American outdoor apparel retailer Patagonia has pledged to donate every penny made from bumper Black Friday sales to grassroots environmental organisations.
The company announced the move days before the shoppers in the US descended on stores for one of the biggest dates on the American retail calendar.
The sales took in $10m (€9.44m) - ten times more than the company was expecting - which will now be donated to, “grassroots organizations working in local communities to protect our air, water and soil for future generations.”
The company announced the record breaking hall on Monday and said customers had taken to calling it a “fundraiser for the Earth.”
“The enormous love our customers showed to the planet on Black Friday enables us to give every penny to hundreds of grassroots environmental organizations working around the world,” the company said in a statement.
“Many of these environmental groups are underfunded and under the radar, and they are overwhelmed with your commitment.”
The environmental marketing tactic was inspired by the US presidential election, according to Lisa Pike Sheehy, vice president of environmental activism at the company.
“This is a difficult and divisive time for our country. I believe the environment is something we can all come together on. ... Environmental values are something we all embrace,” she told CNN.
In 2012 President-elect Donald Trump Said the concept of global warming was created by the Chinese in order to stifle US industry and since his election he has surrounded himself with like-minded deniers.
He has promised to increase America’s production of coal, oil and natural gas, pull the US out the Paris Climate Accord and reverse the previous administration’s regulations aimed at cutting carbon emissions.
Greenpeace spokesperson Perry Wheeler said that without “a powerful movement to stop it,” the Trump presidency will mean “more fossil fuel corruption and less governmental protection for people and the planet.”
“Donald Trump poses an urgent threat to the climate and we must resist every move he attempts to make that could undo our progress," he said.
The company provides information on how to get in contact with the environmental groups they support on their website.
In a letter posted online, company CEO, Rose Marcario said: “During a difficult and divisive time we felt it was important to go further and connect more of our customers, who love wild places, with those who are fighting tirelessly to protect them.”
“By getting active in communities, we can effect local change to protect the food our children and we eat, the water we drink, the air we breathe and the treasured places we love the most,” she said.
