![](https://eu.patagonia.com/dw/image/v2/bdjb_PRD/on/demandware.static/-/Library-Sites-PatagoniaShared/default/dw7ee2d5eb/images/heros/oberly_k_0221_cc_WEB_Stories_SupplyChain.jpg?q=85&sw=334&)
Our Footprint Stories
![Green Biz](https://www.patagonia.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2016/04/post-default-768x424.jpg.webp)
If you’re interested in businesses-gone-green, take a look at "Executive on a Mission: Saving the Planet" by Cornelia Dean. (Note: This is a NY Times article and will only be viewable by non-subscribers for approximately one week.) It’s great to hear more success stories of reformed businessmen and their environmental experiments. Let’s hope interest among…
![Announcing The Footprint Chronicles](https://www.patagonia.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/tcl-theme-assets/post-default.jpg)
I love to cook and as I’ve ventured into new cuisines found myself with a whole new spice rack sporting names like fenugreek, nigella and star anise. I also found myself wanting a spice grinder to go with all these wonderful recipes but couldn’t bring myself to spend the money. My coffee grinder worked just…
![Your Thoughts on The Footprint Chronicles](https://www.patagonia.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2016/04/post-default-768x424.jpg.webp)
0ur Footprint Chronicles were intended to ignite conversation every bit as much as corporate introspection. And the comments are starting to roll in. Below, you’ll find some intriguing thoughts from among the very first responses we received to the Footprint Chronicles. In the interest of helping to zero-in our own focus on big issues, we’ve…
![Your Thoughts on The Footprint Chronicles – Part 2](https://www.patagonia.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2016/04/post-default-768x424.jpg.webp)
0ur Footprint Chronicles were intended to ignite conversation every bit as much as corporate introspection. And the comments are starting to roll in. Below, you’ll find some intriguing thoughts from among the very first responses we received to the Footprint Chronicles. In the interest of helping to zero-in our own focus on big issues, we’ve…
![Your Thoughts on The Footprint Chronicles – Part 3](https://www.patagonia.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2016/04/post-default-768x424.jpg.webp)
0ur Footprint Chronicles were intended to ignite conversation every bit as much as corporate introspection. And the comments are starting to roll in. Below, you’ll find some intriguing thoughts from among the very first responses we received to the Footprint Chronicles. In the interest of helping to zero-in our own focus on big issues, we’ve…
![TreeHugger Interviews with Yvon Chouinard](https://www.patagonia.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2016/04/post-default-768x424.jpg.webp)
The all-things green blog TreeHugger recently conducted a two-part phone interview with Patagonia owner/founder Yvon Chouinard. Topics include growing the company, Patgonia 100 years from now, transparency and the Footprint Chronicles, the myth of sustainability, our "Pata-gucci" reputation, politics, and quality vs. quantity. As usual, Y.C. doesn’t pull any punches. Head on over to TreeHugger…
![Patagonia Reads with UCSB](https://www.patagonia.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2016/04/post-default-768x424.jpg.webp)
After a very successful inaugural launch last year Patagonia got involved again with the University of California Santa Barbara READS program. UCSB students and Patagonia employees were given The Travels of a T-Shirt in the Global Economy by Pietra Rivoli to learn more about globalization. Patagonia was asked to get even further involved and have…
![Up with Down](https://www.patagonia.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2016/04/post-default-768x424.jpg.webp)
Because the best down comes from mature geese and because the Eastern Europeans prefer older and larger geese, the best down tends to come from Eastern Europe. The down is harvested and then separated into different grades depending on the quality of down. Hit the jump for more details . . . Down is graded…
![Footprint Chronicles Features 5 New Products](https://www.patagonia.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2016/04/post-default-768x424.jpg.webp)
Feedback" links available within The Footprint Chronicles. If you’ve yet to see it, The Footprint Chronicles is one example of our commitment to Leading an Examined Life. It’s an interactive mini-site that allows you to track the impact of several Patagonia products from design through delivery.* We launched The Footprint Chronicles with five products from…
