Yvon Chouinard: The US Billionaire Donating His Company To A Charitable Trust To Fight Climate Change

Giving up your life savings to live simply is one thing, but giving them up to fight climate change is on an entirely different level that is difficult for most of us to imagine.

The millionaire creator of outdoor clothing firm Patagonia, Yvon Chouinard, stated that he had donated his business to a trust for humanitarian purposes. Any profit that is not used to manage the business under the new ownership structure will go toward addressing climate change.

Instead of selling the business or going public, Yvon Chouinard is giving his family's ownership of the company to a trust and a non-profit organisation in order to rescue Earth. Yvon Chouinard, who has a net worth of $1.2 billion, rose to fame for his alpine climbs in Yosemite National Park.

On the business' website, Yvon Chouinard stated in an open letter headlined "Earth is now our only shareholder, “Each year, the money we make after reinvesting in the business will be distributed as a dividend to help fight the crisis. Instead of extracting value from nature and transforming it into wealth for investors, we'll use the wealth Patagonia creates to protect the source of all wealth."

He claimed that his business would use the riches it generates to safeguard the origin of all prosperity.

“100 per cent of the company’s voting stock transfers to the Patagonia Purpose Trust, created to protect the company’s values; and 100 per cent of the nonvoting stock had been given to the Holdfast Collective, a nonprofit dedicated to fighting the environmental crisis and defending nature." said Yvon Chouinard.