Content area
Full Text
Outdoor apparel brand Patagonia has long been recognized as one of the world’s most outspoken corporate entities in the fight to preserve the planet.
That reputation was put on full display following the Trump administration’s elimination of most of Bears Ears National Monument in Utah in 2017, when the outdoor apparel brand hit back with a widely discussed campaign to sue the president.
While its public advocacy efforts have taken center stage since the brand’s inception, loyalists and true tree-huggers appreciate Patagonia’s efforts behind the scenes, too. Carbon emissions studies and sustainable material innovations may not be fodder for brand campaigns, but the company’s product teams are constantly strategizing about how to mitigate the apparel industry’s devastating ecological impact.
“We have this longstanding history and legacy of doing the right thing,” Matt Dwyer, Patagonia’s senior director of materials and innovation, said. The brand was built on founder Yvon Chouinard’s vision of creating mountaineering equipment that wouldn’t disturb the natural environment, he said, and that initial philosophy has sustained it through more than four decades.
Dwyer said that the company began thinking deeply about the impact of its materials about 25 years ago, when it introduced its first post-consumer recycled fleece. Now, its roster of environmentally conscious fabrics and components has blossomed, along with revamped supply chain processes to conserve natural resources and create less waste.
“About two years ago we did our first carbon footprint exercise and found that, to nobody’s surprise, materials and supply chain accounted for 86 percent of the entire company’s carbon footprint,” Dwyer told Sourcing Journal.
“We always knew that by being a business, we’d have an impact. That’s the paradox we’ve dealt with since day one, but this time we had numbers to go with it. If there was ever a rallying cry for me and my team, that was absolutely it,” he added.
Recycled materials
Since...