TKE: Using business to save the planet, with Beth Thoren, Patagonia

Beautiful Misfits

Mary Portas

Society & Culture, Business

4.5 • 834 Ratings

🗓️ 9 December 2021

⏱️ 40 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

When Yvon Chouinard became a member of the Southern California Falconry Club in 1953, he was taught how to abseil down cliffs to view the birds’ nests and it sparked a lifelong love of climbing and the outdoors. Twenty years later he founded the clothing company Patagonia. Today it’s a billion-dollar business whose mission statement reads: “We’re in business to save our home planet.” Patagonia is at the forefront of a host of initiatives from recycling to renewable energy. It gives money to grassroots environmental non-profits, repairs garments and supports 64,000 workers through Fair Trade. They publish films and books, fund environmentally and socially conscious start-ups, campaign and innovate in organic and regenerative farming practices. Patagonia is a living, breathing embodiment of a values-driven business. In this episode, Mary talks to Patagonia’s environmental action and initiatives director Beth Thoren about the brand’s vision for the future - and just how critical good business is to the fight to save the planet. To get in touch with team Portas, email us at: [email protected] Subscribe to the Portas POV Newsletter for musings, provocation insights and inspiration. Want to keep up-to-date with all things Portas? Follow us here: Instagram ** Linkedin ** Twitter

Transcript

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0:00.0	Hello, I'm Mary Portis and this is The Kindness Economy, a podcast that looks at the new values driving the businesses of tomorrow.
0:08.0	People, planet and profit in that order. It's the future. Are you ready for better?
0:16.6	Globalisation. It's kind of almost a dirty word now, isn't it? The rise of huge corporations, the driving down of price and labour conditions.
0:25.6	But surprising, as it may be for someone who's always championed the local,
0:29.6	I'm going to make a bit of a rallying cry for our collective appreciation of the much bigger picture.
0:34.6	Because for all its faults, global globalization has opened up the world around us
0:39.5	in some very positive ways. Where once people believe the world ended on their own horizon,
0:44.8	we're now more aware of other cultures than we've ever been. Everything from art to ideas is
0:50.3	able to permeate beyond borders thanks to technology and increased movement.
0:55.6	We understand far more of those challenges facing countries internationally.
1:02.0	All of this is why we felt it so acutely last year when much of the world just shut down.
1:09.3	We weren't in this alone.
1:11.6	The pandemic was a global catastrophe,
1:15.6	unlike anything we've ever seen before.
1:18.6	And at the same time, there was this new focus on
1:21.6	and appreciation of our local communities,
1:24.6	the people and the businesses in the streets closest to home.
1:28.3	We rediscovered the strength and the grounding to be found in reconnecting with what's immediately
1:35.0	around us.
1:36.3	From chatting to neighbours, walking in local green spaces or using neighbourhood shops, we reconnected
1:43.1	with our immediate environments.
1:55.0	But was this heightened sense of both the local and global, just a moment in time? Or will we carry it with us now that life is getting increasingly back to that word normal. Well, I for one,
	...

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