[rideit]

Hunh.

Yvon walks the talk

https://www.nytimes.com/2022/09/14/climate/patagonia-climate-philanthropy-chouinard.html To be continued…

www.tetongravity.com

Billionaire No More: Patagonia Founder Gives Away the Company (Published 2022)

Yvon Chouinard has forfeited ownership of the company he founded 49 years ago. The profits will now be used to fight climate change.

www.nytimes.com

non paywall

Patagonia founder is giving away his billion dollar company and ensuring that all profits go towards fighting climate change

Yvon Chouinard said Patagonia's ownership will be held by a trust and profits will go towards fighting climate change.

www.businessinsider.com

 

[rideit]

And more.
(I am proffering no opinion, just information).
Using the code name Project Chacabuco, a reference to a fishing spot in Chile, a small group of Patagonia lawyers and board members began working on possibilities.

Over the next several months, the group explored a range of options, including selling part or all of the company, turning Patagonia into a cooperative with the employees as owners, becoming a nonprofit, and even using a special purpose acquisition company, or SPAC.

“We kind of turned over every stone, but there just weren’t really any good options that could accomplish their goals,” said Hilary Dessouky, Patagonia’s general counsel.

The easiest paths, selling the company or taking it public, would have given Mr. Chouinard ample financial resources to fund conservation initiatives. That was the strategy pursued by his best friend, Doug Tompkins, founder of the clothing companies Esprit and The North Face.

But Mr. Chouinard had no faith that Patagonia would be able to prioritize things like worker well-being and funding climate action as a public company.

“I don’t respect the stock market at all,” he said. “Once you’re public, you’ve lost control over the company, and you have to maximize profits for the shareholder, and then you become one of these irresponsible companies.”
They also considered simply leaving the company to Fletcher and Claire. But even that option didn’t work, because the children didn’t want the company.

“It was important to them that they were not seen as the financial beneficiaries,” Mr. Gellert said. “They felt very strongly about it. I know it can sound flippant, but they really embody this notion that every billionaire is a policy failure.”

Finally, the legal team and board members landed on a solution.

In December, at a daylong meeting in the hills above Ventura, the entire team came together for the first time since the pandemic began. Meeting outside, surrounded by oak trees and avocado orchards, all four Chouinards, along with their team of advisers, agreed to move ahead.

“We still had a million and one things to figure out, but it started to feel like this might actually work,” Mr. Gellert said.

By giving away the bulk of their assets during their lifetime, the Chouinards have established themselves as among the most charitable families in the country. Yvon Chouinard filmed an announcement for his employees at home in Wyoming. Credit...Natalie Behring for The New York Times

Now that the future of Patagonia’s ownership is clear, the company will have to make good on its lofty ambitions to simultaneously run a profitable corporation while tackling climate change.

Some experts caution that without the Chouinard family having a financial stake in Patagonia, the company and the related entities could lose their focus. While the children remain on Patagonia’s payroll and the elder Chouinards have enough to live comfortably on, the company will no longer be distributing any profits to the family.
“What makes capitalism so successful is that there’s motivation to succeed,” said Ted Clark, executive director of the Northeastern University Center for Family Business. “If you take all the financial incentives away, the family will have essentially no more interest in it except a longing for the good old days.

As for how the Holdfast Collective will distribute Patagonia’s profits, Mr. Chouinard said much of the focus will be on nature-based climate solutions such as preserving wild lands. And as a 501(c)(4), the Holdfast Collective will also be able to build on Patagonia’s history of funding grass roots activists but it could also lobby and donate to political campaigns.

For the Chouinards, it resolves the question of what will happen to Patagonia after its founder is gone, ensuring that the company’s profits will be put to work protecting the planet.

“I feel a big relief that I’ve put my life in order,” Mr. Chouinard said. “For us, this was the ideal solution.”

 

[jonKranked]

im sure woo will find a way to complain

 

[Westy]

im sure woo will find a way to complain

Complain? He just needs to cut and paste a chapter from his manifesto.

 

[StiHacka]

Who cares?

 

[rideit]

Shitloads of people?

 

[StiHacka]

Shitloads of people still fall for feels good stories?

 

[jstuhlman]

if it has long term benefits to help fix climate fuckery everyone should care? but still waiting on woo to tell us y bad like crabon bars.

 

[rideit]

Shitloads of people still fall for feels good stories?

I think a repentant billionaire with a conscious, essentially giving away his fortune, is quite newsworthy. If even one other person in this new gilded age followed his lead, it would be worth it. He didn’t do it for the feels, Yvon DGAF what most people think of him.

i think he has a very strong ethos, unlike Mackenzie Bezos, who I think just wants to be less hated for what she stumbled into.

 

[buckoW]

Very cool. Amazing even.

 

[stevew]

repentant billionaire

where on the doll did the bad billionaire touch you....

 

[rideit]

That comment is based on his own view of things.

 

[jonKranked]

interesting that he established a trust to manage the company.

