Patagonia founder Yvon Chouinard has written a book, The Responsible Company, about how we should create and sell goods that are high-quality, recyclable and repairable.

We couldn’t agree more! And Patagonia does make useful stuff that people tend to keep on using, which is responsible. We should all buy and keep high-quality goods… the Earth would be better for it.

But still, according to Chouinard in a Fortune magazine article, making a single Patagonia organic cotton polo shirt

uses up drinking water to supply 900 people for a full day

produces 30 times its weight in carbon dioxide

and creates 3 times its weight in trash?

Wouldn’t it be better, say consignment. resale, and thrift shopkeepers, if when someone does tire of their clothes or lamps or chairs, they recycle them, and raise a glass of cool, refreshing, life-sustaining water to the planet?

So next time you need a polo shirt or a side table or a tricycle, shop secondhand first! (And the next time you tire of that perfectly-good Patagonia polo shirt, call me!)

Patagonia: a responsible company.  Photo courtesy of http://www.sxc.hu/