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Sustainable Brands Article Discussion

For this discussion, I read an article from Sustainable Brands on Patagonia Action Works.

This article from Sustainable Brands discusses the launch of Patagonia Action Works, a new platform from Patagonia that connects customers with grassroots activists and events in their area. To announce the platform, Patagonia released a video featuring founder Yvon Chouinard in which Chouinard stresses the importance of taking action. Patagonia Action Works will be on a national tour from February 16 until mid April to begin "laying the foundation for long-term community building and action" ("Patagonia Launches Digital Platform," 2018). To date, Patagonia has contributed almost $90 million to grassroots environmental organizations throughout their 40 years of activism.  

This article relates to Dr. Macagno's lecture on Ethics & Social Responsibility. Specifically, Dr. Macagno discussed corporate social responsibility (CSR). Karen Collins defines CSR as "the approach that an organization takes in balancing its responsibilities toward different stakeholders when making legal, economic, ethical, and social decisions" (Collins 55). In his lecture, Dr. Macagno underscored the importance of CSR as there are companies with a higher GDP than many nations. While Patagonia is not one of those companies, it is a very popular clothing company. Because many of Patagonia's customers are climbers, hikers, and other people concerned with the outdoors, a large part of their consumer base cares about the environment. As such, Patagonia has a social responsibility to those concerns. Because of that and its founders love for the outdoors, Patagonia has ushered in a new age of 'retail activism,' where a brand goes beyond being socially responsible to actually taking action.

In the textbook, Collins defines CSR and then discusses the motivations for doing so. In many cases, CSR is a smart economic move rather than simply 'doing the right thing.' However, because consumers have higher standards for brands, there is a grey area in CSR. Even with a company like Patagonia where they put a focus on environmental concerns and sustainability, that concern and retail activism is part of their brand. It is a tool used to attract customers and sell merchandise. That does not mean there is not good intentions, as Chouinard is very environmentally cautious, but that is relegated to the individuals and not the company as a whole. Attributing ethics or intentions to a company would be to personify a business decision. 

Works Cited
Collins, Karen. Exploring business. Pearson/Prentice Hall, 2008.
“Patagonia Launches Digital Platform to Connect Customers with Grassroots
       Activism.” Sustainablebrands.com, Sustainable Life Media, Inc., 9 Feb. 2018,        www.sustainablebrands.com/news_and_views/behavior_change/sustainable_brands       /patagonia_launches_digital_platform_connect_custom.

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