The founder of Patagonia - one of the most progressive clothing brands in the world - sacrificed his own company to combat the climatic crisis

He abandoned the business worth three billion dollars

The 83-year-old businessman Ivon Shuinar turned the transaction unique by the standards of the American (and even world) charity: together with family members, he voluntarily refused to own business worth three billion dollars-Patagonia founded by him almost half a century ago. The brand, which sales of which annually amounts to about a billion dollars, will now send all profit to solve climatic problems - about $ 100 million a year. The Shuinar family will only make sure that the money is spent as intended.

The Shuinar family handed over to Trust and NPO 100% of Patagonia shares. This will direct to fight the climatic crisis of $ 100 million a year

The fact that the founder of the clothing brand for the active lifestyle of Patagonia Ivon Shuinar and his family decided to refuse to own business in favor of non -profit organizations (NGOs) specializing in the fight against climate change, The New York Times reported on September 14.

This is a unique deal for modern charity. The philanthropist of this scale for the first time completely abandoned the right to extract profit from business. The estimated cost of Patagonia is three billion dollars, the company annually receives the revenue of about one billion and a net profit of $ 100 million. This whole amount will be directed to solving climatic problems and protection of nature.

The Patagonia ownership structure now looks like this: 2% of the shares possessing the right to vote belong to the new Patagonia Purpose Trust, and the remaining 98% are also the new Holdfast Colleective, which will be the operator of funds.

The decisions of the Trust will be adopted by the Schinar family members and their closest advisers who are obliged to ensure that Patagonia remains a socially responsible business and transferred all the profits to fight climate change. The founder of the company will remain in her council of directors.

For the sake of registering such a structure, the SHIINAR family had to not only abandon future multimillion -dollar revenues, but also pay an additional $ 17.5 million taxes for a gift agreement in favor of Trust. Also, the transaction does not provide for the family of the founder of Patagonia of tax benefits, in the desire to receive which are often convicted of American billionaires addressing charity. True, some experts still criticize Shuinar - for the choice of just such a configuration of the transaction: in the case of the usual sale of the company, he would have to pay up to 700 million dollars of taxes.

The 83-year-old Shuinar himself commented on the transaction with an open letter on the Patagonia website with the heading “From now on the Earth is our only shareholder”. In the message, he explained that he was considering different options for refusing to own the company, "but there were no good options - he had to invent his own."

The shinar developed the family business for almost half a century and turned Patagonia into one of the most progressive in terms of concern about the environment of brands. And he retained a modest lifestyle

The shuinar business began with the passion for mountaineering. Back in the 1960s, he was engaged in climbing in the Yosemiti National Park in California and ate expired conservatives of five cents per bank. And in parallel, he was engaged in the manufacture of climbing equipment for himself and his friends.

In 1973, this hobby led Shuinar to the base of Patagonia. From the very beginning in the family business, created in the California town of Ventura, his wife Malinda participated. Gradually, the assortment of the brand grew - today the company produces not only and not so much climbing equipment as clothes and accessories for all lovers of an active lifestyle.

Schwinar has always paid a lot of attention to the environmental agenda. Patagonia has long listed to fight climate change 1% annual revenue, completely switched to production from environmentally friendly or secondary raw materials, and also declared its mission the “Business to save our planet” business.

The Schinar itself, whose state of Forbes magazine estimates at $ 1.2 billion, leads a lifestyle extremely modest for a billionaire and fully corresponds to Patagonia values: does not use a computer or smartphone, prefers to wear the same clothes for a long time, travels on a Subaru old model and lives in modest houses that do not give out the scale of their host business.

And the fact of inclusion in the Forbes list only angers an entrepreneur: “This really enjoyed me. I have no billion dollars in the bank. And I do not travel to the Lexus. "