Environmental and Social Initiatives
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ENVIRONMENTAL & SOCIAL INITIATIVES 2014 PATAGONIA PARK | PAGE 6 TOOLS CONFERENCE | PAGE 26 TAKING OFF FOR GOOD | PAGE 14 CONTENTS Becoming Responsible ............................................4 $20 Million & Change ...............................................5 Patagonia Park ............................................................6 DamNation ..................................................................8 Fair Trade Certified™ Clothing .............................11 The Responsible Economy Campaign ..............12 GROWING THE GRASSROOTS | PAGE 32 Countering Climate Change ................................13 Environmental Internships ....................................14 TOXICS/ SUSTAINABLE RESOURCE CLIMATE CHANGE & HEALTHY CIVIL Activities in Our Stores ..........................................16 WATER/MARINE BIODIVERSITY NUCLEAR AGRICULTURE EXTRACTION ALTERNATIVE ENERGY FORESTS DEMOCRACY Black Friday Parties .................................................17 35 26 32 GRANTS GRANTS GRANTS $73,722 $206,677 $197,388 52 GRANTS Common Threads in Japan ..................................17 $321,814 242 GRANTS 102 100% Traceable Down ...........................................18 $1,622,816 GRANTS 248 $856,624 128 GRANTS GRANTS $1,791,130 $1,565,800 Vote the Environment in Japan & Chile............ 20 Sophisticated Suppliers ....................................... 21 Fair Labor Association® Gives Us High Marks 21 Partners on Behalf of the Greater Good .......... 22 Leading Role in Chemicals Management ....... 23 Clothing Donations ............................................... 23 More Than a Job ......................................................24 Social Responsibility at Materials Suppliers ... 25 Tools for Grassroots Activists Conference ...... 26 Sustainable Apparel Coalition ............................ 28 Employee Volunteer Days .................................... 29 Briefs ........................................................................... 30 Wild & Scenic Film Festival ...................................31 Growing the Grassroots ....................................... 32 The Grants Process ................................................ 34 Environmental Grants ............................................ 35 Hitting a Nerve ........................................................ 62 Join the Fight ........................................................... 63 Quantifying Our Work .......................... Back Cover ™ Cover: 2:30 a.m. on the face of Matilija Dam with 100 feet of dotted line still to paint. BEN KNIGHT Photos this page: (clockwise, top left-right) ELI STELTENPOHL, MIKEY SCHAEFER, LINDSAY WALKER, TONY CLEVENGER, BEN KNIGHT. Artwork: AMANDA LENZ DAMNATION | PAGE 8 BRIEFS | PAGE 30 2 3 Beyond the jumbled ice masses of the Torre Glacier, Cerro Torre unveils itself. Argentine Patagonia. MIKEY SCHAEFER BECOMING RESPONSIBLE LEADING THE EXAMINED LIFE IS A PAIN IN THE ASS In the spring of 1988, we opened a store in Boston then how to make fleece jackets from worn-out fleece on Newbury Street. Within days, the people who jackets. We partnered with bluesign® technologies to worked in the store were sick—mainly headaches. We employ methods and materials in the manufacture of hired an engineer who told us the problem was the many of our fabrics to conserve resources and mini- ventilation system: It was recycling the same tired air. mize impacts on people and the environment. But what was in the air? Probably formaldehyde, she We gave one percent of sales to grassroots activists told us. From the finish on the cotton clothes stored ($61 million in cash and in-kind services to date). This in the basement. Formaldehyde? Who knew? So we year, for example, we supported Trout Unlimited’s ef- eliminated formaldehyde finishes, which then led us forts to protect Bristol Bay in Alaska—one of the last to commission a study of conventional cotton. That great salmon fisheries on the planet—and helped led to the discovery that cotton grown with pesti- Save Our Wild Salmon in its quest to bring down cides is one of the most destructive crops in the ag- deadbeat dams. This one percent commitment isn’t ricultural world. typical philanthropy. Rather, it’s part of the cost of do- ing business, part of our effort to balance (however FAIR TRADE, SUSTAINABLE imperfectly) the impact we have on natural systems— and to protect the world on which our business, em- WOOL, TRACEABLE DOWN ... ployees and customers rely. ONCE YOU START DOWN THIS We took more steps, influenced by our environmen- ROAD, YOU CAN’T STOP. tal campaign The Responsible Economy. We began working with Fair Trade USA to get factory workers Knowing that, we could not in good conscience con- closer