Patagonia’s philanthropy won’t fix – and might hurt – the planet

Giving back is fine. In September, Patagonia’s billionaire founder Yvon Chouinard grabbed headlines after announcing that he was giving away his company to a trust that will use its profits to combat climate change. However, Microsoft – where the Gates made their money – has, alongside Apple, Google and Amazon, been accused of using gold in its products mined illegally from Indigenous territory in Brazil’s Amazon forests. Chouinard’s open letter states that “instead of extracting value from nature and transforming it into wealth, we are using the wealth Patagonia creates to protect the source”. While Patagonia’s new structure ensures the company’s annual net profits of more than $100m will support climate and environmental initiatives, what does this represent in terms of unnecessary production and consumption?