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What It Takes 2007:
The Green Adventure
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What It Takes to Tax Yourself
Yvonne Chouinard, founder, Patagonia; co-founder, One Percent for the Planet
As told to Kalee Thompson
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"We tax ourselves, that's the way I look at it. Charity is something you do at the end of the year when you've got some extra money and you can afford it. But this is an ongoing project: Whether we make a profit or not, we give one percent of total sales away each year. It's an Earth tax.
"Patagonia's been giving ten percent of pre-tax profits or one percent of sales, whichever is greater, since 1985. We give to about 350 organizations every year. We support the small little activist organizations. They are far more effective than the big ones, but no one will fund them. That's why we give them money.
"I have no desire to make more money. I don't want a big company. I'd much rather have an excellent small company. I'm in business to try to influence other companies to realize that green business is good business.
"It took almost three years after starting One Percent for the Planet [with Montana businessman Craig Mathew, owner of Blue Ribbon Flies, in 2001] to get 100 companies to sign up. Now we're signing up one a day. It's really taken off like crazy—we're close to 600 companies now. It's mostly small companies; I don't think there's a public company in there.
"I tell people. 'Look, do you think government's going to solve our problems?' Nobody thinks government's going to solve our problems. It's up to the individual. If you believe that we should be taxing nonrenewable resources then go ahead and do it, tax yourself. Don't wait for the government to do it. If you feel guilty about driving an SUV, or any car, every time you buy $20 worth of gas put 20 cents in the kitty and at the end of the year do something with it.
"Nothing's coming out of the Bush administration, but on the local, city, and country and state levels there's a lot going on. And there's a revolution going on in business right now. I mean, Rupert Murdoch, one of the most conservative guys in America, told all his people 'I want to green my companies.' It's a non-political thing. Look at General Electric—they'll go down in history as the polluters of the Hudson River. Now they're embracing green technology. There's really a big sea change going on."
Take Action: Visit www.onepercentfortheplanet.org and support companies that support the Earth. Encourage business owners you know to sign up with One Percent and search the site's list of approved environmental groups to find worthy projects ready to collect your self-tax dollars.
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