Patagonia has fought climate change for 50 years – now it asks, ‘What’s next?’

Since its founding, the brand has been a shining example to others of building quality products that do minimal harm to the planet.

• ‘A turning point in predatory capitalism’: Patagonia’s profit handover sets a new bar

Since 1972, it has been switching up its business model to try and protect the natural world; switching from pitons to chocks for alpine climbing and giving its first environmental grant to a non-profit that helped save a local surf break.

It has been donating 1% of its annual sales to fight climate change since 1985 and went on to co-found 1% For the Planet in 2002.

Its ‘Don’t Buy This Jacket’ campaign on Black Friday 2011 is a touchstone for circular economy marketing and set a precedent that resulted in changing its business model last year to now donate all its profits to protecting the environment.

• The Drum editorial team’s brand of the decade: Patagonia

However, in the spot, Patagonia highlights that the problems it has been facing for decades have not gone away – indeed, they are getting worse.

The brand says it now wants citizens and consumers to move away from the things that hold us back and ask for collaboration instead of competition, “especially as we tackle existential crises like climate change”.

“Together,” it says, “we’ll answer the hardest questions: Can capitalism evolve? What does quality capitalism look like? How can we better rally our community to address the root causes of the climate and ecological crisis? Who are the unexpected partners that will join along the way?”