Yvon Chouinardthe founder of the company Patagonia, – an outdoor clothing brand valued at 3 billion dollars – has just given away its company. Through a public letter, the American billionaire announced his decision to donate the company he founded in California almost half a century ago to fight climate change.
“The Earth is now our sole shareholder,” says the letter in which Chouinard. In it he also informed that he will transfer his ownership of the company to a special trust and a non-profit organization.
In accordance with New York Timesthis decision was made “to preserve the independence of the company and ensure that all its profits, some 100 million dollars a year, are used to combat climate change and protect undeveloped land around the world.”
“Instead of extracting value from nature and transforming it into wealth for investors, we are using the wealth that Patagonia generates to protect the source of all wealth,” says the businessman in his letter.
The billionaire who didn’t want to be an entrepreneur
Yvon Chouinard, 83, has always been a different businessman. He is famous for climbing during his meetings and wrote the book Let My People Go Surfing: The Education of a Reluctant Businessman.
In the letter Chouinard indicated that he considered selling the company and donating all the money obtained to environmental organizations.
“But we couldn’t be sure that a new owner would keep our values or our employees around the world,” he said.
According to BBCanother possibility was to take the company public through what is known as a takeover bid, an operation in the stock market to sell all or part of the shares.
“It would have been disastrous. Even well-intentioned public companies are under great pressure to generate short-term profits,” says Chouinard.
What will happen to Patagonia?
The entrepreneur hopes that his decision will inspire other entrepreneurs to donate their fortunes to sustainability.
“I didn’t even want to be a businessman. Now he could die tomorrow, and the company will continue to do the right thing for the next 50 years, and I don’t have to be around,” Chouinard said in his letter.
Patagonia will remain a public company, but Chouinard and his family will no longer own it. They will give 98% of their shares of Patagonia to the non-profit organization Holdfast Collective.
With this action the Chouinards will become one of the most charitable families in the world.
Editorial Team The editorial team of EMPRENDEDOR.com, which for more than 27 years has worked to promote entrepreneurship.