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[MUSIC] Rose, we're so excited to have you here today. Thank you for coming. >> Thank you.
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It's great to be here at Stanford. It's just amazing. It's wonderful.
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>> Now, I'm not sure if you know this, but Patagonia is practically the unofficial uniform of GSP- >> [LAUGH] >> Students.
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>> There's a cheer around campus a little bit today.
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[LAUGH] >> In preparation for this interview, I undertook a rigorous study to analyze how many GSP wearing- >> [LAUGH] >> Students I would find in just one day on campus, and so without even trying, I found them In the library.
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>> [LAUGH] >> In the dining hall, in class, in town square.
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>> [LAUGH] >> And everywhere- >> [LAUGH] >> In between. >> That's good [LAUGH].
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>> I even found some GSP students clad head-to-toe in Patagonia in Patagonia.
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>> [LAUGH] >> So, while the GSP students clearly love Patagonia products, what we love even more is the company's leadership and values, and we're really excited to explore those with you today.
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>> Thank you, it's great to be here.
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>> So, I'd love to start with your personal journey before you found your way to Patagonia.
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Early in your career, you reached the heights of professional success in PE and in tech. >> Yeah.
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>> You were the CFO of a public company and later, the EVP of a private equity firm. >> Yeah.
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>> And in 2006, you walked away from it all. >> I did.
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>> Can you share with us why?
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>> Yeah, so, I think like anyone, when you start out your career, you're sort of striving to figure out who you are.
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You're striving to do work that is meaningful to you, even though you don't really know what that is yet.
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You're just figuring it out.
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And I got to this place where my Italian immigrant family was like, wow you've made it.
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You're the CFO of a public company.
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I was in my 30s and I was also going through a spiritual sort of journey.
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I was studying Buddhism at the time and I got to a place where my work life felt completely separated from my personal life and my values.
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And it seemed to be that way with every one that I was working around, it seemed that there was this bifurcation between your work life, and your personal life and your personal values.
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And I just couldn't bear that anymore and then I started working in private equity because I thought I'd have more freedom, it would be more exciting.
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And I was really disappointed by it, and I know some of you are going to go, [LAUGH] working price of equity, so I feel kind of bad saying this.
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[LAUGH] But for me personally, I could see that the buying and selling of companies made very few people rich, and in most cases, in a lot of cases, hurt the people that were the actual workers, and the people that had built the company.
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So, yeah, I went on a sort of personal exploration, I went to India, I took some time off.
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I took care of my ailing mom at the time.
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And I thought about different things that I could do with my life and I thought, well, maybe I should work for an NGO but then I thought I know nothing about that.
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And I thought maybe I should become a Buddhist nun and then I thought that's not so great.
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>> [LAUGH] >> And I thought I'd use sort of the skills that I had, which was making people money, being a really good operator, being a good leader, a good manager, but do something with it that was more aligned with my values.
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>> And I think for many people, this idea of giving up a path that is safe and conventionally prestigious feels very scary. You actually did it.
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What did you learn from that?
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Was it as scary as people think?
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>> It's funny, the people around me that were very trapped in their structure were calling me and saying, you're doing the wrong thing, you're gone too long, you're leaving in the height of your career.
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[LAUGH] I mean, it was like, there was a lot of advice and it was all wrong.
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I mean, [LAUGH] that's basically what I can say about that.
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I think that once you know that you want to make a change, I think you start to visualize that you're going to make that change.
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>> And it sounds like during that time, you were reflecting a lot on what matters to you.
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What does the outdoors mean to you and how did that shape your decision to focus on the environment?
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>> Well, nature, to me, it's like a spiritual experience.
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And it's an experience of awe.
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And we don't get a lot of those experiences I think in our day to day life, and we want to protect it.
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But I think what was more interesting to me was that Yvon had this model, where he was basically saying, you can have a great business, you can make quality product, but you can also do the right thing by the environment, by your employees, by your community.
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And that to me was like the most holistic vision of business that I had ever seen.
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And I wanted to see if it actually worked, and how it worked.
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And so that's sort of what brought me to Patagonia.
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>> Yeah, absolutely, and so you joined Patagonia, which, as you mentioned, is a company with long standing commitment to environmentalism.
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But under your leadership, the mission has become even bolder.
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Patagonia is now in the business of saving the home planet.
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Why did you think it was important to aim even higher?
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>> Yeah, well, that was really Ivan saying we had so fully embodied the old mission statement that we felt the urgency of the climate crisis and the extinction that we're facing is so urgent that we felt like everybody's mission, every business's mission should be to save our home planet.
