The Business of Fashion
Agenda-setting intelligence, analysis and advice for the global fashion community.
Agenda-setting intelligence, analysis and advice for the global fashion community.
The Kering-owned luxury brand outlined an ambition to move beyond offsetting any emissions it cannot eliminate to focus on restoring and regenerating natural environments. It is establishing a “Natural Climate Solutions Portfolio” with a goal to protect and restore ecosystems that mitigate climate change.
Under its updated strategy, the company will work to conserve critical forests, restore and protect mangroves, which can store up to ten times more carbon, and invest in efforts to scale up regenerative agriculture initiatives.
“The idea is really to try to find a way where biodiversity means business, because business is the one that should — for us — drive the change going forward, not vice versa,” said Gucci president and chief executive Marco Bizzarri during a panel discussion at this year’s World Economic Forum.
It’s an approach Bizzarri hopes others in the industry will follow, but he acknowledged the pressure the pandemic has placed on sustainability initiatives. “One year ago, I would have told you that the private sector could [very likely] have done [the work] by itself, but after the pandemic and the impact on the supply chain, there are so many companies that are in trouble. Asking them [now] to invest in regenerative agriculture is crazy, so you need to as companies work together with the public.”
The industry needs to ditch its reliance on fossil-fuel-based materials like polyester in order to meet climate targets, according to a new report from Textile Exchange.
Cotton linked to environmental and human rights abuses in Brazil is leaking into the supply chains of major fashion brands, a new investigation has found, prompting Zara-owner Inditex to send a scathing rebuke to the industry’s biggest sustainable cotton certifier.
Over the last few years, the run-up to Earth Day has become a marketing frenzy. But a crackdown on greenwashing may be changing the way brands approach their communications strategies.
This week, Sephora announced plans to double down on ‘green’ and ‘clean’ product labels, leaning into an increasingly risky marketing tactic even as a greenwashing crackdown has prompted other brands to pull back.