<description>&lt;p&gt;What if businesses got creative to unleash funding, political influence, and cultural clout to address our environmental challenges?&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;What if corporations were driven not by maximizing quarterly earnings and shareholder profits, but by being good citizens of planet Earth?&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;There are some companies truly &lt;em&gt;trying&lt;/em&gt; to get it right. I happen to be on the board of one of them – the outdoor company Patagonia. I joined the board of directors in 2021, as Patagonia was going through a &lt;em&gt;major&lt;/em&gt; transition that resulted in the world having one less billionaire, the founder Yvon Chouinard, and a plan to give away basically all the company’s profits to environmental causes &lt;em&gt;in perpetuity&lt;/em&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;I thought you might like a peak behind the curtain of all this, so I sat down with the CEO, &lt;strong&gt;Ryan Gellert&lt;/strong&gt;, to dig into the values and practices that have shaped not just Patagonia, but set a high bar across sectors for everything from materials and manufacturing, to worker’s rights and activism, to philanthropy. Now, it’s not a perfect company, certainly, environmentally or otherwise, but it’s a model worth considering.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Links/resources for the topics we covered, are all in the newsletter: ayanaelizabeth.substack.com&lt;/p&gt; &lt;br/&gt;&lt;br/&gt;Get full access to WHAT IF WE GET IT RIGHT? at &lt;a href="https://ayanaelizabeth.substack.com/subscribe?utm_medium=podcast&amp;#38;utm_campaign=CTA_4"&gt;ayanaelizabeth.substack.com/subscribe&lt;/a&gt;</description>

WHAT IF WE GET IT RIGHT?

Ayana Elizabeth Johnson

Earth is our only shareholder 🌏, with Patagonia CEO Ryan Gellert

DEC 12, 202562 MIN
WHAT IF WE GET IT RIGHT?

Earth is our only shareholder 🌏, with Patagonia CEO Ryan Gellert

DEC 12, 202562 MIN

Description

<p>What if businesses got creative to unleash funding, political influence, and cultural clout to address our environmental challenges?</p><p>What if corporations were driven not by maximizing quarterly earnings and shareholder profits, but by being good citizens of planet Earth?</p><p>There are some companies truly <em>trying</em> to get it right. I happen to be on the board of one of them – the outdoor company Patagonia. I joined the board of directors in 2021, as Patagonia was going through a <em>major</em> transition that resulted in the world having one less billionaire, the founder Yvon Chouinard, and a plan to give away basically all the company’s profits to environmental causes <em>in perpetuity</em>.</p><p>I thought you might like a peak behind the curtain of all this, so I sat down with the CEO, <strong>Ryan Gellert</strong>, to dig into the values and practices that have shaped not just Patagonia, but set a high bar across sectors for everything from materials and manufacturing, to worker’s rights and activism, to philanthropy. Now, it’s not a perfect company, certainly, environmentally or otherwise, but it’s a model worth considering.</p><p>Links/resources for the topics we covered, are all in the newsletter: ayanaelizabeth.substack.com</p> <br/><br/>Get full access to WHAT IF WE GET IT RIGHT? at <a href="https://ayanaelizabeth.substack.com/subscribe?utm_medium=podcast&#38;utm_campaign=CTA_4">ayanaelizabeth.substack.com/subscribe</a>