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I mean, we're facing this extinction crisis and we can't turn away from it, and we need the rest of business to sort of wake up and turn towards solutions and innovations and the things that will help us survive.
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>> And Yvon in some ways had this pioneering, almost anti-corporate vision of responsible business, and since you've joined, you've quadrupled revenue to reach over a billion dollars annually.
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Some people might think that driving both growth and environmental stewardship at the same time is impossible, but you've seemingly done it- >> [LAUGH] >> How?
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>> I don't think that they're disconnected in any way.
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I mean, I think at the foundation of the business, it's making a great product and then standing behind that product.
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So, I don't think that is in anyway bifurcated from caring about our planet and our environment.
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I mean, the businesses was founded by people who- Yvon himself made so many first descents and climbs in his life.
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I mean, they're people that love the outdoors and saw the changes that were happening to the outdoors over time.
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because if you keep going back to these places, you can see that they're starting to degrade or they're being destroyed by the climate crisis.
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So I think Yvon saw that and it's embedded in the company.
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It's been, I think more important in the last few years because we have so many climate deniers in our government.
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It's been more important for us to take more of a stand and I think our customers understand that.
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And they've been with the brand a long time and they appreciate that.
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And one of the unique things about Patagonia is that in many ways, it's very counter cultural.
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You donate millions in Black Friday sales to environmental organizations, and you encourage customers to repair and resell their gear.
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And so as a leader at Patagonia, how do you decide where to place these bets on being different?
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>> It comes out of what's happening in the moment, when we donated our Black Friday sales, it was right after the election.
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We were really bummed out about what was going to happen to the environmental protections that we had.
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We knew that the administration was trying to get rid of these public lands designations that were made.
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And we didn't feel very festive that holiday.
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[LAUGH] And so we decided that we wanted to do something that was meaningful.
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And since Black Friday is such a representation of consumerism in a negative way we wanted it to be turned into something positive.
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And we also wanted to support grassroots activists that were on the ground and needed the money to help fight some of these environmental battles.
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>> And some of these decisions, like the one you just talked about, or the decision, for example, to not sell Patagonia vests to companies that don't share Patagonia's values.
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Seem like they require some sort of prioritization between growth and values of the company.
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And I think a lot of us are looking to be leaders that work in that space where we're prioritizing both.
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So, how do you actually make those decisions in practice?
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>> Well, I mean, we keep track.
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We definitely look at what could be the impact of certain actions.
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But most of the time we're wrong for the better. >> Right.
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>> And that's typically what happens. >> Yeah.
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>> We just decided last year we gave away the Trump tax cut.
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And this year we had another 10 million we felt like to give away in addition.
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But we thought this year, okay, we're going to ask our customers to see if they'll participate with us.
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And our customers contributed $10 million to grassroots activists in 17 days.
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And we set this bar thinking $10 million, we might not get there, but our customers did it.
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And because they're as worried about the environment as we are.
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>> Yeah, I think that's what's so fascinating about the model.
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Is it seems like some of these moves will hurt profits, but they end up having the opposite effect.
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>> But these are issues that are our issues.
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They're the issues of our day, and you can't turn away from them.
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If you're business leaders you can't turn away from them and say, I'm just going to go make a profit.
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And forget about the fact that the planet is burning, or that species are dying.
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Or that there's such gross inequity between the rich and the poor.
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That it's not going to affect me, right?
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I think if you grow numb in that way, then we're probably all doomed.
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We need to turn toward it and actually do something.
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>> Yeah, absolutely, and while we're on this topic of sort of growth and values, at some point, if Patagonia continues to grow its retail business, there could come a tension between that and sort of the environmental mission.
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And so how are you thinking about the growth of Patagonia's retail side?
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Is that going to continue to be a focus or are new business models going to emerge?
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>> Yeah, I mean, definitely there's a lot going on in terms of just resources, right?
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So we're not going to have unlimited amounts of virgin material or virgin resources.
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We've known that for a long time and have been working on all kinds of recycled and reclaimed products.
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Because the reality is, we're not going to be able to keep consuming at the rate we're consuming and still have a planet.
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So we need to change the business model.
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And that to me is like innovation. It's really exciting.
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The people that we have working on that, they are stoked about it.
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They are blazing new trails and building new supply chains.
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And so, I think that's just part of the process of understanding that business is changing and we need different solutions.
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>> Yeah, definitely, and part of the innovation Patagonia is doing is moving into this space of food and agriculture.
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So could you talk to us a little bit about how that plays into this strategy that you were just talking about?
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>> Yeah, so we've always been looking at not just funding grassroots activism but looking at solutions.
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Whether it's solutions to supply chain problems or pollution in the supply chain.
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And in the 90s, our founder had sort of an epiphany about conventional cotton.
