Chouinard’s company, ‘Patagonia’ is supposedly worth around three billion dollars and was founded 50 years ago. Patagonia is an American retailer of outdoor clothing and gear mainly concerned with silent sports like fishing, mountain climbing, surfing, skiing etc.

The amount that would supposedly go to the cause is around 100 billion US dollars. Depending on the future health of this company, the amount could go up or drop.

Chouinard has always been interested in helping restore the environment and prior to this donation, Patagonia would donate about 1% of its annual profits to various sustainable and environmentally friendly communities and organizations.

It was believed that Chouinard was presented with a few options; one, selling the company and donating all its proceeds. However, in doing so there would be no guarantee that company values would be upheld. Going public was also an option; however, the desire for short-term gains would have put the company under pressure.

Chouinard, therefore, chose to go with purpose. “Earth is now our only shareholder,” he wrote in his letter.