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PAMELA DREW

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Patagonia Nails Millennium Equivalent of Macy's Miracle on 34th Street

Mon Nov 28, 2011 2:20 AM EST
us-news, ows, sustainability, black-friday, consumerism, patagonia, debt-economy, financial-ecosystem, recycle-reuse-reduce
By Pamela Drew
Advertise | AdChoices

 

 

Patagonia has been a leader in redefining the business model so that doing good compliments doing well to help make everyone winners. 

This ad below, ran along with the copied text like my own letter to Santa!

 

It’s Black Friday, the day in the year retail turns from red to black and starts to make real money. But Black Friday, and the culture of consumption it reflects, puts the economy of natural systems that support all life firmly in the red. We’re now using the resources of one-and-a-half planets on our one and only planet.

Because Patagonia wants to be in business for a good long time – and leave a world inhabitable for our kids – we want to do the opposite of every other business today. We ask you to buy less and to reflect before you spend a dime on this jacket or anything else.

Environmental bankruptcy, as with corporate bankruptcy, can happen very slowly, then all of a sudden. This is what we face unless we slow down, then reverse the damage. We’re running short on fresh water, topsoil, fisheries, wetlands – all our planet’s natural systems and resources that support business, and life, including our own.

The environmental cost of everything we make is astonishing. Consider the R2® Jacket shown, one of our best sellers. To make it required 135 liters of water, enough to meet the daily needs (three glasses a day) of 45 people. Its journey from its origin as 60% recycled polyester to our Reno warehouse generated nearly 20 pounds of carbon dioxide, 24 times the weight of the finished product. This jacket left behind, on its way to Reno, two-thirds its weight in waste.

And this is a 60% recycled polyester jacket, knit and sewn to a high standard; it is exceptionally durable, so you won’t have to replace it as often. And when it comes to the end of its useful life we’ll take it back to recycle into a product of equal value. But, as is true of all the things we can make and you can buy, this jacket comes with an environmental cost higher than its price.

There is much to be done and plenty for us all to do. Don’t buy what you don’t need. Think twice before you buy anything. Go to patagonia.com/CommonThreads or scan the QR code below. Take the Common Threads Initiative pledge, and join us in the fifth “R,” to reimagine a world where we take only what nature can replace.

 

Happy Holidays to all at Patagonia and thank you for making me feel happy of myself for not buying, but thinking about what I'm really giving and the cost!

We all know what matters most and best shared is from our hearts not our wallets and when we open out hearts, just sayin?

One by one, day by day and dollar by dollar we create change, go us, we're off to the races!

Liberty Park NYC shows holiday spirit Wall Street embraces, don't let us hear you in public spaces, just shop and be quiet! Thanks Mayor Bloomberg, we see what you mean by making it more inviting to the public without the tents. 11-25-11

 

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  • Pamela Drew's Column, All of Newsvine
  • Groups: ConsumerVine, Corporatism, EconVine, environmental justice, Living with Less, Natural Living , Occupy Everywhere, Occupy Wall Street, OWS Consolidarity, Parents and Parenting, Sustainable Left, Time to Save Money, We Must Change
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  • Public Discussion (6)
Pamela Drew

Happy Twitter link from Marc Gunther blog Maybe the best retail ad ever a glimmer of holiday magic!

  • 2 votes
Reply#1 - Mon Nov 28, 2011 2:28 AM EST
Pamela Drew

Cyber Monday and tracking of online consumer shopping up 30% and no traffic here!

  • 3 votes
#1.1 - Mon Nov 28, 2011 9:16 AM EST
Reply
dbmcc

Consume, Consume, Consume! That's what's been pounded into our heads since day one. Keep up with the Jones', etc. You are valued by what you own; success is being able to out spend, consume more than any one else. I have been as guilty as anyone. I grew up poor and craving for better things. However, my biggest craving was not to be poor. I didn't want to worry about how I was going to pay the rent, or put food on the table, or if I was going to have winter boots, and a winter coat to wear.