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It uses ten extra pesticides of most crops, synthetic fertilizers, really, really terrible for the environment.
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And he said if I have to make another shirt with conventional cotton I'd rather close my business.
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And so he started working on an organic cotton supply chain.
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So we've always been pioneers in organic.
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And if you look at 99% of the agriculture in the US is chemical agriculture.
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I'm not going to use the word conventional anymore because it's not conventional, it's chemical.
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And that's 3 or 400 million pounds of pesticides and synthetic fertilizers on the soil.
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So if you don't think that's affecting public health, biodiversity loss, you're kidding yourself.
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So we felt like food was the best entry way for people to really understand that we can use the soil and we can use the Earth as a regenerator.
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And regenerative organic agriculture, which is just really techniques, farming techniques, along with organic, chemical-free agriculture, is the sort of solution, I think, that we need to turn toward to get out of this chemical agriculture model that we're in.
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So there's some estimates that say we only have 50 or 60 harvests left.
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I know, it bums you out, right?
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But in some way, >> [LAUGH] >> In some way it should also excite some ideas about wanting to change it.
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And to me, those are the innovators and those are the businesses that will really make a difference, the regenerators.
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We can have a regenerative economy.
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We're going to have to have one. >> Mm-hm.
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>> And the businesses that are working on it now will, I think, be the most successful. >> Yeah, absolutely.
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And moving forward, do you see the agriculture arm being sort of almost as big, if not bigger than the retail arm?
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>> I think it could be, yeah.
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And I think we also have set really strong carbon goals for ourself, to be carbon-neutral by 2025, in our total supply chain.
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And it's really hard to do it, but we're working on doing it.
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And some of that has to be offset by sequestering more carbon in the ground, through different farming techniques.
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And so we're looking at that as well.
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But yes, to me it's really exciting.
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It's more about innovation.
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>> Absolutely, and Patagonia is pioneering all of these innovative approaches and doing them well.
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Your mission is to save the home planet, and Patagonia can't achieve that alone.
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And some would ask how replicable is what Patagonia is doing, given that you're so countercultural, long term focused and privately owned and what's your strategy for influencing others in the broader industry?
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>> Well, I think the benefit corporation movement has been a really important part of showing the business should be responsible to multiple stakeholders.
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When we became the first California Benefit Corporation in 2011, and now there's I think 50,000 companies that are taking the B Impact Assessment and over 3,000 that actually are certified.
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And so I think that's a nice container. That's a nice model.
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I can see the influence now with the business, Jamie Diamond and the business roundtable coming out and saying there should be more stakeholders than just the financial stakeholders.
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It seems to me, obvious there should be more than one stakeholder.
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[LAUGH] And then you could balances these things.
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And I think Patagonia does sort of exemplify balancing those things.
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>> Yeah and one of the things I loved learning about Patagonia is your philosophy on sharing best practices.
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You share openly and you collaborate even with competitors in some cases.
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Why do you choose to live that way?
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>> Well, it just makes because we're not a huge company.
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It just helps innovations to scale, if we do it and the North Face does it and it's it it helps, and it's adopted more widely by the Gap or someone else.
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It makes a difference and so that's really the philosophy behind sharing.
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And always constantly being innovative about what's next and what problem to solve next.
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>> Sustainable consumption sadly does remain financially prohibitive for a lot of people and if the goal is to save the whole planet, how are you thinking about reaching the wider audience is necessary to attain that goal?
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>> Well, I would hope that there's enough consumer pressure on brands that people understand that if they buy a $2 t-shirt, it was probably made with slave labor and poisonous chemicals and they think twice about buying that product.
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I think that as a brand we've always had a belief that, we make a great product.
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We'll repair it for you, if you need it repaired, and it's broken.
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So we're in a contract with our customer that says, we want you to keep that in use longer.
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Because with all the life cycle analysis stuff we've done over the years, the most important thing is to keep your stuff and use longer.
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And that's the most important thing a consumer can do.
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And so we'll repair it we'll replace it if we can't repair it and we'll figure out a way to recycle the materials that you have.
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But you have to the customer has their part of the bargain too. And yeah.
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>> And the work that you're doing on Worn Wear seems to be an interesting piece of this in a sense that it's attracting younger customers, customers who perhaps can't buy some of the new Patagonia gear but they're able to buy some of them- >> Yeah, I mean there's definitely that,
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we sell we're selling our US gear we're sort of, making sure that it meets the requirements for being in the secondary market and that does help attract a younger customer but it's attracting younger customers to us now is really more our activism. >> Yeah. >> And the fact that we're standing up for >> Yeah.
