- Yvon Chouinard announced on Wednesday that he is giving away his multi-billion dollar company, Patagonia.
- Chouinard said rather than sell it or take it public, Patagonia will be owned by a trust.
- The Trust was formed to ensure Patagonia’s profits go towards fighting climate change.
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Patagonia founder Yvon Chouinard is giving away the company by transferring it to a trust designed to ensure its profits go toward fighting the climate crisis.
Chouinard, the climber-turned-billionaire, announced the move in a statement on Wednesday.
“Instead of ‘going public’, you could say we’re going ‘purposive’. Instead of extracting value from nature and turning it into wealth for investors, we will use the wealth that Patagonia creates to protect the source of all wealth,” he wrote.
Chouinard, 83, said he chose the trust rather than selling the company to an owner who could potentially jeopardize Patagonia’s values, or going public and leaving the company to shareholders first.
Instead, ownership of the roughly $3 billion outdoor apparel company will be transferred to the Patagonia Purpose Trust and Holdfast Collective.
“It’s been almost 50 years since we started our experiment in responsible business and we’re just getting started. If we have any hope of a thriving planet – let alone a thriving business – in 50 years, it will take all of us to do what we can with the resources we have. This is another way we found to do our part,” Chouinard said.
The company said that going forward, any profits not reinvested back into the company will be paid out to Holdfast Collective to go towards environmental causes, according to an additional statement provided to Insider. The company estimates that amount will total approximately $100 million per year.
Founded by Chouinard nearly 50 years ago, Patagonia is known for breaking with conventional business practices and championing sustainability.
In an interview with The New York Times about the decision, he hopes the move will influence “a new form of capitalism that doesn’t end up with a few rich people and a bunch of poor people.”
“We will give away the maximum amount of money to people who are actively working to save this planet,” he said.
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