For A Stronger Tomorrow: Prioritize Children, Planet and Democracy

Anyone who has ever been caught in a mountain storm knows how quickly you learn about quality gear. Right now, all of us are in a storm together, and the gear is not great. We're calling on Congress to come together and fix what is broken so we can come through the other side of this storm strong, safe, and resilient.

This pandemic has taught us a lot about resilience, but it has also exposed vulnerabilities in the systems meant to protect us: our social safety net, our economy and our democracy. And while we have spent most of the past two months focused on our employees’ health and well-being, we’ve also been communicating to leaders at every level of government about what we think is needed to help get through this.

For starters, America’s children and families need a stronger safety net. For example, access to affordable and quality child care will be essential as the economy starts to reopen and parents get back to work. This pandemic has hit the child-care industry especially hard: 1.5 million workers have lost their jobs, hundreds of centers around the country have closed, and without additional public funding, we might permanently lose almost half of all child-care capacity. American families already had a tough time finding affordable child care before the pandemic, but soon it could be next to impossible, preventing working parents—especially working moms—from returning to their jobs or reopening their businesses when the time comes. At Patagonia, we’ve provided on-site child care for more than forty years, and we’ve seen firsthand just how essential child care is to maintain an energetic and equitable workforce. But the challenge here goes beyond any one company. We need leadership from the government to ensure affordable child care is available so parents can get back to work. That’s why we support Senators Elizabeth Warren and Tina Smith’s plan to stabilize our child-care system and help ensure we have a swift recovery.

Building a stronger safety net for all workers, especially for working families, should be a central element of our country’s recovery plans. There’s a parallel worth thinking about between America’s workers and America’s natural resources: they’re both part of what makes this country strong and both are now threatened by corporate greed. Just like we must protect our clean air and water from big polluters and climate deniers, we also have to protect our working families from companies that see them only as costs to slash. In the long term, guaranteeing paid sick days, making paid family leave universal, and expanding access to quality, affordable health care would help make our workforce and economy more resilient and less susceptible to being blown off course when future storms hit. 

Furthermore, if we prioritize conservation of natural resources and keep them safe from polluters, the outdoor recreation economy can be a primary engine of recovery. Before this crisis, the outdoor industry generated $887 billion in consumer spending, supported 7.6 million jobs annually, and grew faster than the economy as a whole. Now more than ever, we need the economic lift that the outdoor industry can provide to cash-strapped communities, especially in rural areas. But all those jobs and revenue will be in danger if polluters get a free hand to trash our wild places. 

This is especially important right now. While the outdoor industry is reeling, the Trump administration has rolled or stopped enforcing a large swath of crucial environmental protections—in addition to shamefully giving fossil fuel companies billions of dollars of profit and access to relief funds meant to help struggling small businesses. That’s why we joined the Outdoor Industry Association and over 60 member businesses in calling for more support for our nation’s natural spaces and the local economies that rely on them. 

In the next recovery bill, Congress should make clear that a strong, modern economy requires a healthy planet. That should include permanent funding for the Land and Water Conservation Fund and money for the maintenance backlog. Both of these measures would go a long way toward protecting our public lands. These wild places are needed more than ever—witness the increase in demand this health crisis has created.

Funding should be increased for state and local governments to provide bicycle and pedestrian infrastructure along with improved local trails and parks—especially in underserved and under-resourced communities. And every member of Congress should prioritize policies that reduce carbon emissions, because we can’t allow the next impending crisis—the climate crisis—to go unchecked and suffer even more devastation to our health and economy. 

And finally, but importantly, we need to strengthen our democracy by making it easier—and safer—to vote, because everything else depends on that. Voting in this country was already too difficult before the pandemic and participation was already too low, but the virus has further exacerbated the problem. As we all learned from the Wisconsin primary debacle, people shouldn’t have to risk their safety or that of others to participate in an election. Patagonia and over 100 companies across the country are urging Congress to make vote-by-mail available to all eligible voters and to extend in-person voting or risk the integrity of our elections.

All the issues we care about—from protecting child care to protecting the planet and our democracy—depends on our elected leaders getting this right.

These past few months have challenged the very fabric of our country and the systems meant to keep us safe and our democracy strong. We must focus on the clear opportunities before us to address the vulnerabilities this crisis has laid bare and invest in measures that will make us stronger and more resilient for the long term. If you’d like to add your voice to our efforts, contact your congressional representatives and tell them you want to see our workforce, our democracy, and our planet at the heart of all recovery plans. 

Read our letters to congressional leadership here.