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>> And the fact that we're standing up for the things that they care about.
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>> And your employees love working at Patagonia, so I wanted to spend a few minutes on corporate culture.
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It's not hard to see why they love it from scaling on site childcare to encouraging employees to hit the waves when the stuff is up.
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You invest really heavily in your people.
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Why do you focus so much on this and what's the return on investment?
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>> Well, let me just say something about childcare because I feel like that's probably the biggest transformational thing for me personally because I worked in tech before, and I don't have any children.
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So I didn't really relate to like the kinds of issues that my employees might have had.
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There were cappuccino machines, and Foosball tables, and all kinds of cool tech stuff.
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But there was no place that a nursing mom could go and nurse comfortably.
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And when it came to Patagonia, I was totally blown away because there was on site childcare, there's kids around our campus all the time, which is really great because you see the future every day.
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And you have a real connection to your employees children, and the next generation, and that motivates me every day.
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[LAUGH] I mean when I see my employees and their children it makes me think about, what am I doing for the long-term?
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And we subsidize our on-site child care, but we manage it ourselves.
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And we have the lowest turnover in our female executives, managers, employees.
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We have total gender parity, so 50 50 management women and men, that comes from having on-site child care, I believe.
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Because women don't feel like they have to take a break- >> [APPLAUSE] >> From their work.
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And you lose a lot of women after they have kids because it just, it becomes kind of untenable in lots of ways and it's not supported in a lot of working environments.
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So that's why I think we have a really strong great gender balance company in that way I think it makes us make better decisions and the ROI on it I have done a thing you can look at, I linked on the ROI there is an ROI on it and yeah I mean I look at big campus and like why there is not childcare there.
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>> Absolutely, that was going to be one of my questions is, why aren't more companies doing this?
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And is it really as expensive as people think when- >> No, I don't think I really the economic model is on there, but it's really not that expensive. >> Yeah.
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>> I mean, to me, it's the benefits far outweigh the costs and, we subsidize a portion but it's not in any way prohibitive or to our business and they've been doing it Patagonia has been doing it since we were a small company.
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So it's just built into the business model. >> Yeah. >> Yeah.
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>> An incredible inspiration and I hope that one that we'll all take with us as future leaders and implement.
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So if we zoom out from Patagonia's business and culture and talk a bit more about your views on corporate leadership, particularly in the 21st century with all of the problems that we're facing.
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Under your leadership Patagonia has become much more political.
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You mentioned earlier you even sued the Trump administration for his plans to roll back public lands.
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>> [APPLAUSE] >> Why did you ramp up your political activism and, in the lead up to 2020, is this something that all business leaders should be thinking about?
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>> Well, I think we've seen a lot, I mean, when the administration pulled out of the Paris Climate Accord.
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We're the only major country not in the Paris Climate Accord, it's a disgrace.
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And you saw business leaders step up and sign a document saying we are still in on any court or any team working toward this goals and I think those the first time I was like well this is.
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Waking up and they're starting to really participate and take a stand.
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And our reaction to what this administration has done is I think proportional, given that the company has always been about protecting wild places and protecting the environment.
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When Trump signs away 3 million acres of public land with a stroke of a pen.
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We're not going to sit silent about that.
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And it was a definitely a difficult choice to make, to sue the administration, but it was the best choice that we had in that time.
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And yeah, we'd do it again in a second.
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And we've sued him over the Endangered Species Act.
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And they make us briefs on a number of other issues, and the Clean Water Act.
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And we're not going to sit by while all the protections to wild lands are dismantled, we're just not going to sit by and watch that.
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>> [APPLAUSE] >> And I don't think other companies should either because a lot of their they probably be interested to know that a lot of their employees find a lot of enjoyment in the outdoors and spending time with their families there.
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And if it's gone because of greedy people, then we don't get it back.
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So yeah, I mean it feels proportional to me.
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I mean people say to me all the time, you're taking the biggest stand, but it feels very proportional to what the company has been devoted to over the last 46 years, and what we're keeping devoted to.
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>> And you're out there taking a stand often before anyone else is, and you mentioned that's not always easy.
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What helps you to actually act on these convictions, for those of us are hoping to do that one day as well?
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>> Yeah, well I think that Chris Tompkins, who's on our board, when I took the job as CEO, said to me, you don't get points for holding back.
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And I thought that was great advice.
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And so, I'll always, sort of, had that in my brain, we shouldn't hold back, we should do what we think is right no matter what the climate is and what the situation is.
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And so yeah, I think it's that, and I also think I work with some amazing people.
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And we all have the same values in protecting wilderness for future generations and we all care about wild places being around.
26:47
And if they're not we're not going to have a world to live in.
