Patagonia has selected a new chief executive officer of Patagonia Works: Ryan Gellert. Since 2014, Gellert has overseen Patagonia’s business in Europe, the Middle East and Africa. Patagonia Works is the holding company for Patagonia, Inc. (apparel and equipment), Patagonia Provisions (food), Patagonia Media (books, films and multimedia projects), Lost Arrow Solutions (government), Fletcher Chouinard Designs, Inc. (surfboards), Tin Shed Ventures, LLC (investments), and Worn Wear, Inc. (used and upcycled apparel).
When it comes to the future of our democracy, our votes have never mattered more. But for too many Americans, the barriers to casting their ballots have never been higher. This year, we at Patagonia are committed to breaking down one barrier in particular: the widespread lack of information about how and where to vote.
Voting, our most basic and fundamental right as a democracy, is under threat, so Patagonia is doing its part to help ensure we have safe, free and fair elections this November. As we stand with the millions of Americans who want to elect climate leaders and see wild places protected for future generations, Patagonia will work with our partners across the country to help people exercise their right to choose their future and make a plan to vote.
United States of America, August 27, 2020 – More than 700 companies have now joined Time to Vote, a business-led, nonpartisan coalition that aims to increase voter participation in the U.S. elections. Voter turnout in the U.S. is one of the lowest in the developed world and one of the most common reasons people give for not voting is that they are too busy with the demands of life and work. The coalition, which represents more than six million workers in the U.S.*, is addressing this challenge by giving employees the time and the tools they need to exercise their right to vote in the November general election.
The Regenerative Organic Alliance (ROA), a group of experts in farming, ranching, soil health, animal welfare, and fair trade, is proud to announce that the Regenerative Organic CertifiedTM (ROCTM) certification standard for food, fiber, and personal care products has completed its pilot phase and is now open for general certification. Additionally, the ROA is thrilled to announce the availability of the first ROC products in the marketplace.
We are deeply saddened and extremely concerned to continue to read reports about forced labor and other human rights abuses against Uighurs and other ethnic minorities in Xinjiang, China. In accordance with guidance from the Fair Labor Association (FLA), we are actively exiting the Xinjiang region. To achieve this, Patagonia has done the painstaking and important work of mapping the source of our products to the farm level, and we are constantly working to ensure that all of our products are built without human rights abuses and with the smallest environmental footprint possible. We have also communicated to our global suppliers that both fiber and manufacturing in Xinjiang is prohibited. Our supplier vetting process is enforcing this mandate, and we encourage you to review the FLA’s March 9, 2020 directive for more information. – Cara Chacon, Vice President, Social and Environmental Responsibility
After twelve years with the company, Rose Marcario is stepping down from her role as Patagonia’s President and Chief Executive Officer effective June 12, 2020. She was instrumental in leading the company through the most prosperous time in its 47-year history, and she has been recognized by global leaders for her success in advocating and advancing climate and environmental policies.
We join with those who call out the name of George Floyd in sorrow and anger against the systemic racism that pervades our land. We stand in solidarity with African Americans and people of color, including those among our colleagues and their families. And we call on business to work with government and civil society to address racism. We know that we have work to do.
Re: Supporting the outdoor recreation economy and recovery of individuals, communities, and outdoor companies in any upcoming pandemic response legislation
Dear Speaker Pelosi and Leaders McCarthy, McConnell and Schumer:
Our outdoor recreation economy generates $887 billion in consumer spending and 7.6 million jobs annually. The outdoor industry comprises 2.2 percent of the United States GDP and, prior to the unprecedented COVID-19 pandemic, was growing faster than the economy. In addition, communities with access to outdoor recreation assets like trails, waterways, and parks of all types are attracting and retaining business investments, as more and more businesses rely on quality of life to attract employees.
Our system of parks and public lands being open for public use is critical for small and large retailers and outdoor businesses, along with the supply chain that serves them. Plus, these natural places bring quality of life to communities across the nation. Every
part of this system has been interrupted by COVID-19, impacting the health and wellness of individuals, companies, and communities.
Dear Leader McConnell, Speaker Pelosi, Leader Schumer, and Leader McCarthy:
Thank you for your leadership in bringing forward the previous COVID-19 legislation to support the economy and the American public through this pandemic. As we navigate an uncertain future and work to address the public health and economic crisis, we must also protect our fundamental rights and democratic institutions. Paramount among these is the integrity of our elections.
As American business leaders, we stand together to protect the physical safety of our employees and communities while also protecting their right to be heard on Election Day. Public health is essential but so is civic health. If we take action now, we do not have to sacrifice one to achieve the other.
