Way to go to Yvon Chouinard and his family for putting their money where their mouths are (i.e. putting money towards what they say they care about)! And talk about being change agents, and in Level 7 energy (for those familiar with Energy Leadership)…wow. Who is Yvon Chouinard? He is the 83 yr old who founded Patagonia in 1973, the American company that manufactures and sells outdoor clothing.
What did the family recently do that shocked the business world?
They aligned with their passion for the environment and just recently gave away the $3 billion company to a specially designed trust and a nonprofit organization, with no tax benefit, to preserve the company’s independence and ensure all of its profits (over $100 million / year) go towards:
Addressing climate change
Protecting undeveloped land around the world
And this is in addition to all of the below:
The Chouinards have been early adopters for some time, they were pioneers in things like:
Using organic cotton in their products
Offering paid parental leave
Having on site child care and paying for caregivers to travel with an employee and their child on business trips
Discouraging shopping on Black Friday
Offering flexible work hours
Patagonia prioritizes employee well being and sustainability over profits
Mr. Chouinard wrote in his autobiography, “our family considers our bottom line to be the amount of good the business has accomplished over the year”
It genuinely pissed Mr. Chouinard off to be ranked as a billionaire in Forbes
The family fully believes every billionaire is a policy failure
Mr. Chouinard wears old clothes, drives a beat up Subaru, and doesn’t own a computer or cellphone
Patagonia has given away 1% of its sales for decades to environmental causes
What a shining example of putting your money where your mouth is. As change agents, many times we are in charge of a budget at work. And almost all of us are in charge of a budget at home. The questions are, how often are you putting your money where your mouth is at:
Work?
Home?
If the answers are something along the lines of “I could improve in this area”, I guarantee you if this is at:
Work, employees are seeing the disconnect and know there is little commitment to what you are saying
Home, there are some people in your life who see this disconnect and will pay less attention to what it is you say you care about
As you reflect on this and the shining example of the Chouinard Family:
How impactful of a change agent can you be if no or little of your budget is being put towards what you say you care about?
How much more impact can you have if more of your budget was put where your mouth is?
What action have the Chouinards inspired you to take?
A huge thank you to the Chouinards for standing up, doing all they can to address climate change, and for being shining examples of environmental change agents. May their actions inspire more in the business world to follow suit so our children, our grandchildren, our nieces, our nephews, and future generations can have the same opportunities, stability, and health we and past generations have been able to enjoy.
Call to Action
Want help shifting your mindset so you can put more of your money where your mouth is? Reach out to Rosanne for support so you can be a more effective change agent / leader.
Using the comments feature, what is an example of where you decided to put your money where your mouth is?
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About the Author: Rosanne Essiambre helps change agents and departments in one-on-one and group settings to be seen, be heard, and be effective in bringing about change in the organization and/or in their personal lives. She provides consulting and facilitation to organizations to improve communications and collaboration, smooth out the change / transformation journey, get to the root cause of an issue so it can be solved for good, improve processes, and implement successful lessons learned. And she conducts workshops, trains, and speaks on Energy Leadership, Emotional Intelligence, Resilience, Being a Change Agent and more. If you or your organization could use support with your change effort or some inspiration, contact Rosanne for a complimentary discovery session. Rosanne is a Change Agent Coach, Facilitator, Six Sigma Black Belt, Change Management / Continuous Improvement Consultant, Speaker, and Energy Leadership Index Master Practitioner with more than 20 years experience working on a variety of transformations across a diverse set of industries both domestically and internationally, while continuously improving herself.