“The Responsible Company” addresses questions about how to do good business and how to improve the quality of business on a larger scale. The book is geared toward those who are interested in being socially and environmentally responsible in their career choice.

Santa Cruz’s Patagonia Outlet will have a presentation and book-signing for “The Responsible Company” on Nov. 8 with author Vincent Stanley.

“This is a really cool opportunity for students, especially because they’re at the beginning of their working lives more or less. This book really shows the practical steps that people can take in any career path or any business,” assistant manager Ruth Anderson said. “To look at it from a different angle and to always figure out how to implement solutions and figure out how to make your own business better, whether that means environmentally speaking or finding ways to be more socially responsible. It’s always about using your mark and making sure that your influence is a good one.”

Stanley, who is also the company’s VP of marketing, co-wrote the book with Patagonia founder Yvon Chouinard. The book focuses on Patagonia’s legacy as a company as well as 40 years of success and failure.

The environmental coordinator Lena Molinari believes Patagonia’s business goals correlate well with the unique environment of Santa Cruz.

“We have a surf community, we have a really strong hiking and climbing community, and this passion for the outdoors is just necessarily tied with the need to conserve it,” Molinari said. “We want to be a model. We hope people would learn from what we’re doing and also from our mistakes.”

Patagonia has several stores and outlets around the United States and up and down the coast of California. The books in Patagonia stores consist of those written by the company founder, Yvon Chouinard, and others that are in alignment with the company’s philosophies. The company believes in the importance of environmental and community awareness.

“As a company we believe very strongly in social & corporate responsibility, environmentalism, giving back to our communities, and treating our employees very well,” said Anderson. “So we have books that are supportive of that as well.”

The company is well-known for focusing on reducing a social and environmental impact of a business.

“The owner, Yvon, is pretty famous for saying there’s no business to be done on a dead planet,” Anderson said. “To be a responsible business is to always see how you can do things better. This book really does a good job going into that.”

This store is a unique possession of the Santa Cruz community because it is one out of a few “super-event stores” that Patagonia owns, said store manager Jennifer Hewitt. This allows the store to create events and share stories with the community. But Santa Cruz’s Patagonia is just a small piece of the company and their work.

“We’re just a branch out of this tree,” Hewitt said, “and I think it’s really important to know the work we’re doing here is connected to so many different venues and it’s so special that this is our store for our community.”

 

To locally connect to Patagonia and find out about future events go to their Facebook link at www.facebook.com/PatagoniaSantaCruz.