This is what corporate responsibility looks like, in my humble opinion. As much as some people (and organizations) out there would like to bury their heads in the sand and pretend climate change doesn’t exist, it is very real, and its effects are growing more drastic.
Because of the 2018 rewrite of America’s tax laws – a tax code revision that greatly benefited corporations by lowering the corporate tax rate by almost a third for most companies – Patagonia paid $10 million less in taxes that year than it had anticipated. So the company’s CEO, Rose Marcario, decided to donate the $10 million to non-profit groups that are working to fight climate change and help the environment.
Marcario believed the corporate tax cut was not a good thing, and she wrote, “Based on last year’s irresponsible tax cut, Patagonia will owe less in taxes this year—$10 million less, in fact. Instead of putting the money back into our business, we’re responding by putting $10 million back into the planet. Our home planet needs it more than we do.”
Speaking about climate change deniers, including many in government, Marcario wrote, “Far too many have suffered the consequences of global warming in recent months, and the political response has so far been woefully inadequate—and the denial is just evil.”
Patagonia has been a friend of the environment for many years now and their website says the company has donated more than $89 million to environmental groups to fight climate change.
Let’s hope that more corporations and individuals make their voices heard about the extreme consequences of climate change that are occurring around us every day. This isn’t something that might happen in the future, this is taking place right now.
