Going Organic: Converting Patagonia's Cotton Product Line

The integration of industrial ecology principles into a business may mean significant changes in its customary activities. In this article, we present a case study of a decision by Patagonia, a manufacturer and distributor of clothing and gear for outdoor sports, to use only organically grown cotton for our cotton products as of spring I996.We describe the history of our efforts to reduce our environmental impacts, the relationship between understanding the life‐cycle impacts of garments in general and cotton in particular onour decision, and the changes required throughout the company to implement the decision. Although initial salesof the organic cotton products have met or exceeded expectations, most customers continue to buy our productsfor traditional reasons: quality, fit, styling, and brand. Westruggle to change consumer perceptions about the environmental significance of their purchases and influencemajor apparel manufacturers to make a similar switch. Our experience suggests, first, that consumers and industryneed to understand the principles of industrial ecology and, second, that environmental improvements must be integrated into all aspects of operations (e.g., marketing). Anunexpected benefit of the decision was an increase in our knowledge about the garment life cycle, which in turn improves our ability to develop new fabrics when off‐the‐shelf products do not meet our needs. Much remains to bedone, howevel; to reduce impacts associated with other aspects Of our products and corporate activities.