In the latest, perhaps last, and certainly most shocking decision amid a career of tradition-bucking moves, Yvon Chouinard is donating his ownership of Patagonia to fund environmental causes.
The decision to move his family’s estimated $3 billion in ownership value to the Patagonia Holding Trust and the Holdfast Collective was announced by the company to employees and in the New York Times today. The company itself will remain a for-profit entity, but each year’s dividends — estimated at $100 million annually — will further empower efforts to save the planet from climate change.
“If we have any hope of a thriving planet 50 years from now, it demands all of us doing all we can with the resources we have,” said Chouinard in a statement. “As the business leader I never wanted to be, I am doing my part. Instead of extracting value from nature and transforming it into wealth, we are using the wealth Patagonia creates to protect the source. We’re making Earth our only shareholder. I am dead serious about saving this planet.”
