Patagonia launches 'The Responsible Economy' campaign

The company notes that every year, humans use the earth’s resources at a rate nearly one and a half times faster than nature can replace essential “services” such as clean water, clean air, arable land, healthy fisheries, and the stable climate all businesses and societies depend on.

"If the population climbs from 7 to 9 billion people by 2050 and, even more importantly, our growing and increasingly global high-consumption economy continues to draw down our natural resources, we will exceed the planet’s capacity by 300 to 500 percent, putting us into ecological bankruptcy,” notes Vincent Stanley, co-author with Yvon Chouinard of The Responsible Company.

“How do we reverse this decline before it becomes sudden catastrophe? How do those of us in business confront this challenge yet remain in business?” he added. “Patagonia doesn’t claim to have the answers, but we do want to start a conversation so all of us – business, government, and civil society – can collectively find the answers.”

To confront the “elephant in the room” – growth-dependent capitalism – Patagonia will promote the concept that everyone must learn to consume less and use resources far more productively – as well as innovate as quickly and ingeniously as possible to reduce adverse human impact on the natural systems that support all life.

Patagonia will be the first major company to raise this topic with its customers, business leaders, and a general audience. The campaign was inspired by the enormous response to its provocative “Don’t Buy This Jacket” full-page ad in the New York Times on Black Friday, 2011, when it asked customers to think twice whether they needed a new jacket, and by its recent “Better Than New” ad in the same paper celebrating the re-sale of well-used, long-surviving Patagonia clothing.

Patagonia