The Cleanest Line

Your Thoughts on the Footprint Chronicles - All Just Eco Fluff?

Our Footprint Chronicles have generated a wide range of feedback. We've received a whole raft of incisive questions that have sent us scurrying off to do more homework. We've received some praise, most recently in the form of the "People's Voice" award in the 2008 Webbys. And we've received some criticism.

We're grateful for all of the comments -- good and bad. The Footprint Chronicles was created to be a dialog, and toward this end, our Vice President of Marketing, Rob Bon Durant offers this response to one of the increasingly common criticisms being sent our way:

We created the Footprint Chronicles to offer our customers a behind-the-curtain view, to shine a light in the dark belly of the whale. In the Chronicles, we look at both the good and, more importantly, the bad of our current environmental and social manufacturing practices. We hold no secrets, we are transparent in every way that we can conceive. We've had a number of customer responses to the Chronicles.

Among the responses was this one: "Boy do you guys ever do a good job trying to paint a positive picture of your company. Why don't you just admit that your supreme aim is to make as much money as possible and all this eco stuff is fluff?"

I oversee Marketing and Communications here at Patagonia and I'd  like to answer that one directly: 

Winner - Five Words for the Webby Awards

After considering all of the great suggestions you folks submitted, Bill gave the following acceptance speech at this year's Webby Awards in New York City:

"November 4th, Vote the Environment"

That means the winner of The Cleanest Line T-shirt is ... rob! We asked rob to share a little bit about himself:

I am just a regular guy who is working hard to ensure that my boys' best memories of youth will include a healthy dose of the outdoors, and hopefully a passion for activities that involve a board and water/snow. Thanks to the crew at Patagonia for creating gear that won't feel like hand me down after it's been handed down!

Congratulations rob, and thanks for the timely suggestion. We've said it before and you'll hear it again, voting is one of the simplest forms of direct action one can take on behalf of the environment. The election this November will have a dramatic impact on the future health of our planet. It's time to make the environment a high-profile issue in the debates between the candidates at all levels of government. We hope you'll join us in spreading this simple but important message.

Check out the full list of Webby Award speeches if you're curious what the other winners had to say. Our thanks go out to everyone who participated in the contest. We hope to do more of these in the future so stay tuned.

[They don't call it "the Oscars of the Internet" for nothing. Red carpet interviews in front of the Cipriani Wall St. New York, New York. Photo: Bill Boland]

Contest - Five Words for the Webby Awards

Thanks to all the folks who voted for us, The Footprint Chronicles is a 2008 Webby Awards People's Voice winner in the Corporate Communications category. Dubbed "the Oscars of the Internet" the Webby Awards ceremony has all the red-carpet splendor of its big-screen brother, with one marked improvement: acceptance speeches can only be five words long.

Bill Boland, Patagonia.com's creative director, will be accepting the award on June 10th in New York City, and he's asked me to ask you what his five-word acceptance speech should be.

So, if you could only say five words on behalf of Patagoniacs everywhere, what would they be?

Leave your five words in the comments by June 9 and we'll select our favorite. The winning entry will receive a very rare Cleanest Line T-shirt. This contest is open to everyone, including Patagonia employees (official rules here). When you leave your comment, be sure and include your email address in the email field so we can contact the winner (email addys are not displayed). And while you're thinking about what to say, check out some of the five-word winner speeches from ceremonies past.

Update: The contest is now closed. We'll announce the winner in a separate post. Our thanks go out to everyone who participated.
 

Footprint Chronicles Features 5 New Products

We've been examining our life and habits as a company for years. The launch of The Footprint Chronicles is a way for us to share that examination with you and get your feedback on the process. The conversation has been a good one. You can participate either on our blog, or by writing us directly from any of the "Give Us Your Honest Feedback" links available within The Footprint Chronicles.

If you've yet to see it, The Footprint Chronicles is one example of our commitment to Leading an Examined Life. It's an interactive mini-site that allows you to track the impact of several Patagonia products from design through delivery.*

We launched The Footprint Chronicles with five products from last
season and many of you offered great feedback. Recently, we updated the site with five new products from the current spring 2008 line. Continue reading for a preview of this season's new Footprint products.

It's also our pleasure to inform you that The Footprint Chronicles has been nominated for the 12th annual Webby Awards - the "Oscars of the Internet" - in the Corporate Communications category. If you appreciate The Footprint Chronicles and the message it conveys, please consider voting by the May 1st deadline. Thanks for your continued support.

