Greenwashing it could be rendered in Italian (but it is already a translinguistic word) with facade environmentalism. In essence, the word designates a strategy, more fictitious than factual, aimed at affirming, above all through communication, the environmentalist credentials of an activity or group.
In the world of business and finance, of greenwashing there's plenty of it to become irritating not only for true environmentalists but also for politicians close to the corporate world.
For example, Florida governor and prospective Republican presidential hopeful, Ron DeSantis, has publicly censured BlackRock, the world's largest money management company, and other financial groups for investment policy in ESG funds (Environmental, Social, Governance).
These funds aim to build an investment portfolio that evaluates companies and countries with respect to their degree of compliance with sustainability, measuring environmental, social and governance factors.
In this sense, ESG, estimated at a value of 40 trillion dollars, are by no means greenwashing per se. On the other hand, their subscription could be if not included in a strategy for the conversion of assets into sustainable shares.
ESG a manifestation of wokism?
These funds are seen by DeSantis as one of the most evident expressions of the "woke big business" (leftism in the big business world), headed by Disney and precisely by BlackRock.
“We must ensure that ESG does not infect decisions at the state as well as local level in public administration. We also need to make sure that energy companies, arms dealers and other businesses are not discriminated against in investment decisions by financial groups,” DeSantis said.
And it immediately moved on to action: the Florida State Treasury froze $600 billion of long-term securities entrusted to BlackRock, removing it as manager of $2023 million of short-term investments with the aim of entrusting such activities to non-ESG operators by the end of XNUMX.
Il BlackRock CEO Larry Fink said Republican-led states pulled about $4 billion from BlackRock's portfolio due to ESG concerns. Also there Disney he got his beating from DeSantis.
Beyond this clangor of whelks, there are those who are really serious about environmental policies, even among large corporations. The spearhead is Patagonia.
Patagonia: sole shareholder, planet Earth
Patagonia, a Californian clothing company well known in Italy by sports lovers, certainly cannot be included in the greenwashing blacklist. This not only because of its history but also because of the decisions that the founder, the 83-year-old Yvon Chouinard, has recently made regarding the mission and ownership of the company that he started back in 1973 after a trip to Patagonia.
He did it in one open letter last September in which he settles the thorny issue of succession that afflicts all companies with a visionary founder. First he established that Patagonia's profits should be used to fight the climate change.
Chouinard, who has a personal net worth of $1,2 billion, said he plans to transfer ownership of the former family business to a trust, the Patagonia Purpose Trust, and to a non-profit organization, the Holdfast Collective, with the mission of allocating the resources generated by the company's activity to environmental causes. The company plans to donate $100 million annually to the Holdfast Collective. Patagonia is estimated to be worth $3 billion.
Chouinard wrote in the letter:
“Earth is now our sole shareholder. Instead of extracting value from nature and turning it into wealth for investors, we will use the value created by Patagonia to protect the source of all wealth. Every year, the money we earn after reinvesting in the company will be distributed as a dividend to those fighting the environmental crisis”.
Open letter by Yvon Chouinard
Stakeholder capitalism and long-standing goals
The company, however, will not change its nature. It will remain a private commercial enterprise, even if Chouinard has evaluated other options such as that of sale and listing on the stock exchange. The shares with voting rights are now held by the Patagonia Purpose Trust, overseen by the family, while the non-voting shares have been sold to the Holdfast Collective.
Chouinard dismissed the company's IPO as a "disaster" as listed companies are "under unprecedented pressure to create short-term gains at the expense of long-term viability and accountability."
The choice of Patagonia reflects a trend that is increasingly establishing itself among a growing number of companies that are oriented towards the so-called "stakeholder capitalism”. This capitalism, let's say social, aims to obtain a balance between the financial benefits of the shareholders and the interests of employees, customers, the environment and the community.
