Yvon Chouinard net worth: Patagonia founder's fortune explored as he gives away multi-billion company to fight climate crisis

American businessman Yvon Chouinard, the founder of billionaire fashion brand Patagonia, is giving away his entire company to a charity to fight climate change.

The 83-year-old philanthropist established the company as a globally successful brand for sportswear, inspired by his passion for rock climbing. As per The New York Times, the company's current net worth is $3 billion.

The announcement about Patagonia was made by Yvon Chouinard on the brand's website on September 14. The website also stated that they had changed the company's purpose to "We’re in business to save our home planet" in 2018.

The note further read:

“While we’re doing our best to address the environmental crisis, it’s not enough. We needed to find a way to put more money into fighting the crisis while keeping the company’s values intact. One option was to sell Patagonia and donate all the money. But we couldn’t be sure a new owner would maintain our values or keep our team of people around the world employed."

The note continued:

"Another path was to take the company public. What a disaster that would have been. Even public companies with good intentions are under too much pressure to create short-term gain at the expense of long-term vitality and responsibility. Truth be told, there were no good options available. So, we created our own.”

Yvon Chouinard is looking at developing a way to allow the sportswear brand to earn profits whose earnings will benefit environmental activities. The philanthropist is doing this with his wife, Malinda Pennoyer, and two kids, Claire Chouinard and Fletcher Chouinard, and a group of corporate lawyers.

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Millionaire Yvon Chouinard founded Patagonia in 1973

Yvon Chouinard, who was born on November 9, 1938, is a native of Maine who founded Patagonia in 1973. The brand has a yearly retail revenue of $1 billion and according to Celebrity Net Worth, Yvon Chouinard's net worth is $100 million.

In his announcement about giving the company away, Chouinard revealed that the fashion apparel's stock will be owned by the Patagonia Purpose Trust and the Holdfast Collective. While the former is a climate-focused charity, the latter is a group of NGOs.

The September 14th move will not affect the board members of the company. Ryan Gellert will remain as the Chief Executive Officer of Patagonia and Chouinard family will remain on the board after the founder's increased charitable approach.

Yvon Chouinard and his company are known far and wide for their passion for environmental activism and benefiting their employees.

The corporation began contributing 1% of its revenues to environmental organisations in the 1980s. According to the corporation, the campaign has generated $140 million in donations for the preservation and rehabilitation of the natural environment.

The firm currently sells new and secondhand outdoor wear, camping and fishing equipment, plus food and beverages manufactured from sustainable sources.

On the personal front, he married Malinda Pennoyer in 1971, while she was a student at California State University in Fresno. As mentioned earlier, they are parents to two children, Clair and Fletcher.