26:53
>> And on the flip side, you have spoken out against tech leaders for their sort of refusal to take responsibility for their impact on society.
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Where do you see the sector falling short?
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And how can we as aspiring tech leaders be better in the future?
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>> Well, think of how much money like the few, like richest tech guys are.
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I'm not going to name him by name because you all know them >> [LAUGH]. >> What are they doing?. Like going to Mars?. [LAUGH].
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I mean, how weird is that?.
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[LAUGH] >> I mean, our planet is like, we are in dire trouble here.
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There's unbelievable income and equity.
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There's a rise of populism and fascism in the world, and it's very scary right now.
27:49
There's a climate crisis that is affecting everyone's life and causing billions and billions of dollars in damage.
27:58
And very wealthy people could do something really powerful about it and I don't see them doing anything. I really don't.
28:09
Self driving cars going to Mars. I don't get it.
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I think it's the reason why a lot of wealth shouldn't be concentrated into a few people because that's what happens.
28:27
And yeah, it's not going to make me very powerful [LAUGH] crowd here but, you know, it's just my point of view about it. >> Yeah. >> Yeah.
28:35
>> This is why we like bringing diverse speakers on this place so get different points of view.
28:42
You also have these great thoughts on the financial system and the ways in which it's sort of structurally destroying our planet, particularly this emphasis on quarterly earnings. >> Yeah.
28:52
>> And so a lot of us are going to be going back out into the business and the finance world.
28:56
What one call to action will you have for us on that piece?
28:59
>> Well, I do think that this quarterly earnings thing is insane.
29:03
I was a public company CFO and I saw people just sweating out, one set of earning per share.
29:10
And it's like, think about your life, nothing important happens in a quarter.
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>> [LAUGH] >> It's such a weird system, developed by probably just a bunch of people you wouldn't want to sit and have dinner with, honestly.
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>> [LAUGH] >> And I feel like it's really destroying the planet.
29:29
Because it's a short term thinking.
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I don't want to think about what happened in a quarter.
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I want to look into the eyes of my employee's child, and say, what's going to happen in her lifetime?
29:46
And to me it's like the whole idea of this short term profit that makes a few shareholders very rich, it's not a good model.
29:59
I mean it doesn't mean that capitalism is bad.
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I love capitalism, I love the competition, I love the innovation, I love the working together and collaboration and the best ideas win.
30:14
I love that and that's like the best part of capitalism and great products and great services and disruption and all of that.
30:23
So, capitalism needs to evolve. That's all. >> Mm-hm.
30:26
>> It's not necessarily a bad system. It just needs to evolve.
30:31
And it needs to consider more things than just a financial shareholder or quarterly earnings report.
30:38
>> Yeah, absolutely, and Larry Fink of BlackRock just put climate at the center of his annual letter.
30:44
We've seen a lot of talk about these things in the past.
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Do you feel like we're finally reaching a tipping point where action is coming? >> I don't know. I see a lot of talk.
30:55
And I don't see a lot of action yet from that group.
31:01
And we don't have time to not have action.
31:06
When I say there's 50 or 60 harvests left.
31:09
There's a lot of scientists that believe that.
31:13
When we really look at the climate crisis and how quickly it's come upon us and pretty much everyone in this room has been touched in some way by fire or flood or, has some relative that's been effected.
31:26
And it's only getting worse, so I don't see the action yet, I don't see the investment yet, I still see using the same measures or metrics.
31:42
But maybe I'm wrong, maybe I'm not seeing it all, but >> I thought we turn now to some of the broader leadership lessons from your career and trajectory and Many of us in this room at Stanford hope to found companies.
31:59
We're known for attracting aspiring entrepreneurs.
32:02
But there's this other equally powerful path of working alongside founders and helping to scale their vision and impact, which is very much what you've done alongside Ivan Shinad.
32:12
What's the most important thing that you're learned from working with him?
32:16
>> Man, there's so many things.
32:20
Well he's completely fearless, whenever he makes a decision, he doesn't care what anyone says or thinks or, he's just completely fearless.
32:28
He keeps going, and you might get some noise over here complaints here there but you know, just he doesn't let it bother him.
32:36
He just he keeps he keeps moving forward.
32:39
And he's very self examining.
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It's really part of the company culture to live an examined life and all of us I feel like do that and we're all curious people and, yeah.
32:57
And I think that and quality.
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He's always is really really focused on quality.
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And I think he has a right to always bring it back to that.
33:05
Coz at the end of the day we're selling a product and we want that product to be the highest, possible quality and we want the relationship with the customer and lucky enough to have some of our Palo Alto store employees here today.