![Developing Our First Wetsuit—That’s Also Sustainably Made](https://www.patagonia.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2008/05/wetsuit_mfull_03jpg-100x167.jpg.webp)
Recently there has been a lot of talk in the surf world about “green” wetsuits (1, 2, 3, 4). Most of the claims revolve around the use of neoprene made from limestone rather than petroleum. I asked Todd Copeland, who works on Patagonia’s Fabric Development team, to shed some light on these claims. Many of…
![Your Thoughts on the Footprint Chronicles – All Just Eco Fluff?](https://www.patagonia.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/tcl-theme-assets/post-default.jpg)
Our Footprint Chronicles have generated a wide range of feedback. We’ve received a whole raft of incisive questions that have sent us scurrying off to do more homework. We’ve received some praise, most recently in the form of the "People’s Voice" award in the 2008 Webbys. And we’ve received some criticism. We’re grateful for all…
![Patagonia Products’ Country of Origin Information Available Online](https://www.patagonia.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2016/04/post-default-768x424.jpg.webp)
In early July of 2008 we announced the release of our factory list, available from the Leading the Examined Life portion of our site. As the post states, this was a big step for us. The Footprint Chronicles is our opportunity to maintain a higher level of transparency in our corporate practice. They were launched…
![Patagonia Receives FLA Accreditation](https://www.patagonia.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2016/04/post-default-768x424.jpg.webp)
Patagonia is proud to announce that as of October, 2008, we have become a fully accredited member of the Fair Labor Association. While Patagonia was a founding member and active participating company in the Fair Labor Association since 1999, it was not until last month that we received the distinction of full accreditation. To achieve…
![Patagonia Employees’ My Footprint Series: All That Rots](https://www.patagonia.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2010/06/Footprint-768x424.jpg.webp)
A new citizen is emerging. That citizen is engaged, concerned, and most of all, confident; confident in his or her choice as a consumer, confident in his or her power as an employee, confident that change is possible. The Footprint Chronicles were developed to document the changes we’re making as a company to lighten our…
![Patagonia Employees’ My Footprint Series: Ode to a Dead Volvo](https://www.patagonia.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2010/06/Footprint-768x424.jpg.webp)
A new citizen is emerging. That citizen is engaged, concerned, and most of all, confident; confident in his or her choice as a consumer, confident in his or her power as an employee, confident that change is possible. The Footprint Chronicles were developed to document the changes we’re making as a company to lighten our…
![Shopping Consciously for the Holidays](https://www.patagonia.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2016/03/6a00d8341d07fd53ef01a73dfd3e0a970d-768x576.jpg.webp)
Nicole Bassett is Patagonia’s Social Responsibility Manager. As such, she is charged with traveling the world to visit our factories and verify the integrity of their manufacturing process. Thanks to her unique expertise, she gets peppered with questions from people eager to spend their dollars in the most beneficial way possible. In today’s post, Nicole…
![Patagonia Employees’ My Footprint Series: When the Light Went Out](https://www.patagonia.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2016/05/lights-100x53.jpg.webp)
A new citizen is emerging. That citizen is engaged, concerned, and most of all, confident; confident in his or her choice as a consumer, confident in his or her power as an employee, confident that change is possible. The Footprint Chronicles were developed to document the changes we’re making as a company to lighten our…
![Patagonia Employees’ My Footprint Series: Mindin’ the Toilet](https://www.patagonia.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2010/06/Footprint-768x424.jpg.webp)
Series intro: A new citizen is emerging. That citizen is engaged, concerned, and most of all, confident; confident in his or her choice as a consumer, confident in his or her power as an employee, confident that change is possible. The Footprint Chronicles were developed to document the changes we’re making as a company to…
![Patagonia Employees’ My Footprint Series: Grow with the Flow](https://www.patagonia.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2016/03/6a00d8341d07fd53ef010536e85684970b-768x576.jpg.webp)