We call on Congress to provide state and local governments with the resources they need to ensure that all eligible voters can vote safely, including methods such as:
● Making vote by mail available to all eligible voters. Allow voters to register online, request mail-in ballots to complete in the safety of their homes and return ballots via the U.S. Postal Service, postage paid.
● Extending early in-person voting. Offer at least two weeks of early voting at physical polling locations, including weekend voting, to avoid overcrowded polling places and to adhere to social distancing guidelines.
The necessary funding for safe voting upgrades, estimated at $4 billion, will ensure state and local officials have the personnel and equipment necessary to distribute mail-in ballots, administer early voting locations safely, and tally votes accurately and efficiently.
Dear Madam Speaker:
As the people’s advocate focused on improving the everyday lives of Americans, our country needs your leadership more than ever to push for funding to protect affordable and quality child care to ensure that as the economy starts to reopen and working parents return to their jobs, there’s capacity to meet demand.
Patagonia has a 40-year history of providing on-site child care and knows the essential role it plays in a healthy and equitable workforce. Supporting working parents isn’t just the right thing to do—it makes good business sense as it helps us retain great talent (100 percent of new moms return to work at Patagonia) and creates strong employee morale. Our Ventura, California, campus has an outdoor playground smack-dab in the middle, and we hear kids playing as we go from meeting to meeting— those joyful noises have a profound way of putting things in perspective. As discussion begins about how to get our country working again, the central role of child care in enabling parents to return to work has received scant attention.
While the ultimate economic impact is still unknown, we are certain that COVID-19 and its aftermath pose the most serious and far-reaching business challenge we have ever had to face. We’ll face that challenge as we always have, making the incredibly difficult decisions along the way guided by our values as a responsible company and evaluating the impact each decision has on our employees, our supply chain partners, the people making our products and the planet.
Dear 1% for the Planet Community,
I’ve never celebrated Earth Day. I’ve always felt that all of that attention on just one day distracts us from the need to be taking action for the planet every day.
But these are extraordinary times. This pandemic is showing us clearly that if we put off what needs to be done, it ends up coming back to bite us. We’ve known for a long time that there would be a global pandemic, and we’ve done nothing. We’ve known for decades about global warming, and we’ve done nothing. We’ve got to choose to act.
“President Trump just removed protections for tributaries and wetlands in your community,” said Rose Marcario, president and CEO of Patagonia. “This comes after polluting your air, putting your public lands under threat and ignoring the climate crisis.” Enacted in 1972, the Clean Water Act was a bipartisan agreement to protect all “waters of the United States.”
Here is an except from an op-ed in CNN by Patagonia’s Environmental Advocate, Avi Garbow. Read the full piece here.
While our nation reels from the coronavirus pandemic, the Trump administration is accelerating a harmful agenda -- rollbacks that dismantle critical health and environmental protections, and that will surely deepen the climate crisis.
The COVID-19 pandemic is taking over communities around the world at an astounding rate. While testing availability in the United States is still limited, and so the extent of the virus’s spread is largely unknown, we want to do our part to protect everyone. The safety of our employees and our communities is our top priority, and we are taking responsible precautions to help stop the spread of this scary virus where we can.
As COVID-19 spreads—and is now officially a pandemic—we are taking additional safety measures to protect our employees and customers. The scale of impact is still unknown, and we want to do our part to protect our community especially while testing availability is unknown.
We will temporarily close our stores, offices and other operations at the end of business on Friday, March 13, 2020. Employees who can work from home will do so. All Patagonia employees will receive their regular pay during the closure. We apologize that over the next two weeks, there will be delays on orders and customer-service requests. We ask for your understanding and patience. We will reassess and post an update on March 27, 2020.
At Patagonia, we’ve always been motivated to find real, meaningful ways to build a supply chain that reflects our values. We helped found the Fair Labor Association to work with like-minded companies and experts to set standards that lift up workers’ rights in a globalized world. The Fair Labor Association has done a remarkable job giving workers around the world a voice in their own futures, making them safer at work, and conducting independent monitoring and third-party complaint processes that galvanize real, lasting change for workers everywhere.
DISTRICT 15 is an important short documentary that follows the youth activists of Communities for a Better Environment (CBE) and their fight against oil and gas operations in their communities.
Urban oil and gas drilling sites across the United States are disproportionately located in communities of color and low-income communities. Wilmington, a neighborhood in Los Angeles, is a microcosm of this environmental injustice. DISTRICT 15highlightsthe hope and tenacity of the youth of Wilmington as they push the Los Angeles City Council to prohibit new and existing oil and gas drilling operations within 2,500 feet of their homes, schools and hospitals.
