Owned and Operated
Why
Patagonia is a global company with a global footprint. We own and operate offices in the United States, the Netherlands, Japan, South Korea, Australia, Chile and Argentina. We also operate two distribution centers—our facilities where we receive goods from factories in the US and overseas—and more than 70 Patagonia stores worldwide.
In comparison to the footprint of our full supply chain, the emissions associated with our owned-and-operated facilities are much lower. For example, the carbon footprint of our own facilities is only 2–3% of our total footprint each year. Because we have much more control over our owned facilities, we are committed to cleaning up our own house before asking others to follow suit.
Where We Are
Energy In the US, we have on-site solar installations at our Reno, Nevada, and Ventura, California, campuses and have installed more than 1.5 megawatts of renewable power. Patagonia also directly procures renewable energy in North America through its utilities via green tariff programs where these programs are available. For our electricity consumption that is not accounted for through on-site or green tariff programs, we purchase Renewable Energy Certificates (RECs). RECs are essentially proof that the energy has been sourced from renewable methods. In 2023, we purchased 7,000 project-specific RECs, representing 7,000 megawatt hours of renewable energy generation.
Globally, we’ve invested in renewable energy projects on every continent where we operate, including 600 kilowatts of solar panels cantilevered over farmland in Japan, which allows farmers to simultaneously grow crops and source energy from the sun. Our other investments include signing a power purchase agreement to power our Australian operations by installing off-site solar at a nearby cricket club and installing rooftop solar on our office in Seoul, South Korea, and our Montebelluna store in Italy. For a nonprofit partner in Chile, we donated a group of solar panels that generates clean energy equivalent to our electricity consumption.
We are continually evaluating additional renewable energy investments in countries where we own and operate offices and stores.
While we focus a lot on investing in renewables, we also work hard to reduce our demand for energy in the first place. Our responsible building principles push us to design, create and operate buildings in a way that minimizes the need for energy, such as using daylight-design features.
Waste To limit the waste we create in our owned-and-operated facilities, we are installing composting systems at all facilities; phasing out single-use plastics in our purchasing practices, café and stores; digitizing our entire accounting and payroll processes; installing waste stations and proper signage so employees accurately sort trash, recycling and compost materials; recycling all our scrap surfboard foam; ensuring all visual merchandising materials are recyclable and working to minimize material use and increase modularization.
Water In our owned-and-operated facilities, our water footprint is relatively small and mostly comes from basic functions like sinks or toilets or rinsing off our wetsuits after surfing.
We capture all the heating, ventilation and air-conditioning condensation at one of our California facilities, which we then use to water all the plants on-site. To further limit our water usage, we prioritize low-flow toilets, faucets and showers, and we plant native and drought-tolerant species.
At our main campus in Ventura, we also installed a bioswale, which captures rain and stormwater runoff and naturally filters it before it heads out to the ocean.
Being a Responsible Company We are faced with everyday decisions on how best to make environmental choices. Here are some principles that we use to help guide these decisions and move us toward our goal of creating no unnecessary harm through our business operations.
Preferable Purchasing Principles Responsible Service Provider Principles Building Principles Paper Procurement and Use Policy Packaging and Merchandising Principles
What’s Next
Our goal is to switch to 100% renewable electricity in our global owned-and-operated facilities by the end of 2025.