to a living wage. We continued our efforts with tinue to use conventional cotton for our sportswear. sheep ranchers in Argentina, who raise sustainably So after several years of work, we managed to go or- grazed merino wool that’s helping to restore dam- ganic in 1996. It was expensive, time-consuming and aged grasslands. Our down clothing is now insulated $20 MILLION & CHANGE scary (so few farmers grew organic cotton that we with 100% Traceable Down, independently verified A NEW INVESTMENT FROM PATAGONIA’S Our latest investment has direct application to our own supply were constantly checking the weather in California’s from birds that were never live-plucked, never force- FUND AND HOLDING COMPANY FOR THE chain. We have others in the pipeline and remain primarily inter- Central Valley). fed. We are also using reclaimed fabrics and, as of ested in business opportunities pertaining to food, water, ener- spring 2015, all of our sportswear will exemplify our ENVIRONMENT gy, waste and apparel. That was just the beginning. commitment to the environment. Economic growth for the past two centuries has been tied to We then began looking at what happens in Patago- an ever-spiraling carbon bonfire. Believing that business—and CO2NEXUS, INC. Once you start down this road, you can’t stop. “Living This company, based in Littleton, Colorado, develops and nia’s name in every step of the supply chain, from human—success in the next 100 years will have to come from the examined life,” said our founder, Yvon Chouinard, sells carbon dioxide-based cleaning, pre-conditioning and crop to fabric to finished garment. We measured the working with nature rather than using it up, we created $20 “is a pain in the ass.” re-conditioning solutions for fabric and textiles that are envi- environmental impacts of selected articles of cloth- Million & Change to help like-minded responsible companies ronmentally friendly, people friendly and fabric friendly. CO ing and published them on the Footprint Chronicles® In the end, Patagonia may never be completely re- bring about positive benefit to the environment. In May 2013, 2 is non-toxic, non-hazardous, non-flammable, odorless, inex- microsite on patagonia.com. We worked with out- sponsible. We have a long way to go and we don’t we launched the fund and reorganized Patagonia and our oth- haustible and inexpensive. It uses zero water, consumes less side auditors and hired a team of in-house corpo- have a map—but we do have a way to read the terrain er businesses within a new holding company called Patagonia energy and generates very little waste. Direct partnership op- rate responsibility specialists to track (and improve) and to take the next step, and then the next. Works, which is dedicated to a single cause: using business to portunities include installing one of the company’s CO2 ma- the working conditions and pay for every person in- The stories that follow tell of the steps Patagonia took help solve the environmental crisis. chines in our Reno Service Center to clean customer garments volved in making a Patagonia® garment. We learned this year (fiscal year 2014) toward becoming more en- We put the word out there, inviting businesses to apply for fund- and co-developing advanced water repellency for garments, how to make fleece jackets from soda bottles and vironmentally and socially responsible. ing, and received more than 400 queries and proposals. Phil raw down and textiles. Graves joined the Patagonia Works team in February from De- patagoniaworks.com loitte Financial Advisory Services. As the new director of corpo- rate development, he is evaluating investment proposals and helps to decide where $20 Million & Change money will go. 4 5 ALMOST THERE PATAGONIA PARK OPENS OCT. 15, 2014 For 10 years, Patagonia-the-company has been working with Conservación Patagónica, founded by our former CEO Kris Tompkins and her husband, Doug Tompkins, to create a new national park in Patagonia-the-place. Located in southern Chile, the former sheep estancia now has nearly 100 miles of hiking trails, three campgrounds, a restaurant, lodge and vis- itor’s center. Patagonia Park will officially open Oct. 15, 2014. Our company has supported this effort since its inception, assisting with funds to purchase the land, sending employees to take down fences and, more recently, providing additional money to complete trails and campgrounds. We are proud to be part of this new model for conservation—using private and corporate philanthropy to create a large-scale park that even- tually will be transferred to the national park system in Chile. We encourage our customers to travel to South America to check it out. conservacionpatagonica.org Photos: (top left, top right, bottom right) NADINE LEHNER; (bottom left) ELI STELTENPOHL 6 7 FREE THE RIVERS DAMNATION DOCUMENTS