Last month Patagonia founder Yvon Chouinard and his family announced they were giving away their outdoor clothing and gear company to help fight the climate crisis, setting a new example in environmental corporate leadership.
As reported in newspapers across the world, the company said: “As of now, Earth is our only shareholder, all profits, in perpetuity, will go to our mission to ‘save our home planet’.”
The Guardian reports that Chouinard’s family donated 2% of all stock and all decision-making authority to a trust, which will oversee the company’s mission and values.
The other 98% of the company’s stock will go to a non-profit called the Holdfast Collective, which “will use every dollar received to fight the environmental crisis, protect nature and biodiversity, and support thriving communities, as quickly as possible”.
Each year, the money Patagonia makes after reinvesting in the business will be distributed to the non-profit to help fight the environmental crisis.
To say this has shaken up what it means to be a ‘green-focussed’ or ‘environmentally responsible’ company is certainly an understatement.
In an opinion piece in Fortune magazine, Patagonia’s board chair, Charles Conn new direction is designed to set an example that disproves the old shareholder capitalism axiom that corporate goals other than profit will just confuse investors.
He wrote, “instead of exploiting natural resources to make shareholder returns, we are turning shareholder capitalism on its head by making the Earth our only shareholder”.
This certainly is ground-breaking stuff, but Patagonia aren’t the only company turning heads in their stand to fight for the environment.
While many have yet to go a long way to make the same sort of environmental commitment that Patagonia have, others are certainly making strong moves in that direction.
One of these is popular Canadian athletic apparel brand Lululemon who take a very transparent and ethical approach to the environmental impact of their products.
Not just looking at their own practices, they also understand that their “biggest environmental impacts are in our supply chain”.
They’re joined the Sustainable Apparel Coalition and require suppliers to use the HIGG INDEX 2.0 facilities module, which considers key environmental impact areas: energy use, greenhouse gas emissions, water use, wastewater/effluent, air emissions, waste, and chemicals management.
As explained on Lululemon’s website, this helps their suppliers to:
- Understand the full environmental impacts of their facilities
- Develop comprehensive and strategic policies to manage environmental performance
- Identify opportunities to improve performance and gain efficiencies
- Benchmark results against industry peers
- This information will ultimately help us understand our product and material footprints in a way that informs our product design and development.
- Under our VENDOR CODE OF ETHICS, suppliers must comply with applicable local laws, regulations, and environmental conventions. Suppliers are required to work towards reducing negative environmental impacts in daily operations and continuously strive for improvement.
While this is an excellent example of how a company is looking beyond their own direct impact on the environment, Lululemon knows this alone won’t solve all the environmental issues with fashion retail.
They know they’ve got a long way to go, especially as some of their suppliers still rely on energy from coal-fired power stations.
However, they have said they want to, “create a garment industry that is sustainable and addresses the serious implications of climate change through goals and strategies that include a rapid transition to renewable energy and energy efficiency.”
How can you increase your green credentials?
This is indeed good news for the planet, but let’s not forget it is also going to be good for business.
Customers are more aware now than ever when it comes to making their shopping habits more sustainable, especially millennials who are the most sustainability-conscious generation to date.
In a recent report from Nielsen Global Solutions, 81% of consumers said it is “extremely” or “very” important that companies “implement programs to improve the environment” and 30% of consumers said they are “willing to pay a premium for products that deliver on social responsibility claims.”
There is therefore without doubt a growing market of opportunities for companies willing and ready to respond with sustainable innovation to become more environmentally responsible with their sourcing, production, and distribution.
So, how can you follow in their footsteps? Well, the largest impact on the environment your ecommerce business is likely to have is through your deliveries and with online sales increasing, The World Economic Forum estimates a 36% uptick in the number of delivery vehicles on our roads in the next decade.
What you therefore need then is a parcel fulfilment service that put the environment first.
As one of the largest global logistics providers of international deliveries from one country or continent to another, Asendia know that protecting our planet comes first by neutralising its environmental footprint.
In January 2022 we announced we are 100% carbon neutral by off-setting carbon emissions produced by their international transport.
Not only does Asendia off-set all international transport emissions, but also includes those by delivery partners, parcel returns, building emissions, machinery, and necessary business travel leading the way in the industry.
Sustainability commitment like this can make a big difference to businesses and their impact on the environment. With climate change always high on the agenda, reducing carbon emissions with greener shipping, ditching plastic packaging for more ecological materials, and cutting down on returns many of which end in landfill are just a few other ways to make your business that much greener.
Asendia’s 2021 and 2022 offset emissions are supporting wind turbine projects in China which help stimulate economic and social development in communities, conserve natural resources including land and forests and promote renewable energies.
The impression that sustainability requires huge investment and drastic changes simply isn’t true: reducing your business’ carbon footprint and creating a greener supply chain are realistic goals which can be easily achieved through small changes, which in return are a win-win for future productivity, profits, and the planet.
From carbon off-setting and using sustainable energy to sourcing and using environmentally friendly packaging and continuously looking at ways they can do better – sustainability is a core focus as demonstrated by Asendia’s sustainability goals.
If you’d like to find out more about how we can support your own eco-friendly policies and what we’re doing to limit our environmental impact across the word. Get in touch.