33:21
And it's like they do the really hard work of like expressing the brand through themselves as people.
33:28
And that is always been really important, you know aspect of the brand.
33:33
>> This idea of living a self-examined life, I wanted to ask you about this.
33:37
You have a strong set of inner values that guide you and anchored in sort of your Buddhist and meditation practice that you mentioned earlier.
33:45
What role does this play in your leadership and what advice would you share with us for cultivating that inner sense of self?
33:54
>> Well, I think it's really good always to be self-examining and to be curious about differences.
34:07
We've become so polarized as a country in so many ways, and yet there isn't a whole lot of curiosity about why people are different or why they might have different views.
34:18
And and I think my practice helps me to be more conscious of the ways in which I fall short myself of, being self reflecting and, and meditation is a nice tool.
34:33
It really does help you deal when you're in a high stress job.
34:37
It's good to have some tools that work.
34:41
For some people it's certain kinds of exercising or whatever, but for me it's a real tool to manage my life and to check in on my decisions and whether I feel good and right about the decisions that I'm making for the company and for myself.
35:00
>> Many of us hope to make pivots throughout our career and your pivot from private equity to Patagonia is an incredible example.
35:08
How do you shift your mindset to adapt to the new industry that you're in without losing the unique insights that you bring from the previous one?
35:15
>> Well, I think all of your life experience, it comes to bear in any thing that you do.
35:21
And that's probably a common theme, when you do these talks. And,.
35:28
Yeah, I mean, I think that's probably the biggest The biggest thing is it, it's all it all gets incorporated.
35:33
If you're a person who lives you know holistic life and your life is.
35:38
Kind of melded together your values and your work and your life and I think that's the best way to live.
35:46
>> And you have this quote that says work is where the self meets the world, which I loved and many of us are graduating in a few months.
35:54
So what is the most important thing we can do to actually find that alignment between our work and our value.
36:00
>> Well, I think work is the place where the self meets the world because it's where you kind of are confronted with all of these sort of tensions that you don't have in your family life, and you have to navigate through them and difficult people or difficult business conditions or whatever it may be.
36:19
And you learn a lot about yourself if you're a curious person and I've learned I learned a lot from like the bad bosses that I've had.
36:30
I learned more probably from the bad bosses that I have from the good bosses.
36:34
There are there things like that, that in retrospect, when you look back on it, you realize yeah, I like, didn't ever want to be like that.
36:43
>> [LAUGH] >> Or I want to incorporate this or that, yeah I mean, I think, yeah, that's sort of the way I see it.
36:50
>> Yeah, absolutely, well, we wanted to leave time, today, for questions from the audience. >> Cool.
36:56
>> So, I'm going to turn it over now to some audience members who have questions for you. Great.
37:03
>> Hi, I'm Maya Granite, I'm an MBA 2 and I'm also doing the Masters of Science in Environmental Studies. >> Awesome.
37:10
>> So if we want to save our home planet, we need to get a heck of a lot of people involved.
37:15
But the environmental movement is often associated with a certain demographic, often wealthier often white and frequently women.
37:24
So, why is Patagonia doing?
37:27
And what can we do as future business leaders to push that movement to greater representation and kind of include more people in the narrative?
37:35
>> Yeah, I think that's a really good point.
37:38
That's a really good, good question.
37:40
So what we started doing this a few years ago.
37:44
With our grassroots giving, because that seemed like the fastest way that we could activate it.
37:52
And we started just looking for groups that were outside of our normal outdoor cohort.
37:59
And a lot of these relationships formed over time just because you've on met people along the way and they were protecting certain places.
38:07
And so that's how the movement grew.
38:10
And so we took it more into protecting areas that maybe aren't the grand outdoor places, but it's a cool group of Latina moms in LA that are doing air quality testing.
38:27
[LAUGH] We wouldn't have even known about that group before, and so we just started bringing in these, we started having kind of conferences with all these different NGOs and, and just just like making more connections because we're all really connected in the same movement, and it's just about like making the connections stronger and deeper.
38:48
And I think that's the way that we're looking at it and we're also you know, exchanging, sharing learning a lot from that process as well so.
39:00
>> I really thank you for being here.
39:01
My name is Ellery and I'm also a second year, I'm organizing the climate conference with Maya so very excited about this topic.
39:08
And given Patagonia's 2025 commitment to being carbon neutral and the complicated history of carbon offsets, how does Patagonia think about choosing office assets that truly deliver what they promise.
39:20
And then secondarily how can we collectively hold Patagonia and other companies like Microsoft and Jet Blue to the commitments they make.
