Patagonia: earth is now our only shareholder

Date 2022-10-05

A company takes bold steps towards a sustainable future. - A case study for new approaches in business.

Photo: Maëva Vigier/Unsplash
Photo: Maëva Vigier/Unsplash

‘Sustainability’ is becoming increasingly important in these times and is part of responsible management. In this context, from September 27 to 29, 2022, MCI organized the “9th Responsible Management Education Research Conference”. What does sustainability mean? How can responsibility and values contribute to it?

An important topic was the news of mid-September 2022, according to which ‘Patagonia billionaire gives away company to fight the climate crisis’. In a courageous move, Patagonia company founder Yvon Chouinard donated his own company in the fight against the climate crisis and declared that from now on, the Earth is Patagonia's only shareholder.

The panel at the MCI conference with representatives from both academia (ICN Business School Nancy-Paris-Berlin and University of Northumbria) and practice (Impact Hub Tirol, Protect our Winters and Patagonia) agreed that sustainability must be an essential part of a degree course.

Sustainability is also one of the focal points of the new Master's program ‘International Business & Law’, which recently started into the new academic year. In addition to sustainability and diversity, values and the will to cooperate have also been emphasized by the panelist. Values were also the topic of a book on EU values, recently published by Jean Monnet Professor Markus Frischhut (moderator of this panel). In this book, he also argues for environmental protection as a new value of the EU. The book is freely available on the website of the Jean Monnet Chair and also shows the importance of linking teaching and research.

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Prof. Dr. Markus Frischhut, LL.M. | Study Coordinator European Union Law Bachelor's program Management & Law
Prof. Dr. Markus Frischhut, LL.M.Study Coordinator European Union Law
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