Patagonia’s Social Responsibility

The employee and employer relationship has always been an important part to a

company’s success. Today companies like Patagonia, Google, and Microsoft, are using socially

responsible business practices to take full advantage of their relationship with employees.1

Besides offering great medical and financial benefits these companies offer innovative benefits

that allow their employees to fully enjoy their time with the company. Patagonia is one of many

companies who are taking a whole new approach at the way they manage their employees and

their company as a whole. Using ethical and socially responsible business practices, Patagonia

has separated itself from its competitors as a company who is less concerned with profits and

more interested in its employees and environment.

Patagonia is turning heads with their structured or better yet, lack of structured work

environment. As an outdoor sports company, Patagonia’s management encourages its

employees to take time out of their work schedule and participate in a physical activity. The

company believes in providing their employees with all the equipment necessary to live a

balanced lifestyle. Nick Bloom, an economist at Stanford, found that “more productive, faster

growing and better managed firms offer their employees a more attractive work-life balance

package.”2 When competitors may think spending company money on field trips or paying

employees while they surf is a waste of time and money, Patagonia sees it as building on their

competitive advantage. Their edge over the marketplace is having employees who are happier

and more productive.

1 Chasan, Mark. "Corporate Influence & Transforming From a World Created for the Non-Living." The Huffington Post. April 8, 2015. Accessed May 11, 2015.2 Schulte, Brigid. "REALLY: A Big, Profitable Company That Lets Its Workers Go Surfing." Washington Post. October 25, 2014. Accessed May 11, 2015.

Despite having a clear advantage over its competitors, Patagonia actually has a fairly

generous act towards the competition. That’s because the company’s ethics are unique

compared to most of its competition. Patagonia is a company whose moral principles and

values embrace the idea of sustainability. Sustainability is the economic development that

generates wealth for the current generation but also saves the environment for the future

generations. This philosophy of sustainability is what allows Patagonia CEO to share intellectual

property with other companies because “at the end of the day this will be better for the

planet.”3 However, Patagonia’s corporate social responsibility starts far beyond the CEO, Yvon

Chouinard Patagonia’s founder, says he tried to influence other companies into looking at their

supply chains differently. Chouinard wants companies to understand that they need to

contribute to the welfare and interest of society by making more responsible decisions.4

Today Patagonia acts as a role model for many companies who may want to be more

ethically responsible for their employees and environment. But it should be noted that

Patagonia’s original mission statement was simply “To make the best product, period.”5 In

other words, the company made a change to its definition of purpose along the way. Due to

bad ventilation in an old store combined with the toxic chemicals being used in the shirts,

Patagonia employees were practically being poisoned. After that Yvon decided to switch his

decision making process, and started asking more questions when ordering materials. By asking

more questions about the dyes and the chemicals being used to produce the dyes and cottons,

3 Sacks, Danielle. "Patagonia CEO Rose Marcario Fights The Fights Worth Fighting." Fast Company. January 6, 2015. Accessed May 11, 2015.4 Burlingham, Bo. "Patagonia's 100-Year Plan: Yvon Chouinard to Elevate Social Mission." Inc.com. July 10, 2014. Accessed May 11, 2015.5 Burlingham, Bo. "Patagonia's 100-Year Plan: Yvon Chouinard to Elevate Social Mission." Inc.com. July 10, 2014. Accessed May 11, 2015.

Yvon reduced any uncertainty about them. With more information on the materials he was

using he decided to modify the company’s mission statement and add “cause no unnecessary

harm.”6 Since then, Patagonia has been changing the way management makes every day

choices.

Without a doubt Patagonia is a revolutionary company and the same can be said about

its founder. The fact that CEO, Rose Marcario mentioned that a huge stream of people from

different companies want to visit Patagonia’s headquarters to discuss the way they do things

speaks for itself. And if not then Neil Blumenthal had this to say: “They’ve shown that you can

build a profitable business while thinking about the environment and thinking about your team

and community.”7 Clearly Patagonia is doing something right, Let’s just hope more companies

catch on and follow in their footsteps because who wouldn’t love to ditch work for an hour,

catch some waves, then come back.

6 Burlingham, Bo. "Patagonia's 100-Year Plan: Yvon Chouinard to Elevate Social Mission." Inc.com. July 10, 2014. Accessed May 11, 2015.7 Schulte, Brigid. "REALLY: A Big, Profitable Company That Lets Its Workers Go Surfing." Washington Post. October 25, 2014. Accessed May 11, 2015.