Patagonia
Section: Marketing Essays
Patagonia was incorporated in 1984. Patagonia followed Chouinard's original intentions of developing goods that could easily be described as ridiculously overbuilt (Defining Quality, 5). Chouinard began technical product development in 1973, which continued and intensified under the Patagonia name. Patagonia continually improved on the amount of environmental impact as well as the quality of their materials. Pile lead to Bunting, which lead to Synchilla, which eventually changed the industry. Patagonia also introduced polypropylene underwear, which was replaced by Capilene in 1985. Although competition became fierce, Patagonia's attention to the details and construction of their products kept them ahead of the others. Throughout the years there has always been one constant in Patagonia's design and philosophy- a sense that there is in the products, or should be, more than meets the eye. Quality. Superb functionality. Environmental concern. A Killer warranty and service to match" (Defining Quality, 9). Patagonia's Environmental History As you can see in the above text, Patagonia's founder Yvon Chouinard has always put the environment first in his business plans. But Patagonia has done more for the environment then first meets the eye. In 1973 a young activist contacted Patagonia with concerns of the polluted Ventura River. Soon after Patagonia started making contributions to the Friends of the Ventura River. This marked Patagonia's first step towards donating to environmental causes. Over the next several years as Patagonia gained further success, Chouinard continued to increase donations to environmental groups. In 1985 Patagonia initiated a Tithing Program, which made a commitment to donate ten percent of profits to various environmental group. They could now focus on the bottom line with pride-knowing that if they made money, others would as well (Defining Quality, 24). Between 1985 and 1998 alone, Patagonia has given over $13million to environmental groups.
The Tithing Program started by Patagonia was gaining such strong media recognition that many other companies began to initiate similar programs. Although this seemed like a step towards the right direction, Patagonia found one major flaw. If profits were low, high volume companies committed to donating 10% often ended up giving very little to environmental groups. After this discovery, Patagonia decided to up the ante. Patagonia would now give one percent of sales revenue or 10% of profits, whichever be greater, to these organizations. Later in the1980's Patagonia began to take their environmental values and focus inward. Patagonia started to look at their production process with hopes of improvement. They started by drastically reducing the waste in their facilities. In 1989 the Salt Lake City Patagonia outlet set up a recycling station in their parking lot. This was the first public recycling station in the state of Utah. Patagonia also changed the way they built their facilities. For example, they switched from using fir to recycled wood and steel for trims. They now use paint that contains low amounts of volatile organic compounds, and they have installed many devices used to store and conserve energy. Patagonia then took the next step by looking at the materials used in the production of their products. They found that they could reduce the effects of their synthetic fibers. In 1993, Patagonia introduced PCR Synchilla, which was made from recycled plastic bottles. This shifted consumption away from virgin crude oil that was previously used to make these garments. Once again, Patagonia became an industry leader as many other companies converted to PCR Synchilla. Next, Patagonia found that the conventionally grown cotton being used in their garments was grown with large amounts of pesticides. So, in 1996, Patagonia started to only use one hundred percent organic cotton. Also in 1996, Patagonia hosted an environmental conference for their suppliers.
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