Sustainability

The new trend for Luxury Brands is Sustainability.
According to many specialists in the sector, it is the new hype of CSR and charity events.
But what is sustainability?
Is it the way you treat the employees? The way you product? What happens with the products after they served their time? Sustainability is all about these issues.

Luxury brands have the responsibility of ensuring the same future for next generations as well. Because luxury brands are as precious as the earth itself!

What are sustainable goods? Goods like jewelry, sun glasses and watches are goods that can be a sustainable since the lifecycle of the products can be really long.

Patek Philippe made their USP of being a watch that is so sustainable that it is actually a watch that will be passed on towards next generations

Loro Piana is another brand that carries sustainability really high in their values. They use Vicuna fibres, while keeping them alive and breading them since they were almost extinct!




Some brand are really holding the values of sustainability in their 'hearts' and their DNA. On the other hand, almost all brands are doing it right now.
Do they really mean it, or do they just do greenwashing? Do they just go with the flow, as if it was a new fashion trend?

An industry that is under heavy criticism from sustainability point of view is the transportation industry. Cars, aircrafts, boats,... have a huge carbon footprint on this planet. A way to counter this criticism is being innovative and finding techniques to lower pollution. New fuels et all, are being tested when we speak by almost every single car manufacturer.

But why is the sustainable suddenly so popular? Due to the economical crisis, climate change and other worldwide events, people are getting more educated about the world problems. They suddenly start caring and they expect brands to do it as well!

The biggest wake-up call for the brands was the WWF report on luxury brands and their scores on sustainability. Not a single brand scores higher than a C+.
This raised questions out of the audience and society, so that luxury brands had no other way than changing the way they act.
This raises another ethical question: Do brands do it because of their brand values, or because of the value for their shareholders?

Raising awareness for sustainability nowadays is also done on worldwide events like the FT Business of Luxury Summit 2009, Beyond Green.

Later

Vic