An honest interview with Patagonia - sustainably leading the outdoor clothing industry for over 40 years

We have also been increasingly involved in Fairtrade certification. About 70% of our products for this season come from Fairtrade certified lines. Ultimately, we want everybody involved in making a product for Patagonia to receive a living wage.

Another area that we’re working on is understanding the energy sources for each of our factories. If it comes from a coal fire plant, for instance, then we’re having conversations with those suppliers around how they can transition to more renewable sources.
 

How do you approach innovating for sustainability?

We have an internal venture capital fund that we use to invest in like-minded, environmentally focused, socially-conscious businesses that are working on technologies we think can be scaled within our supply chain. As with any emerging technology, we never know for sure whether they’ll work out. But we’re hopeful, and we’ve made a couple of really interesting investments lately: a new way to optimise the recycling process, and a non-petroleum-based alternative to nylon and polyester.

How is Patagonia working to reduce clothing waste?

We have a programme called Worn Wear, which consists of four Rs. The first is Reduce: don’t buy things that you don’t need. We’re committed to helping our customers to think before they buy. The second is Repair. We run repair facilities in Asia and Europe as well as in North America, where we make around 100,000 repairs a year. So, if you buy a piece from Patagonia and the zipper fails or the dog chews it however many years later, send it to us and we’ll repair it for you. The third is Re-use. We have a platform in the US—we eventually want to bring it to Europe—where, if you have an old, usable Patagonia piece that you’re done wearing, you can bring it back to us and we’ll give you a store credit. We’ll then launder, repair and re-sell the piece so that somebody else can get it at a much cheaper price. The final R is Recycle. If anything you buy from us reaches the end of its life, you can return it and we’ll take responsibility for recycling it.

As one of the original B Corps, what do you think about how the movement has developed since its inception?

One of the biggest concerns I’ve had is that, in seeking to become a bigger movement, its impact and standards would be diluted. But in seeing what was presented at the B Corp summit, I feel reassured that such a dilution of principles isn’t happening. So, I think it’s a movement that we’re still incredibly proud to be a part of.

What happens when a sub-contractor to a supplier has a sustainability issue?

Our starting point is always to try and solve problems, because you won’t change systems by simply eliminating relationships. However, we are willing to do that if we have to. For instance, about four years ago we worked with a group of Merino wool farmers in the Patagonia region of South America because we thought they had some really interesting practices that involved using the sheep to help regenerate heavily impacted grasslands. But then a lot of videos and images started to surface that showed some of the sheep being mistreated, and it very quickly became clear that we were not okay with this and there was no prospect of quickly and definitively fixing the issue. So, we had to make a rapid decision to move away. But we didn’t just change supplier. We actually got out of the Merino wool business for about two years while we rebuilt the supply chain. And, in the process, we created a new standard for how we—and anybody else that wanted to join us—were going to manage that supply chain.

What do you do in your personal life to reduce your carbon footprint?

I bike everywhere and I try to take public transport as much as I can. But, in the role that I have, I fly much more than I would like. I think it’s important to be honest about that. And, in being far from perfect, I think I’m a microcosm for many of us as individuals and businesses.

I also have two young kids, who both inspire me and make me feel a responsibility to educate them on why these issues are so important. I take my eight-year-old son to the climate strikes here in the Netherlands to give him a sense of what’s going on and how he can participate. He already asks questions and he learns about it at school. Even a couple of his school plays have involved environmental themes. It’s very different to how I grew up.

As General Manager - EMEA for Patagonia, Ryan Gellert oversees all sales, marketing, sustainability and operational initiatives for the brand, throughout the region. 

Based at the European Headquarters in Amsterdam, Ryan leads a team who live and breathe the Patagonia mission statement: We’re in business to save our home planet.

An avid climber and backcountry snowboarder, Ryan has climbed and ridden throughout Asia, Europe, North America, Australia, the Middle East and South Africa. Ryan has extensive experience of working with direct action environmental groups, serving on the boards of Access Fund and Protect Our Winters.

Prior to joining Patagonia, Ryan spent 15 years at Black Diamond Equipment, where he held a number of roles including Brand President, VP of Supply Chain Management and Managing Director of Black Diamond Asia.

Ryan holds a J.D. from the S.J. Quinney College of Law at the University of Utah; an M.B.A. from Florida Institute of Technology; and a B.S.B.A. in Finance from the University of North Carolina – Charlotte.

Die vorliegende Marketingmitteilung wurde von der Bank Lombard Odier & Co AG oder einer Geschäftseinheit der Gruppe (nachstehend “Lombard Odier”) herausgegeben. Sie ist weder für die Abgabe, Veröffentlichung oder Verwendung in Rechtsordnungen bestimmt, in denen eine solche Abgabe, Veröffentlichung oder Verwendung rechtswidrig wäre, noch richtet sie sich an Personen oder Rechtsstrukturen, an die eine entsprechende Abgabe rechtswidrig wäre.

Entdecken Sie mehr.