7 Lessons from Patagonia’s Impact Report

Christmas came early this year for sustainability professionals when Patagonia released their first ever impact report, or work in progress report, in November. Why was this impact report (dare I say) one of the most well received by those in and outside of the sustainability industry? Let’s break it down:

1. Raw honesty

The report doesn’t skirt around the uncomfortable truth about the global issues tackled in sustainability as well the sustainability performance of Patagonia itself. This is the truth that sustainability professionals or conscious consumers are well aware of, but it’s not very corporate to say.

One of my favourite quotes is in Yvon’s opening statement is a simple yet effective answer to the age-old question that haunts every sustainability professional about what the business case for their work is. “Any company interested in long-term survival should consider changing its primary purpose to saving our home planet unless it has a way to make money on a dead one.” Your business won’t survive without sustainability action now, so should the question not be flipped from what’s the financial cost of doing this project, to what’s the real cost of not doing this project? 

2. Acknowledgement that global issues can’t be solved by one company, but that doesn’t mean that one company can’t make a difference

Patagonia openly acknowledges in the opening note that despite all they are currently doing it’s not enough. The issues they are tackling are systemic and can’t be solved in silos, both within an organisation and as an individual organisation, putting a spotlight on collective action.

3. Importance of third-party standards for impact

They recognise the importance of third-party audits such as B Corp to reliably measure the scope of their impact against impartial frameworks and prevent greenwashing by involving external expertise.

4. Jargon free (or is at least used sparingly)

What’s the point in publishing an impact report for your stakeholders if all of your stakeholders can’t understand what you’re saying. There are enough acronyms in sustainability already!

5. Sustainability best practice is constantly evolving, so should your sustainability strategy

An example of this is Patagonia’s move away from their original goal of achieving carbon neutrality by recognising, as more information became available, that there were better methods of reducing their carbon impact. It went from being a “bold target” at the time of when it was set, to them developing a “no carbon offset” policy in 2024 to ban offsets made on behalf of Patagonia. Instead they are focusing on projects to decarbonise their own operations and supply chain.

6. Partnerships and grants over giving

They focus on long term partnerships and support of grassroots activism in both long term funding and staff time over one-off giving. Note that their partnerships are also aligned with Patagonia’s core products, relating to protecting wildlife, as what’s the purpose of creating outdoor clothing if there is no nature to use them in. 

7. The importance of a centralised Impact report as a source of truth, communicating the good, the bad and the ugly

By publishing their first impact report, Patagonia recognised that value in the “level of transparency [it] can bring.” It’s a way to showcase what you’ve achieved in one place, be held accountable to stakeholders and share solutions you’ve found with peers in your industry to maximise collective impact. 

For an impact report to achieve its full value you have to be transparent about the targets you didn’t meet, like Patagonia’s goal of 50% of synthetic fabrics to use secondary waste where they currently only use 6%. However, instead of hiding this fact they’ve shared what they’re going to do about it, building trust with customers and ultimately being more useful for others in the fashion industry facing the same challenge. 

If Patagonia has now inspired you to get started on your next impact report but you’re stuck on where to start, reach out to Commonplace and we’d be happy to help you with your impact and then how you report on it.