lines that consume a lot of
water and energy. Indigo doesn’t adhere readily to
denim, which makes the dyeing, rinsing and garment
washing process resource intensive. We once used indigo to color Patagonia Denim, but
now we utilize an innovative dye process that colors it with sulfur dyestuffs that bond more
easily. This results in much shorter production lines that use 84 percent less water, 30
percent less energy and emit 25 percent less C02 than conventional synthetic indigo
denim dyeing. And because we don’t sandblast, bleach or stonewash our denim to
make it look worn, we avoid the serious social and environmental downsides of
doing so.

• TRUTH TO MATERIALS
Responsible manufacturing begins at the source

In fall 2014, we produced a collection of clothing we called Truth to Materials. It was

an exercise in discovering the origin of a material and staying as true to that as
possible during every step of the design and manufacturing process.

● Reclaimed Down
Patagonia partnered with designer and artisan Natalie Chanin, of Alabama Chanin, on a
one-of-a-kind reclaimed down project. Faced with bales of damaged, returned down

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jackets (that could not be repaired) stacked in Patagonia’s shipping warehouse, Jill
Dumain, from Patagonia Enviro, connected with Natalie and her colleague Olivia
Sherif, and they came up with a warm and wearable work of art masquerading as a
scarf. Truth to Materials Responsible manufacturing begins at the source. A
Mongolian herder harvests undyed.

● Reclaimed Cotton
Thanks to a partnership with the TAL Group, one of
the larger garment manufacturers in the world, we
were able to take cotton waste and twist it closer to
the elusive closed loop. The
TAL Group saves their cotton
scraps by sweeping the floors of their factories in China and
Malaysia—saving hundreds of tons of cotton from the
landfill. This once useless cutting-room scrap is then spun and
knit into fully functional fabrics. Basically, the leftovers or
cutting-room scraps from 16 virgin cotton shirts can be
turned into one reclaimed cotton shirt.

● Reclaimed Wool
Calamai Tech Fabrics in Italy works with everything from cotton
to nylon, blended with wool. They collect manufacturing
scraps and used clothing like Italian wool sweaters and
army uniforms, and then separate out by hand zippers,
buttons and anything that would damage the shredding
machines. The used fabric is sorted by color and
cleaned.Finally, Calamai blends the fibers into a variety of
knits and weaves, as well as weights and textures. Making
such good use of scrap materials requires less energy, water and
chemicals to manufacture.

● Undyed Cashmere
Mongolia contains the largest intact grassland in the
world. Goats pull up grass by the roots, sheep do not.
Undyed cashmere is hand-harvested by goat herders
who brush their flocks as they shift grazing grounds
according to the seasons. The end result is a material
untouched by dyes, which lessens the environmental
impact and gives the material an even softer hand.
Patagonia is in the first stages of a partnership with

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NOYA fibers, which works with a herder cooperative in a million-acre reserve managed
by The Nature Conservancy.

$20 MILLION & CHANGE

Eight new investments from our investment fund and holding company for the
environment.
We created $20 Million & Change in 2013 to help likeminded, responsible companies
bring about positive benefit to the environment.

● Beyond Surface Technologies (BST) - Sustainable technologies for treating

textiles, based on natural substances. BST aims to reconcile both
sustainability and performance by replacing fossil-based raw materials or
significantly reducing their share, without compromising quality.

● Bureo Bureo (the Mapuche word for “waves”)- designs and manufactures a
line of skateboard decks in Chile using discarded fishing nets, which
account for more than 10 percent of the ocean’s plastic pollution. Its fishnet
collection and recycling program, Net Positiva, provides fishermen with
environmentally sound disposal points, while Bureo receives highly recyclable and
durable raw materials.

● California Cropwise - This company makes liquid fertilizer from unsold food. It
collects it from grocery stores, then backhauls it in the grocery stores’ trucks to its

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 processing plant, which is located near the stores’ distribution centers. There it’s
mechanically ground and digested with enzymes.

● NuMat Technologies - Storing, separating and transporting gas requires energy

intensive compression that accounts for nearly 10 percent of global energy draw.
NuMat developed material technology that radically increases the storage
efficiency of gas for use in the health care, industrial technology and energy
sectors.

● Swinomish Fish Company - This tribally owned seafood wholesaler, retailer and
processor scrapes high-quality salmon meat—that would otherwise go unused—
from the backbones of salmon to make jerky. Its sale generates income for the
Swinomish, supporting jobs in a region under threat from the Pebble Mine.

● Wild Idea Buffalo - Wild Idea Buffalo produces buffalo jerky for Patagonia
Provisions. Raised on ranches in South Dakota, its buffalo are free to roam, grass-
fed and helping to restore the Great Plains prairie ecosystem. Our investment paid
for a mobile harvesting unit, tumbler and smokehouse that we lease back to Wild
Idea.

● Yerdle - Billions of items idle in people’s closets, garages and storage facilities
that can be put back into good use. Yerdle is a sharing website that dreams of a
world where it’s easier to get a blender that’s sitting unused than to buy a new one
and pay full price. We partner with it to help keep some our used clothing in
circulation.

