Relaunch Patagonia Footprint Chronicles website |
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| Friday, 19 June 2009 | |
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Revamped site tracks water usage and social ethics, 166 products now feature full environmental footprint on Patagonia.com
On 18th of June, Patagonia launches a revamped Footprint Chronicles website with a new format that expands upon the company’s social practices. The Footprint Chronicles is an interactive mini website that reveals to consumers the good and the bad involved in manufacturing outdoor clothing such as fleeces and rain shells.The company also adds the environmental footprint of 166 individual products to their website, becoming the only apparel manufacturer in Europe to offer the public such broad transparency regarding products’ impact on the earth. The updated website also offers live comments posted on Patagonia’s blog (the Cleanest line®) about the Footprint Chronicles and hosts a new 15-minute video about Patagonia’s social responsibility efforts. “We believe it’s important for our customers to know the true environmental and social impact of a garment they purchase,” said Casey Sheahan, president and CEO of Patagonia. “The Footprint Chronicles allows us to do this publicly – and helps our customers make better purchasing decisions.” He points out that the idea behind the website is to encourage thought and discussion – and to provide easyto- understand environmental equivalents for each garment’s impact. “The new site also includes a Join the Discussion section,” said Sheahan. “This allows customers to engage directly in a live conversation with us about how to solve the problems inherent in our manufacturing processes. It’s a unique dialogue to engage in – but one that will ultimately allow us to cause less harm to the planet.” According to Jill Dumain, Patagonia’s director of environmental programs, the research involved in developing the Chronicles has proved to actually drive major business decisions at Patagonia. “The Chronicles revealed that transportation makes up only about 1 percent of our overall energy use,” said Dumain. “Had we listened to the current media buzz touting transportation as the largest factor in energy consumption, we might have greatly misplaced our efforts by making strides to geographically shorten our supply chain – which would have massively impacted our business financially, logistically and perhaps even effected product quality – and we would only have reduced our energy savings by 1 percent. Instead, we are focusing our energy on areas where we can truly make a difference – right in the heart of the manufacturing process.” The Footprint Chronicles includes more than 55 filmed interviews and slideshows of factory workers, farmers, owners, designers and third-party auditors to provide an unprecedented level of transparency both internally and externally - from the factories and manufacturing partners that create its products, to the end of the product’s lifespan. Example for the R2 jacket – new chronicled product from origin of fiber through garment delivery to our distribution center in Reno. Info: www.patagonia.com/ About Patagonia Patagonia, Inc., the Californian outdoor gear and apparel company founded by Yvon Chouinard in 1973, is noted internationally for its commitment to product quality and environmental activism. Incorporating environmental responsibility into product development, the company supports the ambitious mission statement: “To make the best product, cause no unnecessary harm and use business to inspire and implement solutions to the environmental crisis. Patagonia has, since 1996, used only organically grown cotton in its clothing line; is using recycled materials and with its most recent launch of synthetic fiber-to-fiber recycling program is recycling an increasing quantity of its the textile range into new products, forever capturing the petroleum used in making virgin fiber. With its Environmental Grants Program, the company dedicates annually 1% of its sales to environmental protection ($34M in cash and in-kind donations to grassroots environmental activists were attributed since the program began in 1985) and its Environmental Internship Program allows mployees to work for environmental groups for 2 months while receiving their full paycheck. In order to convince other companies to follow his path, Yvon Chouinard co-founded the 1% for the planet club in 2001, gathering more than 1000 companies worldwide, all giving 1% of their sales to environmental groups. Patagonia’s sales for last fiscal year (end of April 09) were $315 million. |