Cast your vote for the Webby People's Voice Award

Patagonia Reads with UCSB

After a very successful inaugural launch last year Patagonia got involved again with the University of California Santa Barbara READS program. UCSB students and Patagonia employees were given The Travels of a T-Shirt in the Global Economy by Pietra Rivoli to learn more about globalization.

Patagonia was asked to get even further involved and have representatives from the company speak as panelists at Santa Barbara county libraries over the course of a couple of weeks.

As strange as this might sound, a book on globalization and trade, all following the story through a T-shirt’s life, was actually an easy read. So if that hasn’t fully sparked your interest to read this book, I thought I would give my thoughts on it for potential readers to know what you are about to engage in.

TreeHugger Interview with Y.C.

The all-things green blog TreeHugger recently conducted a two-part phone interview with Patagonia owner/founder Yvon Chouinard. Topics include growing the company, Patgonia 100 years from now, transparency and the Footprint Chronicles, the myth of sustainability, our "Pata-gucci" reputation, politics, and quality vs. quantity. As usual, Y.C. doesn't pull any punches. Head on over to TreeHugger where you can listen to the interview or read the transcripts.

The TH Interview: Yvon Chouinard
Part 1
Part 2

If haven't already, consider adding TreeHugger to your RSS feed or daily blogroll. The volume of posts they put out on environmental topics is staggering.

[Photo: Tim Davis. With thanks to Sus and Jen.]

Your Thoughts on The Footprint Chronicles - Part 3

0ur Footprint Chronicles were intended to ignite conversation every bit as much as corporate introspection. And the comments are starting to roll in. Below, you'll find some intriguing thoughts from among the very first responses we received to the Footprint Chronicles. In the interest of helping to zero-in our own focus on big issues, we've broken comments out into three separate themes: Materials, Energy Use, and Labor.

In previous posts, comments focused mostly on issues pertaining to the Materials we use and the Energy involved in clothing production within a globalized economy. Today, we're considering some of the questions customers have asked us about where we make our goods.

Your Thoughts on The Footprint Chronicles - Part 2

0ur Footprint Chronicles were intended to ignite conversation every bit as much as corporate introspection. And the comments are starting to roll in. Below, you'll find some intriguing thoughts from among the very first responses we received to the Footprint Chronicles. In the interest of helping to zero-in our own focus on big issues, we've broken comments out into three separate themes: Materials, Energy Use, and Labor.

In Monday's post, comments focused mostly on issues pertaining to the Materials we use. Today, we're considering some of the questions customers have asked us about the Energy required to do business globally.

Your Thoughts on The Footprint Chronicles

0ur Footprint Chronicles were intended to ignite conversation every bit as much as corporate introspection. And the comments are starting to roll in. Below, you'll find some intriguing thoughts from among the very first responses we received to the Footprint Chronicles. In the interest of helping to zero-in our own focus on big issues, we've broken comments out into three separate themes: Materials, Energy Use, and Labor.

It's an organic process, one that will take shape as we dive into all of the questions that come with trying to do a sustainable business on a threatened planet. But make no mistake: this is your conversation. Your thoughts, passions, and inspired ideas about sustainability are welcome. It's our hope that as the discussion unfolds, we'll hear new ideas to help guide the continued examination of our corporate life. 

Please read, comment, and write us with your own thoughts. Please read on for some recent comments and questions about our Materials sourcing. Look for comments about Energy Use and Labor later this week.

Announcing The Footprint Chronicles

I love to cook and as I've ventured into new cuisines found myself with a whole new spice rack sporting names like fenugreek, nigella and star anise. I also found myself wanting a spice grinder to go with all these wonderful recipes but couldn’t bring myself to spend the money. My coffee grinder worked just fine; I just had to clean it out each time to get rid of the coffee taste.

One afternoon, with a rare few minutes free, I browsed through the sale section of a kitchen store: Lo and behold there was a coffee grinder for $5! No more cleaning before grinding. I plucked it off the shelf. But before I got to the counter I started thinking about our new project, The Footprint Chronicles. 

Did I really need a second grinder? Was its addition to my life worth the small but additional environmental cost?

Those are the questions we've been asking at Patagonia, as we started to look at the impact of our own rather sizeable footprint, beginning with a tight circle around our core facilities: offices, customer service center and retail stores. Quickly we realized that if we were to really be honest with ourselves about the impact we have as a company, we needed to branch out to include our supply chain. A daunting task at best.