Bridging the Gap

My original intent for this post was to embed Part 2 of Patagonia’s current Footprint Chronicles series, called What Comes Next?, which speaks primarily to the notion of whether any manufacturer can truly call itself “sustainable”, and briefly discusses what an overwhelmingly consumptive culture we have become all over the world – especially in the United States.

Sadly, the episode isn’t embeddable yet, so I’m going to postpone that particular video until a later day (although you can watch it on the Patagonia site linked above if you really can’t wait). In the meantime, since I’ve propped myself up onto something of a social responsibility soapbox this week, I’m posting a few other videos in a similar vein, which speak to some issues I’ve mentioned before in previous posts. Each one is only a few minutes long, so they shouldn’t take too much time out of your weekend.

The clips all come from Patagonia’s previous Footprint Chronicles offerings, which began in 2007 for the purpose of examining various aspects of responsible manufacturing and consumerism. There are literally dozens of videos to choose from on the website (and on YouTube), and it’s this series more than anything else that gives me a ton of respect and appreciation for the company.

Remember how I said that you can find positive information about a company from its website, but were pretty much out of luck trying to learn about their shortcomings? Patagonia stands out as the exception: they’re not only willing to put themselves under the microscope, but they then take the additional – and unthinkable, to most companies – step of discussing their problems in public, on the Internet, for all the world to see.

This first clip is a perfect example: Patagonia’s Footwear General Manager, Craig Throne, appraises the positives and negatives of the company’s manufacturing process – things they are doing well, as well as things they aim to improve. It was filmed at the beginning of the Footprint Chronicles project, as a sort of “where we are now” in preparation for the revelations that would come in future installments:




The next clip is in response to the question of how a company can utilize Chinese labor forces in a humane and respectful manner. Stella Footwear is a partner company that employs over 50,000 people at its Dongguan City facility to make several brands of shoes, including Patagonia. Business Director Buddy Huang is an American-born Chinese who speaks to the importance the company places on providing a healthy work environment and a middle-class standard of living for all of its workers:




And what if a company claims to take care of its workers, but really doesn’t? That’s where something called social audits come into play. Patagonia’s partner companies are routinely visited and inspected by independent organizations to ensure they are adhering to Patagonia’s standards of conduct. Nicole Bassett, Patagonia's Social Responsibility Manager (how many corporations even have a position like that?), describes the importance of the social audits, and Alex Kaufman from Global Solutions, the third-party auditing group, describes how these audits are conducted in the apparel industry:




These videos certainly aren’t incontrovertible proof that every facet of Patagonia’s manufacturing process is 100% ethically sound, but it certainly shows a willingness to put itself out there for public scrutiny. In light of the difficulties I described yesterday regarding the knowledge gap between corporate business practices and consumer awareness, it’s nice to know that at least one company out there is working to bridge that gap as much as possible.