Founder, Patagonia · Gave the company to fund climate & ocean conservation, 2022
b. 1938 · Patagonia founded 1973 · ownership transfer 2022
“Without a healthy environment there are no shareholders, no employees, no customers, and no business.”
Patagonia public statements, 2022 ownership transfer.
Yvon Chouinard is the climber, fisherman and businessman who built Patagonia (the clothing company) into the moral compass of the outdoor industry. From its 1973 founding the company committed 1% of all sales to environmental causes (the original "1% for the Planet" pledge, since adopted by thousands of companies). Chouinard himself is a lifelong fly-fisherman and the author of the foundational book Simple Fly Fishing; his early-career mountaineering put up many of the first ascents in Yosemite that defined the sport.
In September 2022, Chouinard, his wife and two children transferred ownership of Patagonia — valued at $3 billion — to a specially designed trust and nonprofit, dedicating all future profits (~$100M/year) to climate and conservation. It is widely regarded as the largest single act of corporate-to-conservation transfer in business history. Patagonia's foundation has funded marine protected areas, salmon recovery, coastal community resilience, and the dam-removal programme on the Klamath River — the largest dam removal in U.S. history.
Chouinard does not own a yacht. He is included here because the conservation ethic he established — that you can build a successful business while putting the planet first — is the cultural permission slip that lets a modern owner buy a Wind Voyage rather than a conventional explorer yacht.
Half the people who can write a $150M cheque for a yacht today are wearing Patagonia on the weekend. The brand Chouinard built tells them that environmental seriousness and personal taste are the same axis. Wind Voyage is built on that axis.
If ocean voyaging is something you’d like to pursue, we have developed a way to do it using wind and solar power out of our respect for the oceans.
Discover the FlagshipPatagonia was founded in 1973 by climber and fly-fisherman Yvon Chouinard. The company has committed 1% of all sales to environmental causes since its founding — the original "1% for the Planet" pledge, since adopted by thousands of other companies.
Yes — in September 2022, Yvon Chouinard, his wife and two children transferred ownership of Patagonia (valued at $3 billion) to a specially designed trust and nonprofit. All future profits — approximately $100 million per year — fund climate and conservation work. It is the largest single corporate-to-conservation transfer in business history.
1% for the Planet is the global network of businesses, individuals and environmental partners founded by Yvon Chouinard and Craig Mathews in 2002. Members commit to giving 1% of annual sales (or salary, for individuals) to approved environmental causes.