The roots of Patagonia
It's no wonder much of Patagonia's choices and ethos. Yvon Chouinard is a Zen Buddhist who loves mountaineering and has shaped the company logo on the profile of a mountain in Patagonia, Mount Fitz Roy, in the southern part of the Andean region, whose peak exceeds 3400 metres. He was bewitched by it during an expedition to the region in 1969.
In 1957 he started the blacksmith trade by starting to produce and sell mountaineering equipment that did not damage the rocks. He and her friends used them for climbing in the Yosemite National Park.
The penultimate CEO of Patagonia, Rose Marcario, who abruptly left the company's management in June 2020, practices Tibetan Buddhism and in 2021 decided to retire to live in the rainforest.
Not before, however, having launched a lawsuit against the president on behalf of Patagonia Donald Trump for the decision to reduce the protected area of two national monuments in Utah, Bears Ears National Monument and Grand Staircase-Escalante, by 85% and 50%, respectively.
Its successor is current Ceo, Ryan Gellert, is an avid mountaineer and skier. He has spent his entire working career in outdoor product companies and, although he is not a Buddhist, he has been a political and environmental activist for decades. His mantra is Dantesque: “there is a special place in hell for those who don't fight climate change”. Imagine where they will be immersed?
The political-environmental activism of Patagonia
For more than 45 years, the firm has engaged in politics with an intensity and to a degree unusual for a commercial enterprise. He calls himself "activist company” and publicly campaigns for environmental protection, fair trade and stricter labor standards. It supports thousands of grassroots activists and environmental organizations.
Since 1985, the company has donated 1% of its turnover to the conservation and restoration of the environment. In all, he is estimated to have donated $90 million to local environmental groups.
In Alaska, the company has supported efforts to prevent mining tailings from polluting Bristol Bay, a huge wild salmon fishing ground. In Yellowstone National Park, Patagonia has spent itself in the protection of grizzly bears. In Poland it supported activities aimed at the protection of forests. She has also intervened in international politics by opposing the North American Free Trade Agreement and the Trans-Pacific Partnership.
Patagonia has also produced feature films and documentaries, including DamNation, which shows the damage caused by dams and river barriers. Every two years, it hosts a conference where environmental activists exchange tips and best practices for protest activities, fundraising and lawsuits.
In 2011, the company itself published an ad in the New York Times with the caption "Don't buy this jacket" to discourage excessive consumption of clothing.
Patagonia and greenwashing
In an interview with the "New York Times" the CEO of Patagonia Ryan Gellert answered in this way the question of the journalist David Gelles who asked him how he could reassure us that all the activism of Patagonia was not just marketing, but something different from " greenwashing”?!
“It is imperative that people take what comes from the business world with some skepticism. And if he does it with us too, great. This is something healthy. If you really want to understand a company and its intent, look at what it does and then judge. I am comfortable with Patagonia's flawed but consistently committed and honest work. We try to always be transparent, both internally and externally, also regarding the work we are doing and our shortcomings. My belief is that our greatest contribution is not the money we donate to good causes. It is not even the individual issues to which we have given our support. Nor is it to scale up environmental activism with strong supporting policies. Rather, it's operating in the bowels of business and proving that companies can exist to do more than maximize the wealth of their owners, and also really do it over the long run consistently with actions large and small. If you need to change the backpack, think about it before doing so, if it is absolutely essential, you know which brand to buy.
Interview by Ryan Gellert, CEO of Patagonia, with the New York Times
Sources:
Emma Dunkley and Gary Jones, Patagonia founder hands company to trust to tackle climate crisis, “The Financial Times”, 22 September 2023
Patrick Temple-West, ESG onslaught resisted, “The Financial Times”, 16 February 2023
David Gelles, Patagonia's Former CEO Retreats to the Rainforest, “The New York Times,” February 18, 2021
David Gelles, Patagonia v. Trump, "The New York Times," May 5, 2018
David Gelles, The Patagonia CEO's Mission: 'Save Our Home Planet', “The New York Times”, December 10, 2021
