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What the climate needs to avoid collapse is a contraction in humanity's use of resources; what our economic model demands to avoid collapse is unfettered expansion.

I've always thought of myself as an 80 percenter. __I like to throw myself passionately into a sport or activity until I reach about an 80 percent proficiency level. To go beyond that requires an obsession and degree of specialization that doesn't appeal to me__. Once I reach that 80 percent level I like to go off and do something totally different; that probably explains the diversity of the Patagonia product line--and why our versatile, multifaceted clothes are the most successful.

A master in the art of living draws no sharp distinction between his work and his play; his labor and his leisure; his mind and his body; his education and his recreation. He hardly knows which is which. He simply pursues his vision of excellence through whatever he is doing, and leaves others to determine whether he is working or playing. To himself, he always appears to be doing both. --L. P. Jacks...

If you want to die the richest man, then just stay sharp. Keep investing. Don't spend anything. Don't eat any capital. Don't have a good time. Don't get to know yourself. Don't give anything away. Keep it all. Die as rich as you can. But you know what? I heard an expression that puts it well: __There's no pocket on that last shirt.__ --Susie Tompkins Buell...

Primary among the problematic corporate values are the primacy of expansion and short-term profit over such other considerations as quality, sustainability, environmental and human health, and successful communities.

__Everything we personally own that's made, sold, shipped, stored, cleaned, and ultimately thrown away does some environmental harm every step of the way__, harm that we're either directly responsible for or is done on our behalf.

As individual consumers, __the single best thing we can do for the planet is to keep our stuff in use longer__. This simple act of extending the life of our garments through proper care and repair reduces the need to buy more over time--thereby avoiding the carbon dioxide emissions, waste output, and water usage required to build the new products.

so much carbon has been allowed to accumulate in the atmosphere over the past two decades that now our only hope of keeping warming below the internationally agreed-upon target of 2degC is for wealthy countries to cut their emissions by somewhere in the neighborhood of 8 to 10 percent a year. There is no precedent for those kinds of reductions within an economic model that requires relentless economic growth to survive.4 What all this means is that our economic system and our planetary system are now at war.

__You can minimize risk by doing your research and, most of all, by testing. Testing__ is an integral part of the Patagonia industrial design process, and it needs to be included in every part of this process. It involves testing competitors' products; "quick and dirty" testing of new ideas to see if they are worth pursuing; fabric testing; "living" with a new product to judge how hot the sales may be; testing production samples for function and durability, and so on; and test marketing a product to see if people will buy it.

Global consumption of water is doubling every 20 years, more than twice the rate of human population growth. If current trends persist, by 2025 the demand for fresh water is expected to rise 56 percent above the amount that is currently available. --Maude Barlow

To me, __a shirt that has to be treated so delicately has diminished value. Because I think ease of care is an important attribute__, I would never own a shirt like that, much less make and sell one.

Do we have a chance in the face of the odds? If we do, it won't be because we learned how to be "ethical" shoppers. Rather, __it will be because we found things to do other than shopping__. Like building social and political movements that change the rules of the game. Like deriving deep pleasure from experiences that are not for sale at any price, whether it's time in nature or time with our loved ones.

The entrepreneurial way is to immediately take a forward step and if that feels good, take another, if not, step back. __Learn by doing, it is a faster process.__

It's okay to be eccentric, as long as you are rich; otherwise, you're just crazy.

The Dalai Lama says too much choice brings unhappiness.

__The most responsible way for a consumer and a good citizen to buy clothes is to buy used clothing__. Beyond that, avoid buying clothes you have to dry-clean or iron. Wash in cold water. Line dry when possible. Wear your shirt more than one day before you wash it. Consider faster-drying alternatives to 100 percent cotton for your travel clothes.

In anything at all, perfection is finally attained not when there is no longer anything to add, but when there is no longer anything to take away.

If you want to understand the entrepreneur, study the juvenile delinquent. The delinquent is saying with his actions, "This sucks. I'm going to do my own thing."

Buying used clothing and wearing it as long as possible is the most responsible thing you can do. When you give in to fashion trends, you doom used clothes to the trash heap.

...__maintenance of any product is a chore, and for that reason alone, low maintenance becomes a criterion for high quality__. At Patagonia none of us likes to iron or bother with the dry cleaner's, and we assume that our customers don't either. We have practical reasons too. You should be able to wash travel clothes in a sink or a bucket, then hang them out to dry in a hut and still look decent for the plane ride home.

What If We Shopped to Live, Instead of Lived to Shop?

Consumers become very conservative during recessions. They stop buying fashionable silly things. They will pay more for a product that is practical, multifunctional, and will last a long time. We thrive during recessions.

"to use business to inspire and implement solutions to the environmental crisis."

The first precept of industrial design is that the function of an object should determine its design and materials.

believe the way toward mastery of any endeavor is to work toward simplicity; replace complex technology with knowledge. The more you know, the less you need.

If for whatever reason we have another downturn in our business like we had in 1990-91, our policy is to first cut the fat, freeze hiring, reduce unnecessary travel, and generally trim expenses. If the crisis were more serious we would eliminate bonuses and reduce salaries of all top-level managers and owners. Then shorten the workweek and reduce pay, and finally, as a last resort, lay people off.

Cotton fields, representing 2.5 percent of cultivated land, use 22.5 percent of chemical insecticides and 10 percent of pesticides used in agriculture. About one-tenth of 1 percent of these chemicals reaches the pests they target.2 Cottonseed and oil are used in human food, fed to cattle, and are not regulated by the FDA.

I've been a businessman for almost sixty years. It's as difficult for me to say those words as it is for someone to admit being an alcoholic or a lawyer.

To make a T-shirt requires using seven hundred gallons of water.13, 14, 15 It makes a big difference where that water comes from. It could come from reservoirs that dammed up a river, stopping the migration of fish and displacing hundreds or thousands of poor people. Or it can be grown in an area where there is adequate rain.

When there is no crisis, the wise leader or CEO will invent one. Not by crying wolf but by challenging the employees with change.