Patagonia takes corporate social responsibility and environmental sustainability seriously. In this audio lecture, founder Yvon Chouinard details how the company controls its growth and reduces waste. He also offers a slew of counterintuitive business tips for how to do good while increasing the bottom line. Delivering the 2006 Von Guegelberg Memorial Environmental Lecture at the Stanford Center for Social Innovation, Chouinard provides a strategic vision that is on the cutting edge of corporate social responsibility and environmental sustainability efforts.
Yvon Chouinard is founder and owner of Patagonia, Inc, based in Ventura, Calif. He began in business by designing, manufacturing, and distributing rock-climbing equipment in the late 1950s. His tinkering led to an improved ice ax, which facilitated the French ice-climbing technique, and is the basis for the modern ice ax design. In 1964 he produced his first mail-order catalog, a one-page mimeographed sheet containing advice not to expect fast delivery during climbing season. In 2001, Chouinard cofounded 1% for the Planet, an alliance of businesses that contribute at least 1% of their net annual sales to groups on a list of researched and approved environmental organizations. Today, he makes significant contributions to activist environmental concerns, serves on the boards of numerous environmental organizations, and spends much of his time in the outdoors.
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