Patagonia will donate 100 percent of sales this Black Friday

The brand will expand on a popular initiative, giving proceeds to local environmental groups.

Black Friday—normally a bastion of consumerism and profits—is quickly turning into a podium for a activism and change, at least for the outdoor industry. As REI plans for its second “#OptOutside” initiative and prepares to close all its stores on what is traditionally retail’s biggest day of the year, Patagonia will stay open, but do something unprecedented: donate 100 percent of its online and in-store sales on Black Friday to grassroots environmental organizations working to protect the environment.

In a post on the company’s blog, The Cleanest Line, President and 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.”

The plan is an extension of 1% For the Planet, a push developed in part by Patagonia founder Yvon Chouinard in 2001 in which businesses donate 1 percent of their sales to a collection of local environmental groups. “These are small groups, often underfunded and under the radar, who work on the front lines,” Marcario said. Today, more than 1200 other businesses take part in the pledge and Patagonia personally has given approximately $74 million to these organizations to date.

The company is expecting more than $2 million in sales from this Friday alone. In addition to that financial support, Patagonia also plans on providing information in-stores and online for customers about how they can get in touch with the activist groups and become more involved individually.

“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,” Marcario said.