Owner of Patagonia gives away company

2023-06-02何高伦

疯狂英语·新悦读 2023年5期

主题语境：环保篇幅：354词建议用时：6分钟

1Yvon Chouinard, who started the clothing company, Patagonia, has turned over the $3 billion company to an organization that will work to fight climate change.Though the action came as a surprise, Mr Chouinard has a history of being an unusual business leader, and a strong record of working to protect the environment.

2Mr Chouinard is a rock climber who began climbing in the 1960s.Back then,he created a company that made climbing equipment.The business closed,but Mr Chouinard was left with a lifelong love of the outdoors and respect for the environment.

3Mr Chouinard began Patagonia in the 1970s. Patagonia sells clothes aimed at outdoor activities.Over time,the company changed the way it did business to do a better job of protecting the environment.

4Patagonia was careful about the materials that were used in its clothes. It even encouraged people not to buy its clothes unless they really needed them. Since 1986,Patagonia has given 1% of the money it makes from sales to groups that work to protect the environment.

5Mr Chouinard is now 85 years old. Though he has become rich through his business,he isn't comfortable with the idea. He continues to live simply. And he was worried about what might happen after he died.

6Mr Chouinard gave away 2% of the company to a small group called the Patagonia Purpose Trust. This group will still be run largely by Mr Chouinard's family. It will make all the decisions about the way the company is managed. The group's job is to make sure that the company is still run in the same way. The other 98% of the company has been given to a nonprofit group called the Holdfast Collective. The goal of the Holdfast Collective is to fight climate change and to protect wild land.The profit that Patagonia makes will go to this organization.

7“I feel a big relief that I've put my life in order and the company is going to continue doing the right thing for the next 50 years,”Mr Chouinard said.