Smith Insight

ALT Last September, Patagonia founder Yvon Chouinard made headlines when he announced that he would donate his company to fight climate change. “Earth is now our only shareholder,” he wrote in a widely circulated letter. “Instead of ‘going public,’ you could say we’re ‘going purpose.’” Few companies have put their profits where their purpose is quite like Patagonia. Chouinard and his family are putting their entire company into a specially designed trust and non-profit so that all its earnings—some US$100 million annually—go to save the planet. But the outdoor clothing retailer isn’t alone in standing up for a cause. Take Nike’s famous ads with quarterback Colin Kaepernick. Or Delta Air Lines’ defence of voter rights in Georgia. Or the thousands of other corporate pronouncements over the past several years on issues as wide-ranging as race, gender and the environment.