Luxury fashion, like every other sector, is coming under pressure to do more to support biodiversity. That much is clear from the IUCN World Conservation Congress, which is being staged in Marseilles from 3 to 11 September.
Luxury industry powerhouses LVMH and Kering have both participated in the high-profile gathering of scientists, policy makers and NGOs. The congress has taken on increasing urgency in the countdown to the COP26, the UN’s global climate summit to be staged in November in Glasgow, Scotland.
Antoine Arnault, head of LVMH image, communications and environment, and Marie-Claire Daveu, Kering chief sustainability and institutional affairs officer, who shared the platform at the congress on Friday, both emphasised luxury’s reliance on nature. “There is no champagne without grapes, no ready-to-wear without silk and cotton, no perfume without flowers,” said Arnault. “It’s our role to give back what we borrow from nature. We see protecting and regenerating biodiversity as offering a creative opportunity rather than new constraints.”
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Daveu made it clear that there is a strong business incentive to do more to support biodiversity. “Of course we are doing it for ethical reasons, but not only,” she said. “It’s also very important from a business point of view. We want to continue to have raw materials by volume and also by quality.”
The congress, usually held every four years, is being held a year later than scheduled due to Covid-19 restrictions. French president Emmanuel Macron, actor Harrison Ford and photographer Sebastião Salgado were among the varied group of speakers on the opening day. Also participating from the luxury sector, Cyrille Vigneron, president and CEO of Cartier, and Yves Blouin, general manager of L’Occitane Group.
Diagnosis and measurements
One key challenge is to find the best way to measure biodiversity impact. “On climate change, we have one easy indicator, CO2 emission, and one simple rule – taxing CO2,” said Geoffroy Roux de Bézieux, president of MEDEF, France’s employer federation. “On biodiversity, it is much more complicated.”
In 2020, the carbon footprint of the LVMH Group amounted to 4.8 million tons of CO2, with the most significant components of the footprint relating to raw materials and packaging procurement as well as upstream and downstream goods transport, according to LVMH’s latest sustainability report. Kering’s total emissions for 2020 came in at 2.1 million tons of CO2 in 2020.
