Sustainability at the Core

Vincent Stanley is the director of philosophy and chief storyteller at Patagonia. Patagonia initially started as a company for climbers and surfers; therefore, the equipment manufactured needed to be durable and reliable—customers trusted their lives with the quality of the equipment. However, the company did not account for its negative environmental impacts. Stanley said Patagonia developed a way of living when the natural world was more secure than it is now. A major decision Patagonia had to make was switching to organic cotton since it was better for the planet. Stanley believes that there should be a coexistence between business and doing good. Patagonia eventually understood nonorganic cotton's negative effects and did its best to find a solution. This move fortified the salient coexistence between business and doing good. It was imperative to look at their business through the lens of humanity and our planet. Stanley said that 90 percent of working life is hard work—such as making clothes with organic cotton—and that the other 10 percent is the satisfaction and love you get from fulfilling the job after the hard work. 

Initially, Patagonia didn’t take responsibility for its negative impact on the environment because they saw it as the government’s role. Stanley said the company viewed its position passively, as though it had no control or influence over making clothes. The company first used cotton because they believed it was a benign natural fiber. However, they soon learned the dangers of chemicals related to the growing of cotton and thus decided to look for an alternative. As an initiative to switch from nonorganic cotton to organic cotton, the company brought employees to where cotton grew; they smelled the strong organic phosphate and felt the sterile soil full of dead dirt and no vegetation. This horrific sight emphasized the dangers of growing cotton. After the switch to organic cotton, Stanley said that the company was able to look at the bigger image of the whole industrial process to start making changes. 

Patagonia acknowledged that in doing business, there was harm being done and harm to be reduced. The company used business to inspire and implement solutions to the environmental crisis. Stanley’s story about Patagonia reminds students to be mindful of the work they do as they embark on their endeavors and build their careers and working lives. He said that saving our home planet requires (1) the need to decarbonize the economy by greening our cities and (2) developing regenerative organic agriculture that can revitalize our ecologically and socially impoverished world communities. Today, Patagonia is helping the world by creating better labor conditions for its workers and making good-quality clothes that extend their product life. Their environmental impact on the world is no longer in question.

Kevin Lux Ven, Carroll School Undergraduate Program Assistant