Beyond the Fleece: Patagonia Designs for People, Planet, and Profit

VCLA Immersion Day Field Note, by Roshin Mathew

I just wrapped my immersion day for the Ventura County Leadership Academy, a program that dares you to leave your lane and dive headfirst into the systems, people, and contradictions that shape this region. So naturally, I chose Patagonia: part outdoor brand, part climate crusader, part living case study in values-meets-operations, and just steps from the kind of waves that make you rethink your whole relationship to gravity.

As the Director of Strategic Initiatives for Ventura County Community Foundation, every week I find myself in rooms with people who are trying to build a better future. At any moment I could be talking about early childhood, environmental resilience, or economic equity. Patagonia felt like a place where all those conversations might converge.

What I found was more than a company. It was a living system of values in motion.

I spent the day with Yvonne Besvold, their Chief Financial Officer; Corley Kenna, their Chief Impact and Communications Officer; Alexa Liccardi, their Chief of Staff; Jessica Derby, the Director of their child care center; and Mike Mesko, Director of Operations and Global Repairs Project. I toured their campus, peeked into surfboard shaping rooms, ate not one but three different salads at the office café, and left with a deeper understanding of what it looks like to try. As someone who spent my high school years on the backpacking team and search and rescue squad at UWC USA, walking onto Patagonia’s campus felt a little like arriving at a holy site. Kind of like the crunchy, climate-nerd version of Willie Wonka’s Chocolate Factory.

I was there all day, but it was so enthralling, I felt like I blinked and it was over. I guess you would call that a dream, and in many ways this immersion was just that: a perfect dream.

Here’s what I learned. Here’s what I’m still thinking about. And here’s why it matters.

1. Repair is a radical act. Also, it’s a logistics miracle.

Mike Mesko, who runs Patagonia’s global repairs operation, walked me through Worn Wear, the company’s repair and reuse system. It is, in short, a climate solution disguised as a sewing project. Mike has overseen everything from intake to zipper triage to making sure every patched puffy jacket makes it home again.

But what really hit me wasn’t just the scale. It was the culture shift embedded in the work: Patagonia is asking people to value what they already own. That’s both deeply anti-consumerist and extremely operational. Logistics as values in action.

As Mike put it, “We don’t want to be in the replacement business.”

2. On-site child care isn’t just a perk. It’s a vision.

Jessica Derby, who manages Patagonia’s child development center, gave me a tour of a space that honestly made me want to go back to preschool. There were fairy gardens, ramps for trikes, sand pits with water fixtures, bilingual storytime, and a feeling that children were not just being cared for but honored.

In my work on the Isabella Project, we talk a lot about workforce retention and infrastructure. Jessica showed me what that looks like when a company actually invests in it. The staff are trained, respected, and supported. The center isn’t hidden in a basement or run on fumes. It’s visible. It’s central. It’s sacred.

I was struck by the number of employees, some who did not even have their own children, who reflected on how the presence of children keeps them focused on the work they do now for the future.

What would Ventura County look like if every employer treated care like core infrastructure instead of a private burden?

3. Finance can be a form of protest. And a diversity of perspectives leads to lasting systems.

I had the privilege of sitting down with Yvonne Besvold, Patagonia’s Chief Financial Officer. First of all, she’s cool. Second of all, she’s a systems thinker with receipts.

Yvonne and her team built a climate-aligned 401(k) plan. Spoiler alert: it took years. They had to collaborate with Vanguard to create a fossil-fuel-free fund. They had to build their own index to track sustainability. But now? A significant portion of employee retirement funds are invested in what they call The Cleanest Line Fund.

This isn’t corporate greenwashing. It’s patient, principled resistance via spreadsheets.

We also discussed the importance of perspective gathering when building systems. It’s not enough to build from the point of view of one group—the group that wants to get it done—because in the end it may get done fast, but it likely won’t get done right.

That’s why with the Isabella Project, we didn’t just invite a few folks to the table. We basically built a banquet. Over 130 people from every sector you can imagine, all debating priorities and service models for early childhood. Because if you want a system that actually works, you can’t just build it fast. You have to build it together.

4. Tension is the point.

“Earth is our only shareholder” was a statement made by Patagonia founder Yvon Chouinard in September 2022 to announce that he had transferred ownership of the company to two entities—the Patagonia Purpose Trust and the Holdfast Collective—to combat climate change.

Corley Kenna, Patagonia’s Chief Impact and Communications Officer, has one of the hardest jobs in the building. She’s tasked with helping the company speak boldly about the climate crisis and Patagonia’s unprecedented business model, and still remain legible to customers.

I asked how she holds that tension, especially when Patagonia made its seismic announcement that the Earth is now its only stakeholder, essentially putting all profits after sustaining the business into funding environmental justice. She said, “We first focused on employees to get the message right, because we knew if we got it right with the people who live and breathe our business and values, then we would get it right with the rest of the world.”

What struck me wasn’t just the public messaging. It was the internal consistency. The alignment. You get the sense that Patagonia doesn’t just post about values. They operationalize them. Even when it’s messy.

5. Leadership is made of many kinds of labor.

Alexa Liccardi, Patagonia’s Chief of Staff, is one of those quiet powerhouses who makes everything around her coherent. She planned my immersion day with care and intentionality, and from the moment I arrived, I felt that.

She reminded me that a huge part of values-driven leadership is logistical. It’s in the planning, the pacing, the flow of a day. It’s also in who gets invited in.

So what did I learn?

No company  is perfect. It’s about trying. That every part of its system—from zippers to zero-waste supply chains, from grants to governance—is an attempt to match values with infrastructure.

And that gave me new language, new questions, and new energy for my own work in Ventura County.

Now if you’ll excuse me, surf’s up. I gotta chase some peelers and catch some peace like my new friends at Patagonia. And I have some systems to rethink.