B Corporations We Love: Patagonia

By Cameron Crane

“The Zen Master would say that profits are what happens when you do everything else right.” ~ Yvon Chouinard, Founder of Patagonia

When you think about companies that are doing just about everything right, it is hard not to think about Patagonia. For thirty years, Patagonia has been setting an example of what it means to be a socially conscious, environmentally friendly company. That is why today Patagonia is our featured B Corporation of the month.

Patagonia started out as a small company that made tools for climbers. Anybody who has ever gone climbing knows the incredible connection that can be developed with nature this way. In fact, Patagonia believes that in all the sports they now cater to (skiing, snowboarding, surfing, fly fishing, paddling and trail running) “reward comes in the form of hard-won grace and moments of connection between us and nature.”

It is no wonder, then, that a connection and love for nature inspires Patagonia to protect it. With a mission to “build the best product, cause no unnecessary harm, and use business to inspire and implement solutions to the environmental crisis”, Patagonia has gone the extra mile to become a B Corporation. “They donate time, services and at least 1% of sales to hundreds of grassroots environmental groups all over the world who work to help reverse the tide.”



From the Common Threads Initiative to the World Trout Initiative, and a variety of Environmental Grants, Patagonia is doing everything it can to make a difference. Everything Patagonia does to produce goods is based on extensive research on how to make the least impact, from how they select raw materials to the design of their buildings. As a company that takes extra steps to be green ourselves, we know that this is no easy feat, and especially on as large of a scale as Patagonia now operates.

Thank you, Patagonia, for all that you do to make a difference.

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Little Pickle Press is very excited to announce that we were deemed among the “10 Best for the World” for B Corporations with under 10 employees in the 2012 B Corporation Annual Report. In the next year, we will continue to strive to be the change we seek.