Series intro: A new citizen is emerging. That citizen is engaged, concerned, and most of all, confident; confident in his or her choice as a consumer, confident in his or her power as an employee, confident that change is possible. The [Ed note: This installment comes from a local Ventura canoe paddler; someone whose time…
![Closing the Loop – A Report on Patagonia’s Common Threads Garment Recycling Program](https://www.patagonia.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2016/03/6a00d8341d07fd53ef011168c3dbc4970c-100x79.jpg.webp)
In Fall 2005, when we launched our new line of recyclable Capilene® Performance Base Layer garments, we also announced a five-year goal to make all Patagonia products recyclable through our new Common Threads Garment Recycling Program. This program invites customers to return used-up clothing and delivers the retired garments to a fiber manufacturer that uses…
![Patagonia Employees’ My Footprint Series: Shipping to a Lesser Footprint](https://www.patagonia.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2016/03/6a00d8341d07fd53ef0111689545af970c-100x75.jpg.webp)
A new citizen is emerging. That citizen is engaged, concerned, and most of all, confident; confident in his or her choice as a consumer, confident in his or her power as an employee, confident that change is possible. Although it can sometimes bog decisions down, we recently saw the benefits when Patagonia Sourcing Manager Marjorie…
![Patagonia Employees’ My Footprint Series: A Word on Spreading the Word](https://www.patagonia.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2016/03/6a00d8341d07fd53ef01156f3ea502970b-768x471.jpg.webp)
Series intro: Today's citizen is engaged, concerned, and most of all, confident; confident in his or her choice as a consumer, confident in his or her power as an employee, confident that change is possible. [Ed note: Everyone concerned with the state of the environment has their coming-of -consciousness story. Psychologist Elizabeth Mosco has worked…
![My Footprint Series: Setting an Example with Trims and Samples](https://www.patagonia.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2016/03/6a00d8341d07fd53ef01156eccd632970c-100x75.jpg.webp)
Series intro: Today's citizen is engaged, concerned, and most of all, confident; confident in his or her choice as a consumer, confident in his or her power as an employee, confident that change is possible. Two. Hundred. Thousand. Miles. If you’re an astronaut,that translates to a one-way ticket to the moon or about 8 trips…
![Earth Day and the New Footprint Chronicles](https://www.patagonia.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2016/03/6a00d8341d07fd53ef01156f4a1013970c-100x46.jpg.webp)
Happy Earth Day to the Cleanest Line masses. Today we launched a new version of the Footprint Chronicles, the place where we share information on how and where our products are manufactured, what the environmental costs are and how we think the process can be improved. There are a number of new features in today's…
![Patagonia Employees’ My Footprint Series: Charting a Course of Questions](https://www.patagonia.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2016/03/6a00d8341d07fd53ef01157046df07970b-100x133.jpg.webp)
Series intro: Today's citizen is engaged, concerned, and most of all, confident; confident in his or her choice as a consumer, confident in his or her power as an employee, confident that change is possible. The Footprint Chronicles were developed to document the changes we’re making as a company to lighten our environmental impact and…
![Patagonia Employees’ My Footprint Series: Shaping a New Relationship to Skiing](https://www.patagonia.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2016/03/6a00d8341d07fd53ef01156f6bf3d3970c-768x576.jpg.webp)
Series intro: The “My Footprint” series shares the stories of Patagonia friends and employees who have been inspired by There's a side to skiing in the United States that many American skiers would just as soon not talk about. For all of its inspiring outdoor elements, the industry as we know it is uniquely dependent…
![Your Thoughts on the Footprint Chronicles – Why don’t you make more of your goods in the U.S.A.?](https://www.patagonia.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2017/08/fpc_map_2-768x424.jpg.webp)
We’ve recently released “What’s Done in Our Name?,” the first in a three-part video series called Work in Progress that examines larger social and environmental issues we grapple with as a company. ”What’s Done in Our Name” directly addresses what we do to monitor the labor practices of the overseas factories that make our goods.…
![A Lime with That, Sir? Transitioning to Waterless Urinals in the Workplace](https://www.patagonia.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2016/03/6a00d8341d07fd53ef0115721ca8f1970b-768x439.jpg.webp)
