Tessa Byars, an employee at Patagonia, can see her 2-year-old daughter Lila playing in the yard from her office window.

She doesn’t work from home. Rather, Byars is using a rare perk among American companies: workplace childcare services.

“It’s incredible,” said Byars, who is a spokeswoman for the apparel company. “It’s all you could really ask for in a program, and then it’s right here on campus where you can have access to them all day and they know that you’re here.”

Based in Ventura, Patagonia is known for doing things differently. Its blend of work, family, play, and environmentalism grew out of the anti-corporate philosophy of Yvon Chouinard, the company’s founder and a former titan of Yosemite rock climbing.

Childcare also makes good business sense, company officials say.

Patagonia maintains unusual loyalty among its working parents, who eat lunch with their preschoolers and nurse newborns during meetings. New moms get 16 weeks of paid maternity leave. Dads get 12.

The perks help explain why roughly 95 percent of the women who have children while employed at Patagonia return to work. Estimates for the general workforce hover around 75 percent.

But can companies afford such a luxury? In Patagonia’s case, the costs are almost fully offset with tuition paid by parents, tax breaks, and lower employee turnover, company officials say.

Factor in intangible benefits like worker loyalty and more women in management — roughly half of senior leaders at Patagonia are female — and the return on investment could run as high as 125 percent, according to Rose Marcario, the company’s chief executive.