Go green with Patagonia

It’s time to go green with Patagonia – and here’s why.

From their first green venture over 20 years ago – when they switched to 100 per cent organic cotton – to donating the entirety of their Black Friday sales (that’s $10million, FYI) to environmental organisations, it’s safe to say Patagonia are well and truly leading the field when it comes to ethical branding.

Why should you care? You won’t need us to tell you the benefits of a brand looking to make a difference bigger than the number in their bank account. Climate change and other environmental issues have never sat so firmly at the forefront of our concerns, and it’s with the help of global companies that change can be made. What’s more, activewear harbours a pretty bad sustainability track record. As we look for high-performance fabrics to make us run faster and lift heavier, we wind up clad in materials embedded with a number of toxins and antimicrobial additives. Even natural textiles like cotton are problematic: 24 per cent of the world’s insecticide usage is used on conventionally-grown cotton, while one cotton t-shirt requires 2,700 litres of water to produce.

Driven by a pledge that founder Yvon Chouinard made in their original mission statement – ‘to use business to inspire and implement solutions to the environmental crisis’ – Patagonia continues to prove that managing a thriving business and protecting the planet are not at odds with each other. Patagonia sees environmentalism as a priority, not an afterthought, and constantly questions what else it, as a global brand, can be doing for the world around us.

Patagonia’s Worn Wear initiative, which encourages people to repair broken items of clothing, rather than buy new, went global in 2016 with a number of their stores in Australia, South Korea and China building repair centres. In the same year, stores in North America completed a record 44,000 clothing repairs, regardless of brand, while two Worn Wear vehicles headed around Europe promoting the same message. What’s more, Patagonia continues to better their supply chain, both socially and environmentally, and extend their line of FairTrade-certified products (as of autumn 2016, Patagonia had 192 styles made in six factories).

Perhaps their biggest investment, however, is their pledge to donate one per cent of their annual sales to grassroots environmental groups. Last year alone the company donated 7.1 million dollars to fund environmental work across the globe. Most recently, they’ve been supporting a growing movement that seeks to stop the construction of new dams and remove obsolete dams across Europe. On the Balkan peninsula, from Slovenia to Albania, they joined forces with other organisations under the campaign Save the Blue Heart of Europe, and supported their demand to protect the last free-flowing rivers in Europe. You may not know about Patagonia’s work, but that’s only because they don’t shout about it.

Realising that they could spread their message quicker and more effectively with the help of high-profile affiliates, Patagonia have built a network of activists through their New Localism campaign, using the voices of athletes and activists to inspire people to protect the places they love. And their tactics are working: thanks to the activism of Patagonia ultrarunners Luke Nelson, Jeff Browning and Krissy Moehl, a film by James Q. Martin, donations from runners around the world and a matching grant from Patagonia, they exceeded their goal for the Mile for Mile campaign. Raising more than $90,000, the money will help Conservación Patagónica build over 50 miles of new trails in Patagonia Park.

These are big projects, making a big difference. And, as the activewear market soars (the UK sportswear market is set to surpass $8bn by 2019) and makes its way into the everyday, wearing sustainable clothing has never been so important.

Patagonia is a brand promoting change, not greed. They’re risk takers, they’re game-changers, and they’re leading the world of activewear in the right direction – and we should all be supporting it.

For more information on Patagonia’s environmental and social initiatives, head to patagonia.com or check out their video below.