We got a waterless urinal a couple of months ago here on the second floor of the Crystal Palace at Patagonia HQ. It’s saving a lot of water, but smells a bit unsavory. One guy likened the odor to that of restrooms in bus terminals. Another said it was a Third-World experience without the cultural…
![Fishing Waders Trigger Deep Thoughts About Gear Manufacturing](https://www.patagonia.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2016/03/6a00d8341d07fd53ef0115723e65cb970b-100x70.jpg.webp)
Our friends over at Recycled Waders have been hard at work finding new uses for some of Patagonia's most hard-to-recycle items. Fishing waders are complex pieces of gear – neoprene feet, water-proof fabrics treated with water-repellent finishes, stretchy shoulder straps, metal snaps and zippers, each of these items adds a layer of complexity to a…
![Patagonia Employees’ My Footprint Series: Learning by Osmosis](https://www.patagonia.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2010/06/Footprint-768x424.jpg.webp)
Series intro: The “My Footprint” series shares the stories of Patagonia friends and employees who have been inspired by The Footprint Chronicles, and whose inspiring lives help fuel the vision of what we can do as a company. Their stories are offered here, glimpses of individual footprints spotted along the path toward positive change. We…
![Footprint Chronicles Gets Freshened Up for Fall](https://www.patagonia.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2016/03/6a00d8341d07fd53ef0120a5cd3628970c-768x363.jpg.webp)
We’ve just updated the Footprint Chronicles, our interactive mini-site we use to share information about how andwhere our products are manufactured, what the environmental costs areand how we think the process can be improved. There are a number of new features in today's Footprint update but the highlight is the release of the second in…
![Why We Use Down and Chlorine-Free Wool](https://www.patagonia.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2016/03/6a00d8341d07fd53ef0120a59b0400970b-100x107.jpg.webp)
Our Customer Service Representatives (CSRs) are our front line of communication with Patagonia fanatics far and wide. The crew here at our Call Center in Reno, NV are at it seven days a week, taking orders, helping with returns, and most importantly, answering the astonishing range of questions our customers fire at us. Like flocks…
![Why We Don’t Use Bamboo or PLA](https://www.patagonia.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2016/03/6a00d8341d07fd53ef0120a5aae93b970b-100x107.jpg.webp)
Our Customer Service Representatives (CSRs) are our front line of communication with Patagonia fanatics far and wide. The crew here at our Call Center in Reno, NV are at it seven days a week, taking orders, helping with returns, and most importantly, answering the astonishing range of questions our customers fire at us. Like flocks…
![Outdoor Gear Brands Unite to Promote Environmentally Friendly Textiles](https://www.patagonia.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2016/03/6a00d8341d07fd53ef0120a7aa1604970b-768x372.jpg.webp)
It’s rare when industry competitors get together to collaborate. It’s even more unusual when they get together to discuss ways they can lessen their environmental impact. Yet that’s what happened as a result of our relationship with bluesign® technologies, an independent third party that screens the dyeing and finishing of textiles. We recently met with…
![What is Quality for Our Time? – Watch part 3 of our Footprint Chronicles video series](https://www.patagonia.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2010/06/Footprint-768x424.jpg.webp)
Writing about Patagonia’s Footprint Chronicles for the blog Greenovate, Michael Hurwitz states, “While many companies are, of course, implementing transparency initiatives, Patagonia’s project is more or less unprecedented, because of the size of the company as well as the fact that it originated from customer demand.” After over three years of steady work on our…
![Patagonia Environmental Initiatives 2010 E-Book – Flip Through Our Year-in-Review](https://www.patagonia.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2016/03/6a00d8341d07fd53ef0133f2f4e41f970b-100x59.jpg.webp)
Working to protect and restore the natural world can be a dynamic endeavor. To capture the energy that goes into this work, we bring you an enhanced electronic version of our Patagonia Environmental Initiatives 2010 booklet. View a fireside chat with Patagonia founder and environmentalist-in-chief Yvon Chouinard, accompany world-renowned photographer Florian Schulz as he sheds…