Patagonia is having a very good year. And under our new corporate tax code passed by a Republican Congress and enthusiastically signed into law by President Trump, they’re paying a lot less in federal taxes.
$10 million less, to be exact.
In letter posted to LinkedIn, Patagonia’s CEO announced her company is donating all $10 million to non-profit groups who work on issues related to climate change and the environment.
“Based on last year’s irresponsible tax cut, Patagonia will owe less in taxes this year—$10 million less, in fact,” CEO Rose Marcario writes. “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.”
Marcario referred to the government’s own newly released report on climate change, which warns that unless significant changes are made, we could be facing catastrophic and irreversible changes to our planet by 2050. When asked about the report, Trump simply said, “I don’t believe it,” something Marcario also made a thinly veiled reference to in her post:
“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,” she wrote.
“Taxes protect the most vulnerable in our society, our public lands and other life-giving resources,” she added. “In spite of this, the Trump administration initiated a corporate tax cut, threatening these services at the expense of our planet.”
Patagonia isn’t new to environmental causes. Their “1% for the Planet” program donates profits to environmental projects around the world.
A note on their company site claims Patagonia has donated more than $89 million to such causes since the program first launched.
And CEO Marcario was singled out by the White House, Barack Obama's White House that is, back in 2015 for her efforts to protect the environment.
In response to the Republicans approach to climate change, Bloomberg notes that Patagonia is getting increasingly political, having endorsed two Democratic candidates for the U.S. Senate during the 2018 midterm elections.
Both candidates won. And seeing as money and politics are the two measurements of power most at the forefront of Trump’s thinking, Patagonia’s latest message is something he and his allies should take note of.