The Responsible Company: What We’ve Learned from Patagonia’s First 40 Years by Yvon Chouinard & Vincent Stanley

When Joe and I began writing this blog late in 2008, we were soon introduced to Patagonia as a leader in sustainable business practices — or, as founder Yvon Chouinard prefers to call them—responsible business practices. We found Patagonia.com's Footprint Chronicles to be an especially intriguing—and daring—step toward a company's taking responsibility for its impact on the environment. So, when I was offered an opportunity to review The Responsible Company: What We've Learned from Patagonia by Yvon Chouinard and Vincent Stanley, I eagerly agreed. If you're familiar with Patagonia, you'll understand how Chouinard and Stanley are qualified to write such a book. Patagonia is known for its commitment to the environment, for its celebration of the natural world, and for providing its employees with a rewarding and well-balanced work life (see Chouinard's 2002 book, Let My People Go Surfing).... There's no self-congratulatory back-slapping in this book. The authors tell the story of their painful realization of the harm their businesses (Patagonia is "an offshoot of the Chouinard Equipment Company, which made excellent mountain-climbing gear") were doing to the environment and the financial risks they took when they committed to improvement....