● Kina‘ole Capital Solar Leasing Fund - We directed our corporate tax dollars
to purchase 1,000 residential solar electric systems in Hawaii and are selling
the energy to residents under 20-year power purchase agreements.
Patagonia Surf Ambassador Kohl Christensen installs residential solar systems for
an affiliate of Kina‘ole.

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UPCYCLING FOR ANOTHER GO-ROUND

We partner with ReFleece, Enjoy Handplanes, Green Guru Designs, Upcycle It Now
and Alabama Chanin to upcycle our worn-out products into other products.

Here’s how it works.

Customers can drop off any worn-out
Patagonia product at our stores or
mail them to our distribution center in
Reno. If the item has a little more life
left in it, we’ll donate it to a nonprofit.
If it’s worn beyond use, but has
salvageable parts and materials, our
repair department will use them to fix
broken clothing. Everything else we
send to our upcycle partners. Salty
wetsuits become cozies. Human
jackets become dog coats. Old fleece
gets another go-round as a case for
your tablet. Even our Capilene® boxers, with their beautiful prints, reappear in
handplanes used by bodysurfers. Since 2004, we’ve recycled 164,062 pounds of
Patagonia products.

THE FOOTPRINT CHRONICLES®

We move supply chain info to our product pages for maximum transparency

We made the important change in the interest of

maximum transparency, wanting our customers
to know exactly what they’re buying and where
and how it was made.
“We wanted to make each product’s supply
chain more transparent by putting it directly in the
path of the customer so it’s easy to learn about
every supplier who touched that product”.
Each product page also has a link to the
greater Footprint Chronicles page, which features every factory that makes or
contributes to Patagonia clothing and gear; profiles of the social and
environmental practices of key suppliers and fabric mills, with accompanying
essays, slideshows and videos; and profiles of key independent partners who vet

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social and environmental practices throughout our supply chain. The farm is often
the first place a commodity is born or consolidated. By better knowing our farms, we can
better know and show the agricultural origins of the products we make.

FIRE SAFETY INITIATIVE

Snuffing out factory fires before they can start

Fire safety has always been part of Patagonia’s code of conduct and social
compliance program. During factory visits, our field managers routinely work hand
in hand with management to address fire
issues and identify root causes that might
lead to disaster. We joined the Fair Labor
Association’s Fire Safety Initiative. It’s a
global program that trains workers, factory
management and other stakeholders to actively
promote fire safety inside factories, recognize
hazards and address them without being asked
to do so.

A TAILORED APPROACH
New Chemical and Environmental Impacts Program addresses supply chain waste
and pollution in holistic fashion

The making of virtually any product uses up valuable natural resources and may pollute
the environment. So in 2015, we launched the Chemical and Environmental Impacts
Program (CEIP) to provide a tailored approach to assessing and reducing impacts
at each supplier facility. Following the strictest global chemical safety regulations and
incorporating on-site environmental facility audits, it utilizes the Higg Index, Chemicals
Management Module and bluesign standards to evaluate environmental
performance in all areas of energy use, greenhouse gases and air emissions, water
use and emissions, solid waste, chemicals management and environmental
management systems. Following our mission to cause no unnecessary harm, we are
committed to making products using fewer natural resources and to reducing waste and
pollution. CEIP is a holistic supply chain program that will help us to do those
things.

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CONCLUSION

Founded in 1973, Patagonia is one of the largest retailers of sustainable outdoor clothing.
Patagonia’s commitment to developing social and environmental standards as well as
transparency has earned the company a B Corp certification. Patagonia continues to
blaze a trail by implementing several processes and initiatives to set positive standards
in the industry. These range from developing Supplier Workplace Codes of Conduct,
Migrant Worker Employment Standards and increasing fair trade product offerings.
Furthermore, Patagonia makes plans to continuously improve supply chain labor
conditions by strictly assessing the practices, standards and values of factories to make
sure they share the same goals. These initiatives allow the company to focus on the long-
term social impacts of their activities. Taking a closer look into Patagonia’s work with
factories shows that the company places a huge emphasis on making sure its employees
are not only fairly paid, but also contribute to community and environmental causes.
Patagonia’s vision has not only allowed the company to create a balanced social,
economic and environmental business model but also allowed them to build social capital,
develop unique ways of expanding their reach, and continue to set the pace in the
industry.

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REFERENCES

• http://www.patagonia.com/on/demandware.static/Sites-patagonia-us-Site/Library-
Sites-PatagoniaShared/en_US/PDF-US/patagonia-enviro-initiatives-2015.pdf
• https://danielsethics.mgt.unm.edu/pdf/patagonia.pdf
• https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1177/0008125617727748?journalCode=
cmra
• https://globescan.com/unilever-patagonia-ikea-sustainability-leadership-2019/
• https://www.retaildive.com/news/patagonia-doubles-down-on-
sustainability/546144/

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