Patagonia (clothing)

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Patagonia is a Ventura, California based clothing company, focusing mainly on outdoor clothing. The company is a member of several environmental movements and is considered a socially-responsible company. It was founded by Yvon Chouinard in 1972^[1].

1 Environmental activities
2 Organic cotton
3 Use of Fair Labor
4 References
5 External links

[edit] Environmental activities

Patagonia is a major contributor to environmental groups. Patagonia commits 1% of their total sales or 10% of their profit, whichever is more, to environmental groups. Since 1985, when the program was first started, Patagonia has donated $25 million to over 1,000 organizations.

Patagonia co-founded the alliance 1% For the Planet. This is an alliance of businesses who, like Patagonia, commit at least 1% of their total sales to the environment.

[edit] Organic cotton

Patagonia uses organic cotton exclusively.

Once we had this knowledge [that "very little is pure or natural about cotton when it is raised conventionally"], and the counsel of good friends in the environmental community, we believed we had no choice. In 1996, we converted our entire sportswear line to 100% organically grown cotton. We decided never to go back to conventional cotton, regardless of the outcome.
-Patagonia Web Site

Patagonia was the largest purchaser of organic cotton at one time^{[citation needed]}.

[edit] Use of Fair Labor

Patagonia is a member of the Fair Labor Association. Inspections conducted by the Fair Labor Association rarely finds violations at factories producing Patagonia clothing.