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Running head: PATAGONIA COMPANY CASE STUDY 1

PATAGONIA COMPANY CASE STUDY 4

Patagonia Company Case Study

Patagonia Company Case Study

Patagonia is an American clothing company founded in 1973 by Yvon Chouinard. The company is known for marketing and selling outdoor clothing. After its establishment, the company opened its first store in Ventura. This store was used to sell bespoke mountain climbing gear; however, after a while, the company expanded its production line to include outdoor sports apparel like surfing. Today, Patagonia is doing more than sports. It is engaging in outdoor products such as camping foods, sleeping bags, and backpacks. Patagonia has done a lot to ensure that it is sustainable. For instance, in 2017, the company introduced the 'Worn Wear' concept to give its customers a chance to return some items purchased from Patagonia as long as they are in good condition in exchange for new merchandise.

Overview

Patagonia is known for excellently matching the company's operating model to pursue the objectives of the business model. According to research, Patagonia's business model focuses on the growth of core consumer products while prioritizing the same impact on the brand image. The business model at Patagonia is to manufacture and sell quality outdoor clothing products through distributors and consumers (Krchová, 2019). More so, the model aims at the creation of social and economical business value while impacting environmentalism in its brand. Therefore, the company ensures that its operations do not harm the environment and the consumers. Therefore, it ensures that the facilities are resources are sustainable and environmentally friendly.

Patagonia is a leader in corporate social responsibility. It seeks to achieve its CSR through donations of the profits it makes internal sustainability initiatives, and raising awareness on environmental issues. Patagonia's initiatives include monitoring and publishing its supply chain information, donating 1% of its profits to environmental organizations, and creating the 'Worn Wear' website aimed at reselling used Patagonia products to reduce waste (O’Rourke & Strand, 2019). The company has also developed more sustainable materials like desert shrub-based rubber in place of petroleum-based wetsuit materials. Furthermore, the company is also working hard towards raising awareness on environmental issues through their blog called The Cleanest Line. Therefore, these are some of the best practices affecting the environmental and social sustainability at Patagonia Company.

Assessment

According to the company's protocol, it carries out serious scrutiny of the companies intending to be its suppliers. Therefore, before becoming a supplier to Patagonia, the supplier is screened against four criteria. These include quality, social standards, impacts on the environment, and production or sourcing. Patagonia goes ahead to perform audits to develop deep and collaborative relationships with its suppliers. The company attempts to ensure that collaboration with its suppliers improves environmental sustainability across the supply chain network. Thus, the screening is done down the farm level, sourcing products and ensuring the harvesting methods are sustainable to the environment (Michel et al. 2019).

Moreover, the company has a supply chain environmental responsibility program that aims at measuring and reducing the environmental impacts of products and materials manufactured at Patagonia. Collaborating with suppliers has also ensured that the suppliers' facilities have wastewater treatment systems to meet the company's global requirements. If a facility does not meet Patagonia's requirements, the company does not approve it to be its supplier.

Furthermore, Patagonia collaborates with its customers to improve its environmental sustainability efforts throughout its operations. For instance, the company developed a website, 'Worn Wear,' to allow Patagonia customers to take back their used products, as long as they are in good condition, in exchange for merchandise on credit. This is a key attribute of the company’s collaboration with its customers to reduce wastes and maintain its sustainability efforts. Taking back worn-out clothing products ensures that recycling is done and no more wastes are dumped in places they are not needed. Therefore, the collaboration between Patagonia and its suppliers and customers is essential in improving its environmentally sustainable efforts across the supply chain network.

Company metrics

There are more than 240 organizations in the textile and apparel industries across the world through the GRI sustainability disclosure database. The company uses various tools in measuring metrics like supply chain categories impacting lifecycle. For instance, designers have a Yvon Scorecard used in measuring attributes that a product must achieve, a failure to which they are dropped from the company despite the profits it makes (O’Rourke & Strand, 2019). More so, the company uses the metric of taking risks to assess its environmental sustainability measures. For instance, the 2011 ad don’t buy this jacket was a great and best-selling line during that year. Consumer response and impacts on the environment data are essential in supporting the metrics.

In conclusion, Patagonia is an American clothing supplier company that focuses on environmental and social sustainability across its operations. The company has done a lot to ensure sustainability in its products. More so, it has always collaborated with its customers and suppliers to ensure that environmental and social sustainability efforts are achieved.

References

Krchová, E. (2019). Green communication: a case study of the outdoor clothing company Patagonia Inc.

Michel, G. M., Feori, M., Damhorst, M. L., Lee, Y. A., & Niehm, L. S. (2019). Stories we wear: Promoting sustainability practices with the case of Patagonia. Family and Consumer Sciences Research Journal, 48(2), 165-180.

O’Rourke, D., & Strand, R. (2017). Patagonia: Driving sustainable innovation by embracing tensions. California Management Review, 60(1), 102-125.