A quick test: Who can name the CEO of Patagonia? I couldn't and I'd be surprised if many of you can, which says something (* answer is below). This realization struck me as I was reading the interview/profile of the CEO of Patagonia in the article in the url below, which I found to be interesting but largely not very surprising. True to form, he acknowledged that Patagonia is still carbon positive, even while reminding everyone that it is closer to carbon neutral than most:
"Mr. Gellert, who arrived at Patagonia in 2014 and became its CEO in 2020, helped to create the new business plan and is now responsible for executing it. 'I'm very clear-eyed that we still take more from the planet than we restore,' he says. 'But I like to think that we are offering a model of a different way of doing business.'"
The interview got interesting, in my opinion, in the last couple of paragraphs, when Gellert started discussing the trade-offs involved in his drive to make Patagonia more sustainable. These compromises are the complicated parts of what it will take to implement meaningful change – compromises that are largely ignored in the idealistic mainstream discussions around climate change:
"Mr. Gellert concedes that it is awkward to both prize the planet and produce unnecessary consumer goods. … He has expanded the company's repair and resale services to keep more of its gear out of landfills, but he notes that pursuing sustainability in anoraks and hiking pants is often harder than it looks."
More specifically:
"Is it better to waterproof products with palm oil instead of toxic chemicals when palm oil plantations tend to compromise tropical forests? Is it helpful to recycle plastic bottles into fleece if these fibers are more likely to shed microplastic particles that can end up polluting the seas?"
This is the detail of sustainability that often gets lost, but is essential if we are ever to make substantive progress. The goal is to move away from black and white decisions framed in terms of good and bad, and delve into the shades of grey that are based around relative degrees of harm. There is nothing easy about these decisions and, done properly, the implications are endless:
"Gaming out these trade-offs is 'never-ending,' says Mr. Gellert. Sustainability, he explains, isn't simply a goal that a company can achieve and then move on to other things: 'This is the work, forever and all time.'"
* The CEO of Patagonia, since 2020, is Ryan Gellert. His predecessor was Rose Marcario.
Take care
David
David Chandler
© Sage Publications, 2023
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Ryan Gellert
By Emily Bobrow
February 4-5, 2023
The Wall Street Journal
Late Edition – Final
C6
