Social Responsibility Case Study: Patagonia
Company Background:
- Established in 1972, Patagonia is an outdoor-clothing company known for its green business model. It was founded by Yvon Chouinard who has “ turned his passion for outdoors into an amazing business”
- Patagonia represented an “experiment” to challenge conventional wisdom and present a new style of responsible business. Patagonia strived to build the best product, cause no unnecessary harm, and use business to inspire and implement solutions to the environmental crisis.
- Patagonia’s product line was composed of 4 main product categories: Sportswear, Technical Outerwear, Technical Knits and Hard Goods. It focused on three criteria’s while developing goods: Quality, Environmental Impact and Innovation.
- During the 1980’s, Patagonia grew its sales from $20 million to $100 million and expanded internationally to Europe and Japan. By 2000, it was grossing about $200 million in net sales.
Business Environment:
- Patagonia’s competitors in the high end outdoor apparel industry included The North Face, Inc., Marmot Mountain Ltd., Mountain Hardware and ARCTERYX.
- Patagonia business philosophy and focus on quality, environmental impact and innovation allowed it to charge prices roughly 20% higher than those of other outdoor apparel and 50% higher than mass market brands for comparable products in both performance wear and sports wear.
- As against competitors, it had come up with highly innovative environmental initiatives: Ironclad Guarantee, The Footprint Chronicles initiative and manufacturing cotton products from organically produced cotton.
- The environment position of the company used to attract much attention from the media and the public. Not all attention that it received was positive, however.
Challenges at Hand:
In 2010, Patagonia was planning to launch a unique environmental initiative called the Product Lifecycle initiative, which constituted Patagonia’s efforts to take responsibility for the products it made. Some
- Established in 1972, Patagonia is an outdoor-clothing company known for its green business model. It was founded by Yvon Chouinard who has “ turned his passion for outdoors into an amazing business”
- Patagonia represented an “experiment” to challenge conventional wisdom and present a new style of responsible business. Patagonia strived to build the best product, cause no unnecessary harm, and use business to inspire and implement solutions to the environmental crisis.
- Patagonia’s product line was composed of 4 main product categories: Sportswear, Technical Outerwear, Technical Knits and Hard Goods. It focused on three criteria’s while developing goods: Quality, Environmental Impact and Innovation.
- During the 1980’s, Patagonia grew its sales from $20 million to $100 million and expanded internationally to Europe and Japan. By 2000, it was grossing about $200 million in net sales.
Business Environment:
- Patagonia’s competitors in the high end outdoor apparel industry included The North Face, Inc., Marmot Mountain Ltd., Mountain Hardware and ARCTERYX.
- Patagonia business philosophy and focus on quality, environmental impact and innovation allowed it to charge prices roughly 20% higher than those of other outdoor apparel and 50% higher than mass market brands for comparable products in both performance wear and sports wear.
- As against competitors, it had come up with highly innovative environmental initiatives: Ironclad Guarantee, The Footprint Chronicles initiative and manufacturing cotton products from organically produced cotton.
- The environment position of the company used to attract much attention from the media and the public. Not all attention that it received was positive, however.
Challenges at Hand:
In 2010, Patagonia was planning to launch a unique environmental initiative called the Product Lifecycle initiative, which constituted Patagonia’s efforts to take responsibility for the products it made. Some