Now, I'm still worried about all the same things and also worried about Global Warming and the affect of same on the quality of life for my grandchildren and great grandchildren

  • 1 vote
Reply#2 - Mon Nov 28, 2011 12:25 PM EST
Pamela Drew

dbmcc...Consume, Consume, Consume! That's what's been pounded into our heads since day one. Keep up with the Jones', etc. You are valued by what you own; success is being able to out spend, consume more than any one else.

Part of the American Dream image was shaped by Hollywood's success, exploding media culture built on that. At its core mass communication is selling guns and butter, but messaging has evolved to the point that consumers pay extra for nothing but the idea the product comes with.

Like most designer labels that are obscenely overpriced, barely distinguishable from their WalMart cousins, the lions share of value it its premium is simply for the name cache attached.

I'm an old hippie and remember the Abercrombie & Fitch of old, where superior craftsmanship and materials produced what you could imagine as Eddie Bauer by artisans. And the things they made were created to last, to be used and repaired, cherished and passed down. Even far lesser goods for general consumers had quality, not short term use for everything from appliances to screws.

There was a time when Jesse Ventura couldn't strip a screw with a slip or snap its head off for all the power he has, now the things are lighter than the new coins and my bony old wrist can destroy them!

Now Abercrombie sells image with a bare chested hottie in its NYC window this weekend. Not that I'm the least bit opposed to seeing the cutie patooties draw a crowd, but WTF has been done to our sense of reality when the two buck wholesale, tee shirts are selling for more than the little fingers who make them earn in a year.

Add insult to injury in this is the fraud of Made in America labels actually done in sweatshops under an Abrahamoff swindle. Sadly that period research isn't handy but I'll see if I can uncover a link. Yup, not exactly what I wanted but it will do...

During the 1990s, Sen. Frank Murkowski (R-AK) and Rep. George Miller (D-CA) were frequent critics of the sweatshop conditions used in factories in the Marianas that made clothes with the "Made in the USA" label for companies like Tommy Hilfiger USA, Gap, Calvin Klein and Liz Claiborne. In 1992, the Department of Labor sued five garment factories owned by Willie Tan and eventually fined the Tan companies $9 million -- the largest fine they had ever imposed.

http://tpmmuckraker.talkingpointsmemo.com/ref/cnmi.php

There's all the bluster of Free Trade and Capitalism, driven by a willingness to pay top buck for %$#@ with a properly PR promoted name. That came in with the 1980's and big push to globalize markets.

Notice Calvin Klein who made the breakthrough with brand marketing using Brooke Shields at like 14 with the tag line nothing comes between me and my Calvins is on the Abramoff list of abusive retail brands 20 years later!

American's grew out of the communities that kept us rooted and reasonably self sustained and made us a culture seeking ecoimaginary satisfaction instead!

I didn't want to worry about how I was going to pay the rent, or put food on the table, or if I was going to have winter boots, and a winter coat to wear.

Now, I'm still worried about all the same things and also worried about Global Warming and the affect of same on the quality of life for my grandchildren and great grandchildren

I worry about very many things that could and should be changed if there were little more than honest media and transparent government.

I am hopeful that the great challenges will be met with an epic response from humanity to force reform of what is actually a small handful of very evil people who have gone so far out of control we have no time left to waste before doing a 180 turn, about face!

We have the power in our hands and the change is underway, watch my new favorite video and take your worry and turn it to anger that demands an end to this inexcusable wasting of all living things. It's called Dollar is a Vote and don't be fooled by opening footage, it hits harder as it goes, love it!!

  • 1 vote
#2.1 - Mon Nov 28, 2011 10:28 PM EST
dbmcc

Thanks for the cite. I'll check it out. Your a very smart lady.

  • 1 vote
#2.2 - Tue Nov 29, 2011 5:32 PM EST
Pamela Drew

Lol, being a slow thinker and stammerer it took moving to a world where paper carried my words to have any confidence it was the case, but thanks so much for the compliment and thank heaven for text! :~)

  • 2 votes
#2.3 - Tue Nov 29, 2011 9:38 PM EST
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