Today, Patagonia CEO Ryan Gellert sent the following letter to New York Governor Kathy Hochul and the following members of the New York State Legislature: Speaker Carl Heastie, Majority Leader Andrea Stewart-Cousins, State Assemblymember Harry Bronson, Assemblymember Charles Fall, Assemblymember Pamela Hunter, Assemblymember Crystal Peoples-Stokes, Assemblymember Nily Rozic, Assemblymember Amanda Septimo, Senator Kevin Thomas, Assemblymember Carrie Woerner and Assemblymember Kenneth Zebrowski.
On behalf of Patagonia, the outdoor apparel company, I’m writing to urge you to support The Fashion Sustainability and Social Accountability Act, S7428/ A.04333A, also known as The NY Fashion Act (NYFA).
New York’s influence on fashion, culture and commerce are seen and felt globally. NYFA will create the nation’s first law advancing the social and environmental performance of the apparel industry. Specifically, it would require apparel companies with more than $100 million in annual gross revenue that do business in New York to perform supply chain due diligence, including reducing emissions in line with the Paris Agreement. The bill would also require large apparel companies to take more responsibility for the welfare of the people who work in their supply chains.
Patagonia is a California-based company with three stores in New York. We work with large and small retailers around the state and support dozens of environmental nonprofits, and we work closely with Primaloft, a material technology company headquartered in Albany. We have spent decades examining our business practices transparently and learning from our mistakes. We know that Patagonia alone won’t solve the climate crisis — we need all companies in our industry to demonstrate serious progress on environmental and social issues, and to be held accountable for their claims. These are all reasons why Patagonia has not only endorsed the bill but will continue to recruit companies to support it and work with the coalition as it makes its way through the legislature.
There’s a need for more regulation and accountability of the $2.5 trillion apparel industry. Most of the environmental and social impact of our businesses exist in our supply chains, where several brands share suppliers and production partners. This presents an opportunity for scalable change and positive impact. The NYFA will require major apparel and footwear companies to work with supply chain partners, achieve science-based targets for reducing greenhouse gas emissions, manage chemical use and avoid labor abuses.
On behalf of Patagonia and our customers in New York, I urge you to support the NYFA. Please let me know if you would like to discuss this further, or if I can be of assistance to you.
Sincerely,
Ryan