Students can learn what it’s like trying to run an ethical company when Patagonia comes for a visit.
Chris Gaggia, the global marketing manager for field and fish from Patagonia will speak to students at 6 p.m. Tuesday in Pugh Hall, said Shelby Taylor, the communications director for the Bob Graham Center for Public Service and Leadership.
Patagonia is a California-based brand that sells sustainable clothing, according to its website. The event, “Corporate Conscience: Bold Stands from the Patagonia Brand,” would get audience members to engage in a talk about social responsibility in businesses, Taylor said.
“Companies are seeing more avenues for making change using the brand that they’ve built,” Taylor said. “Patagonia is, I think, one of the first to have ever done that.”
The program will cost $515 to host, Taylor said. Gaggia is not being paid to appear.
The Bob Graham Center for Public Service, UF Elizabeth B. & William F. Business Ethics Center, UF College of Journalism and Communications and UF Institute of Food and Agricultural Sciences will help put on the event, Taylor said.
The program will be a way for students to have a conversation with Gaggia, said the moderator Cynthia Barnett, an environmental fellow at the Bob Graham Center for Public Service and Leadership and an environmental journalist at the UF College of Journalism and Communications.
The company has always tried to improve the environment while remaining popular and profitable, Barnett said. In the past, Patagonia has donated all Black Friday profits to environmental causes.
“The company lives this,” Barnett said.
Brian Trupo, a 20-year-old UF business administration junior, likes the Patagonia brand because he’s a vegan with a passion for the environment.
“I really want to work for a company that either cares about the environment or cares about sustainability,” Trupo said. “Whether it’s a real estate company or just a general business.”
Contact Gillian Sweeney at gsweeney@alligator.org and follow her on Twitter at @gilliangsweeney
