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Kering lays out new sustainability plan for 2025

By Vivian Hendriksz

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Business

London - Kering is set to define the next stage when it comes to luxury sustainability, as the luxury conglomerate revealed the second phase of its sustainable targets which it aims to meet by 2025.

The new target, which are in line with the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals, include cutting the group's carbon emissions by 50 percent, reducing Kering's overall environmental impact by at least 40 percent and developing a "supplier index of sustainability" to ensure suppliers uphold the group's high standards concerning traceability, chemical use and animal welfare.

Kering announces new sustainability targets for 2025

"Around 20 percent of those cutbacks will come from hitherto unidentified sectors, but the other 20 percent will come from areas we have already identified," said François-Henri Pinault, chief executive of Kering to The New York Times. At the moment carbon emissions, water pollution, cotton production and cattle farming are the areas which contribute the most to the luxury group's environmental footprint and are the main areas of focus.

In addition the group aims to oversee the environmental impact of its products throughout their entire lifecycle (cradle-to-grave) and promote sustainable design. Kering also aims to develop an open-sourced tool to assess products based on its own sustainable standards, create new sustainable solutions for sourcing raw materials and promote a circular economy based system by using recycled textiles to create new clothing.

"Our strategy outlines how we will redesign our business to continue to thrive and prosper sustainably into the future, while at the same time helping to transform the luxury sector and contributing to meet the significant social and environmental challenges of our generation," added Pinault in a statement. Although Kering has been very forward in sharing its sustainability efforts and publicly shared the results of its 2012-2016 sustainability report at the end of 2016, they are not the only luxury company focusing on sustainability.

Rival LVMH Initiatives For the Environment programme (LIFE) has been integrated by all of the luxury company brands strategic plan and has been sharing its environmental reports since 2002. In addition, LVMH also established its own internal carbon fund in 2015, reducing greenhouse gas emissions generated by all the company's brands. However, unlike its peer Kering, LVMH has remained more cautious when it comes to publicly sharing with the media all of its initiatives. Nevertheless sustainable luxury remains a core part of Kering's strategy for the future.

"Rethinking luxury is a necessity to adapt to our changing world while responding to the concerns of new generations of luxury clients. We have already made significant improvements over the last years and we will continue to strive for the highest environmental and social standards," added Marie-Claire Daveu, Chief Sustainability Officer and Head of international institutional affairs of Kering.

"It is through catalysing innovation that we will be able to go beyond incremental improvements and implement the transformational changes that are necessary to be truly sustainable in our business and as an industry. We will continue to open-source our solutions and approaches to support the scaling up of sustainability in the luxury sector, while sharing every 3 years the progress we have made."

Photos: Kering 2025 video

Kering
LVMH
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