Patagonia founder Yvon Chouinard is giving away the multibillion-dollar outdoor apparel business he founded nearly 50 years ago, with a goal of helping to tackle climate change.

Chouinard and his family have transferred their ownership of Patagonia to a trust and a nonprofit organisation as opposed to taking the privately held company public or selling it, the 83-year-old founder said in a letter Wednesday, titled “Earth is now our only shareholder.”