39:27
>> Yeah, this is a really good question because when I first looked at, I didn't really know much about offsets so when we first started looking at offsets as a part of our carbon plan, someone's told me I could spend $100,000 that could offset all of our, you know, all of our carbon in the US and I was like, that makes absolutely no sense to me.
39:46
Like just at a practical level that makes zero sense.
39:49
I don't know where that hundred thousand dollars is going but it doesn't seem to be going for what it's, you know, really going for.
39:55
So we're really looking for like absolute reductions.
39:59
By implementing solar grids or working on energy deals or working on converting factories that are using coal, to using renewable energy and that's the way we're looking at it.
40:13
Offsets, there are some offsets that are good that are conservation, mostly conservation related, the stuff that we're looking at.
40:21
And I find that to be a little bit, to make more sense because conserved land is a carbon sink and it really, if it's not conserved, it's likely to be disrupted and destroyed.
40:35
But the market itself is, I think we have to be very careful about how people get to that goal and are they getting to it in a real way?
40:44
So, just keep asking those deep questions because, that's how you hold people accountable really.
40:55
>> Hi, Rose, thanks for being here.
40:57
I'm Caroline Lay, a first year MBA students.
41:00
I have a question about kind of the global ambition of Patagonia because we all know Patagonia is in the business of saving home planet.
41:07
And it's such a global crisis and imperative, especially for the developing countries, where we're going to see another billion middle class entering the world stage by 2025.
41:19
So what is the vision and ambition for Patagonia, on the global stage?
41:23
Do you see more aggressive expansion of your global footprint, and how do you balance that with your integral strategy?
41:29
>> Yeah, so it's not really about growing our footprint, so much as activating our community in outside of the US region.
41:41
And we've been in Japan for almost 30 years, we've had a business in Europe for almost 30 years and in South America, and Australia.
41:51
And in all those places what we're trying to do is, first of all give to grass roots organizations that are really doing things on the ground, and that creates kind of a community for us, to work with.
42:05
And it's one of the biggest changes that I feel like in my tenure as CEO I feel really proud of, is making that mission much more global.
42:14
And, we use a tool that we introduced a few years ago called Patagonia Action Works, which we're now long launching around the globe.
42:23
And it really is to connect our customers with our causes, because a lot of our customers just want to know, what can I do, can I donate time? Should I donate money?
42:33
What are the right NGOs and so we're connecting them together and it's been really powerful.
42:40
And we also work on policy issues with the government, wherever we are, environmental policy issues and we stand up as a voice for that.
42:52
And a lot of our industry is also concerned about these issues, so we work as a convener to kind of make change, so. >> Great.
43:02
We have time for more questions from the audience.
43:04
So, if anyone else would like to ask Rose a question, please throw up your hand and we will get a mic to you, so. >> Hi, Rose.
43:13
I'm Isabel Fisher, second year MBA student here.
43:17
I came to do my MBA because I really do believe the private sector has a big role to play in addressing challenges that face the world.
43:25
However, I'm also very aware that there are certain areas and certain challenges where the private sector's role is limited.
43:31
And I'd love to hear you speak a little about, where you see that distinction lying and where you see a real role for government, non-profits or the private sector >> Yeah, well, there's a lot of hybrids going on, right?
43:43
We notice this whenever we have to build a supply chain that hasn't been built before.
43:49
It's like you need, sometimes you need an NGO, sometimes you need a policy person in government or local government and then sometimes you might need venture fund money.
44:00
So there's a lot of interesting hybrids going on.
44:05
And I think that's really the only way we're going to solve these big, intractable problems is by collaborating in that way.
44:13
And it means a lot, even if you're a small business, it means a lot if you let your voice be known to your legislatures and to become active in policy, essentially, so.
44:41
>> Hi Rose, thank you for being here. I'm First year MBA.
44:45
You mentioned a lot of success cases where Patagonia is able to collaborate with other NGOs, with the consumers, even with governments to join the cause.
44:53
What are the biggest struggles that Patagonia is facing when you don't succeed in doing so?
44:59
>> Well, I think the biggest struggles are just the trying to help people understand the scope of the problem.
45:14
Because a lot of environmental problems, you can say, well, we're going to deregulate, round up, that most people don't think about, what are the impacts of that?
45:28
It's like, well that might help a farmer if you do regular round [LAUGH] but what does it do to the stream?
45:34
And then what does it do to the water supply?
45:36
And then what does it do to the biodiversity and then the animals that are going to drink that water?
45:40
So it's like people have a hard time, in some ways, thinking about the causation of certain policies, especially.
45:47
I think that's probably, the most complicated challenge is understanding that there might be a business purpose.
45:57
But there is also a better way to do things, and trying to always look at that.
