Officially, Patagonia doesn’t have a chief sustainability officer. Reducing the environmental impact of the apparel company’s products is everyone’s job. But materials scientist Matt Dwyer became the company’s effective sustainability champion five years ago after realizing that his team’s job — picking the raw materials for Patagonia’s garments and gear — contributed 85 percent of the company’s greenhouse gas emissions. “For me as an engineer, as somebody who’s data-oriented, that’s when it became personal,” he told me in the latest episode of Climate Pioneers, our interview series with innovators and leaders shaping the corporate climate movement. Now, as Patagonia’s vice president of global product footprint, Dwyer uses his engineering and innovation background to source lower-carbon alternatives across the company’s product portfolio. “One of the things you realize, whether it’s in this work or innovation, is that which lives everywhere actually kind of lives nowhere, and you need a group of focused, talented and capable folks to really push the hard work forward,” he told me. That team spearheaded the publication of Patagonia’s first comprehensive environmental report in mid-November, which details the company’s struggle to deliver on its commitment to reach net zero by 2040. Patagonia prepared the analysis, in part, to prepare for potential mandatory reporting requirements. It’s also an educational tool for employees: “I was like, man, if I’m in my position reading through this and learning something new, then hopefully other people in our organization will pick it up and learn something about the company they work for,…
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