Sustainability and Business

Patagonia Case Study

IIM Kozhikode

Post Graduate Programme in Management

PGP 25
Term 3

435 Akshat Singh

445 Dakshan T

455 Jatin Kumar

465 Peshal Goel

475 Sanath Raghul Sharan S

485 Thimmareddygari Gauthami

How can Patagonia continue to drive sustainable innovation?

 The company should focus more on educating the consumers about the environmental
impact caused by the production process for the product and popularise the 4R –
Reduce, repair, reuse, recycle through mass advertising.
 Encouraging customers to fix by their own and also continue the Common Thread
initiative to fix the damaged clothing on their own
 Customer Threads program needs to be emphasized more to motivate customers to
use second hand products (Patagonia and ebay tie-up). “Better than New” and
“WormWear”
 They can bring a change in consumer behaviour by popularizing the second-hand
market so that other brands are also encouraged to start such initiatives.
 In addition to moving to organic cotton, it should identify other processes in production
that can be changed through innovation to decrease the carbon footprint.
 As the company sources its materials from those suppliers who are socially
responsible, it can provide incentives to other suppliers for adopting better practices.
This way it can increase other people involved in the value chain to move towards
sustainability.
 Current products are expensive as compared to other products in the market. The
company should focus on cutting costs in the sustainable processes so that a larger
customer base can afford their products.
 Popularise the 4R – Reduce, repair, reuse, recycle through advertising
 Widening the Employee Internship Program- through which employees can leave
their jobs at Patagonia for up to two months to work full-time for the environmental
group of their choice- could also slow their financial growth but increase their positive
impact in society.