Review: Let My People Go Surfing

A couple of weeks ago I was browsing aimlessly in a Barnes & Noble store when Let my people go surfing caught my attention. Granted, it was the title and the picture that first sparked my attention but just by reading the back cover it became obvious that the book is not about surfing at all. What it is, however, is a fascinating mix of an autobiography, a business book and a blueprint for corporate responsibility written by the founder of Patagonia, Yvon Chouinard.

(To those who don’t know, Patagonia is a clothing & outdoors equipment company that is known particularly for their environmental awareness – I didn’t know much about them before reading this book but now greatly admire what they’re doing)

The first section of the book covers the history of Patagonia the company, from the one-person part-time job to $230M/year enterprise it is now. The rest of the book is devoted to Patagonia’s philosophies and how they are in practise manifested – while it may sound like a corporate ad when stated like this, it’s far from it. Yvon Chouinard is the first to admit that his business is damaging the environment, but it’s a damage he would like to minimize and IMHO does a great job at it. From donating 1% of their total sales to environmental causes to using only organic cotton to subsidizing employee purchases of fuel-efficient hybrid vehicles and much more, one can only hope that they succeed in setting an example that others will follow.

Well, actually, that’s putting it wrong: we can’t just _hope_ someone else is going to take care of the environment, but we must do our own part. It’s not a SEP – this is one of those situations where it’s true that if you’re not part of the solution, you’re part of the problem. Chouinard summarizes Patagonia’s philosophy as follows, and it’s one that every one of us can take on individually also:

1. Lead an examined life
2. Clean up our own act
3. Do our penance
4. Support civil democracy
5. Influence other companies

One truly sad thing is that Patagonia can do all that they are doing because they’re a privately held company. It would be very difficult in current economic atmosphere for a publicly traded company to accomplish even half of what Patagonia is doing – simply thanks to stockholder greed for short-term profits and short-sightedness. Perhaps in the future it’ll be possible for a public company to be a part of the 1% For The Planet alliance without causing a stockholder rebellion. What is remarkable, however, is that whenever Patagonia has done the right thing, it has proven to be a financial success for the company – maybe the others are just scared of trying? It’s too bad the following truth as put by David Browser hasn’t been ingrained in the minds of most companies:

There is no business to be done on a dead planet.

Even if you don’t care about how Patagonia or other companies conduct their business and what impacts they have on the environment – which, btw, you should care about – Let my people go surfing is something you should still read, if only for hopefully raising your environmental awareness on what kind of impact the production and consumption of everything has on the earth.

Then again, if you are involved in business and can impact perhaps some of your companies policies, this book offers some great suggestions and examples on where to begin – from HR policies to supplier relationships. There is a wealth of material and examples on how things impacts the environment, on the true cost of many materials and a lot of other fascinating things.

In short, “Let my people go surfing” should be mandatory reading for everyone. 5/5.