Bring Sustainability in Business to Save the Planet

Sustainability has been a hot topic over the years for numerous industries, including retail, luxury, pharmaceuticals, and manufacturing. Let’s zoom into Fabernovel’s takeaways of 4 dimensions in corporate’s sustainability initiatives with examples of Patagonia’s best practices.

1. Sustainability in Materials

2. Sustainability in Business

3. Sustainability in Services

4. Sustainability in Internal Management

Sustainability in Materials

# Farm to T-shirt

Photo credit: Patagonia

Since 1996, every piece of Patagonia garment has been made of organic cotton. Thereby successfully reducing carbon emissions, various pollution and resource waste in the clothing industry.

Photo credit: Patagonia

Sustainability in Business

# 1% FOR THE PLANET

Since 1985, Patagonia has pledged 1% of sales to the preservation and restoration of the natural environment. To encourage more businesses to join this initiative, Yvon established 1% for the Planet*with Craig Mathews (the founder of Blue Ribbon File) in 2002. So far, it has gathered 15 members and helped to direct hundreds of millions of dollars to environmental nonprofits around the world. 

* 1% for the Planet is an international organization whose members contribute at least one percent of their annual sales to environmental causes.

Photo credit: Patagonia

Sustainability in Services

# Worn Wear| Better than new

Photo credit: Patagonia

In 2012, Worn Wear was launched by Patagonia as their product life extension hub. It builds up a platform that provides recycling, trade-in and repair services and enables people to share their stories with their worn clothes.

Today, the company owns and operates the largest apparel repair center in North America and repairs more than 100,000 items each year in 72 repair centers globally.

# Don’t Buy this Jacket

Patagonia believes individuals should reduce consumption to minimize environmental pollution.

The advertisement listed the cost to the environment of one fleece jacket and appealed to consumers to think twice before buying it. Instead, they suggested an option to purchase a used Patagonia product.?

Photo credit: CB Insights

Sustainability in Internal Management

Photo credit: A Grade

In the 1980s, the company decided to stop using plastic bags and disposable paper cups in the staff canteen. Patagonia became the first company in the United States to use recycled-content paper as their product catalogs, which resulted in saving 15,000 trees.

Photo credit: Pinterest

REFERENCE LINKS

1. “Patagonia. 2021 Company History“, Patagonia Website, 8 September, 2021

2. “Patagonia. Organic Cotton“, Patagonia Website, 8 September, 2021

3. “Patagonia. 1% for the Planet“, Patagonia Website, 8 September, 2021

4. “Patagonia opens first Worn Wear store“, by Cara Salpini, RETAILDIVE, 18 November, 2019

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