Patagonia

Consumer Durables and Apparel

Risk Level:

Rating - Danger
High Risk

Summary:

Patagonia canceled a contract with a client due to the client's affiliation with a GOP fundraiser. Patagonia also supports the Equality Act, supports transgender participation in women's and girls' sports, and opposed a Texas law restricting access to abortion. For these reasons, Patagonia receives a "High Risk" rating.

Criteria
Risk Level
Rationale
Corporate Weaponization
Criteria

Has denied service to customers, suppliers, or vendors due to their political views or religious beliefs OR corporately boycotts, divests, or sanctions regions, people groups, or industries.

Risk Level
Rationale

Patagonia canceled a contract with a client due to the client hosting a GOP fundraiser involving Representative Jim Jordan (OH-04) and then-Representative Mark Meadows (1). Patagonia has received a score of 95 on the Corporate Equality Index from the Human Rights Campaign (HRC). Among other policies, this rating indicates that the company vets suppliers according to LGBTQ protections (2).

Criteria

Charitable giving (including employee matching programs) policies or practices discriminate against charitable organizations based on views or religious beliefs.

Risk Level
Rationale

Patagonia restricts its charitable donations to environmental conservation groups. It does not discriminate against faith-based charities (1).

Criteria

Employment policies fail to protect against discrimination based on political affiliation/views and/or religion.

Risk Level
Rationale

Patagonia’s Code of Conduct Policy aims to protect all suppliers and employees from viewpoint discrimination (1).

Corporate Governance and Public Policy
Criteria

Uses corporate reputation to support ideological causes and/or organizations hostile to freedom of expression.

Risk Level
Rationale

Patagonia signed an open letter in support of the Equality Act (1). Patagonia has also signed a letter by the HRC opposing laws regarding transgender individuals in athletics and a letter endorsed by the American Civil Liberties Union opposing abortion restrictions in Texas (2)(3). The company created a documentary called “They/Them” to promote a transgender climber (4). Patagonia denounced Georgia’s election law and donated $1M to voting groups, including Black Voters Matter while endorsing the “For the People Act” (5). Patagonia is an openly politically-minded company, endorsing several Democrat senator candidates in 2018 and even suing Donald Trump (6)(7)(8). Patagonia opposed the Florida Parental Rights in Education Act, which prohibits teaching gender identity and sexual orientation in schools to kids in K-3rd grade (9).

Criteria

Uses corporate funds to advance ideological causes, organizations, or policies hostile to freedom of expression.

Risk Level
Rationale

Patagonia has donated to Planned Parenthood (1). Patagonia also uses corporate funds to pay for its employees’ travel to get an abortion (2). The company also preemptively pledged to pay bail for its employees arrested protesting the overturning of Roe v. Wade (3). Patagonia gave $1 million to Black Voters Matter, a liberal advocacy group, as part of its efforts to fight Georgia’s election integrity efforts (4).

Criteria

Uses corporate political contributions for ideological, non-business purposes.

Risk Level
Rationale

Patagonia does not use its political contributions for ideological purposes and donates in a bipartisan manner (1).

All links were last accessed and all information was updated on:
January 3, 2023

Company reports are intended for educational use only. Full Disclaimer

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