Every Day Is Special: June 1 - A Company That Cares

June 1 - A Company That Cares

Posted on June 1, 2019

Today is the anniversary of Patagonia opening a child-care center on-site of their distribution center in Reno, Nevada, in 2017. The corporate headquarters in Ventura, California, has had on-site child care facilities since 1983, and CEO Rose Marcario has seen the data that providing this sort of child-care option is good business. Under her leadership, 100% of women working for Patagonia have returned to work after giving birth.

Rose Marcario

In addition to caring about parents and kids of employees, Marcario has managed to grow Patagonia's business by making ethics important, and by caring about more than profits:

She made the company's production processes more environmentally friendly and sustainable.

Source: THEPRCH

Marcario reduced packaging.

Marcario and Patagonia founder Yvon Chouinard withdrew from the annual Outdoor Retailer trade show, in 2016, because the governor of the host state, Utah, was trying to eliminate the protected status of land in the Bears Ears National Monument. Other outdoor industry companies followed suit, and a big spotlight of public attention followed the story of the boycott. The trade show decided to relocate to a more eco-friendly state.

Bears Ears

Marcario closed the company on Election Day in 2016 to raise awareness of the importance of voting. (Many Americans think that Election Day should be a public holiday. If other companies follow Patagonia's lead, this idea has a bigger chance of achieving reality.)

Patagonia-the-company takes its name from Patagonia-
the-region. This region is shared by Chile and Argentina,
and the relatively uninhabited lands includes a rugged
portion of the Andes Mountains. Note that the logo (above)
echoes the skyline of one section of the Andes (below).

Marcario has spoken out against the actions taken by Donald Trump that pull the U.S. out of the fight against climate change and give companies the go-ahead to pollute.

She has also sued the Trump administration over the executive orders that attempt to reduce the size of several national monuments, including Bears Ears.

She donated the $10 million saved by Trump's tax cuts to environmental organizations.

(Since 1985, Patagonia has given 1% of all sales to environmental nonprofits.)

Under her leadership, Patagonia encourages people to get their gear repaired rather than buy new things.

Marcario says, "If you want to retain great people and have a great company, then you have to inspire the people to a greater, bigger purpose than themselves, and for us it's saving the planet."

I hope more and more companies will place women in high positions and listen to women's ideas. I hope more and more companies will put thought and effort into making parents and families a priority. I hope more and more companies will follow Patagonia's lead and stand for environmentalism and corporate responsibility. I hope more and more companies will try to inspire their workers and their customers to greater purposes than short-term financial benefit!