Signals

US – It has been hard to escape the headlines about the US-based outdoor fashion brand Patagonia’s announcement on 14 September that its billionaire owner Yvon Chouinard and his family would be giving 100% of their controlling shares, worth an estimated £2.6bn ($3bn, €3bn), over to a trust and non-profit organisation dedicated to fighting the climate crisis.

The activist fashion company has long pushed an anti-consumerism agenda and is famed for its Don’t Buy This Jacket advertisement in The New York Times on Black Friday 2011. The stock giveaway, which saw Chouinard hand over 2% voting stock to the Patagonia Purpose Trust and the remaining 98% to non-profit organisation The Holdfast Collective, dedicated to climate causes, has been lauded. The resulting corporate tax structure means the collective can spend directly on political advocacy and lobby to influence policy.

But there have also been a few detractors highlighting the company’s increasing carbon footprint (its direct carbon emissions have grown on balance since 2018, according to The Independent) and its silence on the 2021 Garment Worker Protection Act in California, establishing fair wages and improved conditions for clothing makers in Patagonia’s home state.

At The Future Laboratory, we have highlighted how the brands that will thrive in this decade will embrace imperfection and focus on betterment; Patagonia has become the post-purpose era pin-up.

The majority of consumers want to live in a more sustainable way, but the high cost of living is stopping them from doing so, according to a new report by Kantar. Over three-quarters (77%) believe that sustainable products are more expensive, meaning that only better off consumers can access them.

Covering 33,000 consumers in 32 countries, the global study was conducted against the UN’s sustainability goals, revealing huge opportunities for brands to improve offerings and make sustainable products more accessible.

As well as cost, education should remain a priority for brands, with 57% of consumers finding it difficult to tell whether products are good or bad for the environment. The research also reveals that consumers expect brands across sectors to take the lead when it comes to sustainability, with waste elimination coming in as a high priority issue that they expect companies to address – including over-packaging, landfill and non-recyclable packaging.

With consumers still believing that sustainability has become a luxury privilege, the study demonstrates that brands have much work to do to improve access to eco-friendly goods.