I listened to the founder of Patagonia, Yvon Chouinard, speak last night at an Oppenheim Lecture and it was pretty freakin’ cool.  He’s like the original green business owner.  He’s got some great stories to tell and an amazing philosophy towards life and business.  Plus he’s a man of my heart, following his idealist dreams until he needs to compromise a bit to not go broke.  I find that the companies I want to start and things I want to create do not center around the question of ‘how can I make money?,’ but ‘what can I do to make things better?’  And when I have a great idea, my passion takes over and I swear, I start to glow.

I love his company’s culture as well, encouraging employees to pursue whatever they want when they want as long as they get their work done.  They’re free to take off for a few months on some crazy adventure, or take off for an afternoon to catch a great surf.  I’ve always wanted to cultivate that sort of environment in whatever company I start, so I paid close attention when he laid out his criteria for hiring: find someone who is self-motivated, passionate, and understands what their job is (and what is expected).  Then, let them be!  Oh, and the last question he asks himself is whether or not he’d want to have dinner with this person.  He’s created a family sort of environment at work, where people bring their kids in whenever they need to and coworkers themselves treat each other like family as well.  There are no cubicles and the people sitting next to you get familiar with your job just by hearing your conversations.  I think being open and having that autonomy is really what keeps Patagonia employees happy, working hard, and coming back.

I also loved that he has an inquisitive mind and keeps on asking questions.  He doesn’t just want to fix the problem at hand, he wants to get to the root of it and eliminate the problem all together, whether that’s completely changing what he makes and how it’s made or trying to start a movement amongst companies to be more responsible.  Patagonia’s even starting an initiative that goes in three major steps:

Step 1: Go to a Patagonia store and get asked whether you really need to buy that item you’re considering or not.  If not, don’t get it!  If so, thanks for your business and please go to Step 2.

Step 2: When you have outgrown, tired of, or just plain don’t want that item anymore, sell it on to someone else who still wants it.  Repeat Step 2 as necessary.

Step 3: Finally, when the item is no longer useful and has reached the end of its life, send it back to Patagonia and they will melt down, cut out, or otherwise find a way to use that old item to create a new one.

This is exactly what I had wanted to ask him about going in to the lecture.  If only all companies were held responsible for what happens to their products at the end of their life cycle!  Then they’d have to adopt the “cradle to grave” approach and start designing things that are more reusable, recyclable, and safely disposable.  That’s a piece of legislation that I’d love to see get passed!  Unfortunately, as Yvon said, to change government you need to change business and to change business, you need to change the consumer.  And consumers are hard to change!  We consumers demand, demand, demand, and the businesses respond to that.  Why not demand that they also take back our products when we’re done?  Companies like Preserve have already started this kind of business and it’s working fantastically!

All in all it was an inspiring experience to hear this humble man talk about how he ended up a leader in environmentalism, sustainability, social responsibility, good business practice, philanthropy, and so much more.  He also started up 1% for the planet, where companies who join pledge to give at least 1% of their annual sales (yes, sales, not profit) to an organization doing good out there for an environmental cause.  I only hope that when I am older I will look back and feel good about doing things that people respect, both in my personal life and professional life.  I hope to also be an inspiration to those who meet me.  🙂