46:02
I mean, we we pollute, we're a company, we pollute, but we also understand that's a problem.
46:10
[LAUGH] So we charge ourselves a 1% tax on our own sales and we give to environmental groups, that will fight for these causes.
46:21
So, I think you constantly have to be, business has to keep in mind that they have a stakeholder, which is the planet and that is a really hard concept for people to get.
46:32
I don't know why, because we're losing biodiversity at an enormous rate right now.
46:39
We're in the middle of a climate crisis.
46:41
I don't know why it is such a hard concept, but it kind of is.
46:45
I mean, it's interesting, maybe that's something you guys would solve.
46:50
[LAUGH] >> Okay, we're taking one last question >> Hi, thank you so much.
47:00
It is awesome to have an openly, queer business leader on a stage today.
47:05
>> [LAUGH] >> I'm wondering if you could share a little bit about some mentors who have helped you get to where you are, particularly, as somebody who is out in a space where there are not a lot of people who are out?
47:19
>> Well, I wasn't out early in my career because it was not cool to do that.
47:27
>> [LAUGH] >> And then when I came to Silicon Valley and I became CFO, General Magic, I was like, I cannot go into this very public role.
47:37
Because when you're a CFO, you're on all the road shows and things like that, and not be myself.
47:43
I just decided I was drawing a line, I'm not doing it anymore [LAUGH].
47:48
And when I told the head of HR, when they were making the offer to me, when I told the head of HR.
47:54
She just looked at me and said, my God, I thought you were going to say you had cancer.
47:58
>> [LAUGH] >> And [LAUGH] [LAUGH] >> [LAUGH] And she goes, what do you mean? It was Silicon Valley.
48:06
It was a very welcoming community.
48:09
But yeah, I had a boss early in my career that asked me not to act so gay in meetings.
48:15
I mean, I've had weird stuff like that happen in my career.
48:22
And it's like you just sort of evolve and you go through it.
48:26
Right now it's just such a part of me I don't even think about it until you mentioned it actually.
48:34
>> [LAUGH] >> [LAUGH] >> Great, so, we usually end our talks on a light hearted lightning round.
48:42
And for this one I thought we could get the audience involved.
48:44
>> [LAUGH] >> So, we're going to play a quick game of Patagonia workforce policy trivia.
48:50
>> [LAUGH] >> So, I'm going to share a series of policies, all of which are true or false.
48:56
And I'd like the audience to just yell out whether you think they're true or false.
48:59
And then Rose if you could reveal the right answer. >> Okay. >> That would be great. >> I hope I know it. >> Yeah.
49:05
>> [LAUGH] >> It's a critical part of the game.
49:08
>> [LAUGH] >> Okay, so number one.
49:09
Employees at Patagonia get every other Friday off. True or false?
49:14
>> [CROSSTALK] >> Ooh, mixed, I thought this was the easy one. >> True. >> True.
49:20
>> True at our corporate office, not in all of our stores is true.
49:23
We have other ways of doing that.
49:25
>> Patagonia sponsors two months of paid leave for employees to volunteer with an environmental organization. >> True. >> True. >> True. >> True.
49:33
>> [LAUGH] >> [LAUGH] >> Patagonia has a buy-back program under which it purchases all North Face clothing from new hires. >> [LAUGH] >> False. >> False.
49:50
>> [LAUGH] >> But maybe a future policy, we don't know.
49:55
Patagonia pays for its nursing mothers to bring that baby and a nanny on business trips? >> True. [CROSSTALK] >> True. >> Amazing.
50:04
>> [APPLAUSE] >> Patagonia subsidizes the installation of solar panels in all employees' homes. >> [LAUGH] >> False. >> [LAUGH] >> False. >> False.
50:19
[LAUGH] >> Okay, two more.
50:22
Patagonia rotates its annual retreats through the US National Parks? [CROSSTALK] >> True. >> Ooh mixed bag. >> False.
50:30
>> False, but- >> [LAUGH] >> It might not be a bad idea.
50:33
>> [LAUGH] >> [LAUGH] >> And Patagonia posts bail for employees that are arrested for peacefully protesting the environment.
50:41
>> True [CROSSTALK] >> True. >> True, amazing.
50:43
>> [APPLAUSE] >> [LAUGH] Thank you guys.
50:47
>> [APPLAUSE] >> I think- >> Thank you Karen.
50:54
>> At this point we can all understand why it's so difficult to get a job at Patagonia.
50:58
>> [LAUGH] >> Rose, thank you so much for coming.
51:00
>> Thank you, this is awesome.
51:02
>> It's been a real honor and pleasure.
51:02
>> Thank you guys, thank you. >> [APPLAUSE] [MUSIC]