 

[slyfink]

Shitloads of people still fall for feels good stories?

probably in the same way shitloads of people still fall for automobile industry marketing. You need the luxury, you need the sound, you need the fury, you will be happier if you do. And everyone will think your peen is Yuge.

 

[rideit]

Yvon inspired me to give away my thousands.

 

[AngryMetalsmith]

Yvon inspired me to give away my thousands.

I do hope some of that went towards @jdcamb’s Porsche.

 

[StiHacka]

probably in the same way shitloads of people still fall for automobile industry marketing. You need the luxury, you need the sound, you need the fury, you will be happier if you do. And everyone will think your peen is Yuge.

Same thing, obviously.

 

[Fool]

Money much better spent if he was establishing nature preserves on Mars like a normal fucking billionaire

 

[slyfink]

I'm not sure where to come down on this one. His track record has been much better than most other successful businesspeople, but not perfect as 'Woo will undoubtedly attest. I guess it really depends on who and what they fund through the Foundation.

I guess what I'm saying is that I'll reserve judgement until we have some idea of where the money's going, but I'll also say I'm cautiously optimistic.

 

[StiHacka]

Venture capitalists certainly approve.

 

[slyfink]

Venture capitalists certainly approve.

One data point does not a trend make, but one can only hope...

 

[StiHacka]

One data point does not a trend make, but one can only hope...

They are the most influencing influencers nowadays, chances are looking good.

 

[jonKranked]

Venture capitalists certainly approve.

this comment makes no sense given how the trust they created was structured

 

[StiHacka]

this comment makes no sense given how the trust they created was structured

Maybe the next one makes it clearer? I assume you've never been around those assholes and their uniforms?

 

[jonKranked]

Maybe the next one makes it clearer? I assume you've never been around those assholes and their uniforms?

nope. no VCs in my realm. thankfully.

my point remains re: the trust structure.

 

[Jm_]

Yvon inspired me to give away my thousands.

Of prayers

 

[rideit]

And Tots!
I didn’t say who I would be giving them away to. Probably Rocky Mountain and health Insurance.

 

[StiHacka]

my point remains re: the trust structure.

So does mine.

patagonia vest executive attire - Google Search

www.google.com

 

[jonKranked]

So does mine.

patagonia vest executive attire - Google Search

www.google.com

i own a patagonia vest, yet i'm not a VC. your argument is invalid.

 

[StiHacka]

i own a patagonia vest, yet i'm not a VC. your argument is invalid.

I think you're trying to argue a reversed implication so I'm out.

 

[jonKranked]

I think you're trying to argue a reversed implication so I'm out.

you're the one butthurt by what other people are wearing

 

[StiHacka]

you're the one butthurt by what other people are wearing

Nah, I am just having a little fun with this serious topic.

 

[Fool]

The finance bro aesthetic is well established canceled.

 

[Changleen]

@StiHacka seems to be the new n8.

 

[maxyedor]

In @StiHacka defense, the tech/finance bro in a Patagonia vest became such a cliche that Patagonia had to implement a corporate policy about not selling their vests to embroidery shops so that companies qui putting their names on Patagonia vests to wear while discussing disrupting a new industry.

Interesting approach to handing over a company to new leadership. Still relatively certain no climate action truly matters until the top 7 or 8 nations actually get serious, but handing it to the trust is still interesting. We shall see if the trust helps keep the company on track, or achieves anything climate related, probably a better bet than handing it off to a single person or worse, shareholders

 

[StiHacka]

In @StiHacka defense, the tech/finance bro in a Patagonia vest became such a cliche that Patagonia had to implement a corporate policy about not selling their vests to embroidery shops so that companies qui putting their names on Patagonia vests to wear while discussing disrupting a new industry.

The most despicable corporate assholes I knew/know wore/wear them as a token of their class. I am sure it was/is good business! Now they have a righteous cause to brag about.
But I digress, enjoy your hero on the pedestal ( I don't address you, maxyedor).

 

[eric strt6]

you can bag on them but at least they are diverting some of thos plastic bottles from ending up in the ocean and have been doing it for years

Virgin & Recycled - Patagonia

We use recycled polyester more than any other fiber. Our goal is to stop using virgin polyester by 2025.

www.patagonia.com

 

[rideit]

I think one of his entire goals is to never be put on a pedestal.
Fuck, he still sleeps in his car.
Regularly.
You throwing so much shade says more about you than him, respectfully.
i never really cared about him one way or the other, but have met him here on trails.
He‘s just a dude. You would like him.
He still drives a 20 year old beater in town, and shops and waits in line with everyone else. And puts his carts away.

 

[Jm_]

Fuck, he still sleeps in his car.

If that's a Sprinter, then it doesn't count.

 

[rideit]

It’s actually a clapped out Toyota. A Corolla, I think.
I honestly never knew much about him. But what I am learning the last few days is stunning.
I do know years ago he would show up for National trail days to clear deadfall/brush/etc, and not say dick about who he was.