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One Percent for the Planet
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With the earth in the throes of unprecedented environmental degradation, a one-percent change seems almost frivolous. Unless you’re One Percent for the Planet, an alliance established by Patagonia founders Yvon and Malinda Chouinard and Blue Ribbon Flies owner Craig Matthews.
With their business travels placing them front and center as witnesses to barren tracts of land, dying reefs and stagnant waters, One Percent’s founders devised a ridiculously simple plan: pledge at least one percent of their annual net sales to the protection and restoration of the environment. Patagonia has historically promoted environmental responsibility through the years, and since 1985 has donated 22 million dollars in support of grass roots environmental concerns. Since establishing the One Percent alliance, they have convinced dozens of other businesses to join them, compounding their effect in reversing the downward trend of the earth’s biosphere.
Chouinard’s book “Let My People Go Surfing.” Discusses Patagonia’s early business history and includes his philosophy on the One Percent solution, calling the idea his “earth tax.”
Chouinard: No matter how diligent we are at Patagonia in trying to cause less harm to the environment with our business, everything we make causes some waste and pollution. So the next step in our responsibility is to pay for our sins until such a time that we hope we can stop sinning.
Since 2003 One Percent’s member businesses have become part of a larger alliance that has proved crucial in shoring up philanthropic support that had dwindled in the recent past. As a result, Chouinard points out, the environmental pie has shrunk. But with One Percent for the Planet, it is possible he has devised a way to provide a bigger pie altogether, one that allows the member businesses to expressly target their donations. In addition, these businesses are able to use the one percent logo on their products, brick-and-mortar storefronts or websites as a statement of their commitment.
Chouinard: Craig Matthews, has a little fly shop in West Yellowstone but he gets sales from all over the country because people know that when they order a fly rod from him, that he’s going to donate $14, cause he gives two percent, actually, of his sales, to environmental causes and specifically to improve fishing and the natural beauty of Yellowstone.
A list of possible recipients numbers in the thousands, which creates a daunting research task for someone looking to make a contribution, but One Percent has done their homework and pre-screened them.
Of the 150-plus small businesses that have joined the alliance, Mike Habig of Tbi Advertising in Kokomo, Indiana, explains why his company got involved:
Habig: I’m passionate about my business and I’m passionate about the outdoors. TBI joined One Percent for the Planet because it made a statement that we’re not in operation for just the money, and it made sense to have the opportunity to invest in what we believed in. It’s empowering to realize we can have an affect on where we live.
As a funded recipient of the alliance, Ecotrust, a non-governmental organization in Portland, Oregon, utilizes the income to build a larger base of support among governmental agencies, committed businesses and the native tribes in the region. Ecotrust established Salmon Nation, a bio-regional effort that includes initiatives pertaining to sustainable forests, food and farms, fishing, and First Nation people. Spencer Beebe, Ecotrust’s PRESIDENT has no reservations about One Percent’s effects.
Beebe: One Percent has provided a whole new conceptual structure, one that links environmentalists, social equity groups and economists all coming together to preserve and restore our planet. It’s time to recognize that—independent of our nation’s government—we can leverage private-initiative entrepreneurship literally community by community to solve the problems that confront us on an environ-mental basis. Citizenship has never been so strong or so greatly needed.
Gaining some three to four members each week, Chouinard is thrilled with the alliance’s reception from his industry cohorts.
Chouinard: They willingly work with us because they believe that what we are attempting to do is going to create a more sustainable business model for them and for society. They realize, as David Brower once put it, “there’s no business to be done on a dead planet.
For more information about one percent for the planet, please check out our website at gooddirtradio.org.
I’m Tom Bartels and I’m Tami Graham. Thanks for joining us on good dirt radio, digging up good news... for a change.
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