The Responsbile Company

Simple but powerful advice on how and why to rethink your business structure in a time when traditional capitalism is no longer working for people or the planet.

Vincent Stanley, Patagonia's Director of Philosophy, with Yvon Chouinard, founder and former owner of Patagonia, draws on 50 years of experience at Patagonia to challenge all business owners and leaders to rethink their businesses in a time of cultural and climate chaos.

Patagonia has been recognised repeatedly over the years as much for its groundbreaking environmental and social practices as for the quality of its clothes. Then, in an unprecedented action in 2022, the Chouinard family gave their company away, converting ownership to a simple structure of trusts and non-profits, so that all the profits from the company can be used to protect our home planet and work to reverse climate chaos.

In this exceptionally frank account, Stanley with Chouinard recounts how the company and its culture gained the confidence, by step and misstep, to make its work progressively more responsible, and ultimately challenge other companies, as big as Wal-Mart and as small as the corner bakery, to do the same.

In plain, compelling prose, the authors describe the current impact of manufacturing, commerce, and traditional capitalism on the planet's natural systems and human communities, and how that impact is forcing business to change its ways. The Future of the Responsible Company shows companies how to reduce the harm they cause, improve the quality of their business, and provide the kind of meaningful work everyone seeks. It concludes with specific, practical steps every business can undertake, as well as advice on what to do, in what order.