Rose Marcario

Joe Keenan is the executive editor of Total Retail. Joe has more than 10 years experience covering the retail industry, and enjoys profiling innovative companies and people in the space.
Taylor Knight is an associate content editor for Target Marketing and Total Retail. She enjoys writing and creating video content to interact with an audience.

Patagonia is different from most retailers. The outdoors outfitter has a habit of telling customers not to buy its products. On Black Friday last year, the company had an "anti-Black Friday" event, encouraging people to get their gear repaired instead of buying new stuff. At the head is CEO Rose Marcario, who spent 15 years in finance before making the jump to Patagonia. We talked with Marcario about how Patagonia promotes social and environmental good — while also making profits.

Patagonia, the outdoor clothing company known as much for its creative approach to environmental responsibility as for its clothing, announced yesterday at Fast Company's Innovation Uncensored conference that it's made an investment in Yerdle, an app that lets people give away items and get redeemable credits in exchange, through the company's $20 Million & Change internal venture fund. In 2013, Patagonia leveraged its financial success to start the fund, which invests in socially and environmentally responsible startups in the clothing, food, water, energy and waste industries. 

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