Patagonia: The Responsible Company What We’ve Learned from Patagonia’s first 40 years  An Evening with Vincent Stanley – VP of Marketing  Last night the downtown Boulder Patagonia store hosted a wise elder of Patagonia, Vincent Stanley, who has recently co-authored a new book with Patagonia founder, Yvon Chouinard, titled Patagonia: The Responsible Company. Speaking with a calm, clear and very ego-less demeanor, Stanley gave an overview of his own 40+ year involvement with Patagonia book-ended by his current position of Vice President of Marketing. As a writer, Stanley and Chouinard’s new title literally expresses an outline for companies to consider in striving for continued consciousness in the delicate dance between caring for customers and caring for the environment. Over the last four decades, Stanley honestly spoke about the continuing learning process the leaders of Patagonia have endured in better understanding the impacts of their own manufacturing processes. “I am a fan of transparency,” stated Stanley, “and it has made a huge difference in this company.” Stanley matter-of-factly stated the unfortunate truth that “most often publically held companies won’t always move towards environmental improvements because it takes longer for a return and it affects the bottom line.” The tension between trying to be a “sustainable” company and yet manufacturing goods with by-products was highlighted in Patagonia’s year-old ad campaign. “Don’t Buy this Jacket” was the title of a full-page ad taken out in the New York Times a year ago featuring the R2 jacket. In an attempt to give customers pause, and the company itself as a whole, the ad tried to outline what are the levels of consumption required (water, electricity, materials, and labor) needed for producing a single garment. When taking this approach and accountability, the inevitable question asked by Stanley was “how then do you judge the success of a campaign like this?” Ultimately seeing that there were neither increases our decreases in the sales of the specific products highlighted in the “Don’t Buy This Jacket” campaign, a status quo could therefore be considered a success while awareness was raised to customers of the true cost of “consumption” of their purchasing power, with this simultaneously being a good reminder for the company. In a glimpse towards the future, Stanley highlighted a few efforts Patagonia continues to make as a company towards its own environmental stewardship and “role model-ness” if you will as a company for others. The Portland, Oregon Patagonia store has created an area within its square footage called “The Second Home” for used Patagonia clothing to be re-sold. Patagonia has also partnered with eBay in a Common Threads program for re-selling used products. Also, every single Patagonia retail store will receive and recycle any old, worn-out Patagonia items that will be re-purposed and re-created into new products. There will be continued publishing at Patagonia Press of the Footprint Chronicles, which outlines their products environmental footprint and impact in the manufacturing process. A significant event affecting the company’s future occurred in 2012, in that Patagonia was classified as a B-Corporation whereas social and environmental values can be written into the business charter. The ultimate highlight of B-Corp status for Patagonia is that when the current owners die the company can’t be sued for not selling to the highest bidder. Patagonia is one of the few companies that truly has acknowledged their own shortcomings. In concluding, Stanley succinctly expressed the sentiment of the company as, “ we ultimately do not want to put a lot of people out of work for striving to be virtuous.”