It pays to be green; How Gucci is paving the way for sustainability in luxury brands.
When you think of luxury brands, sustainability is not one of the first things to come to mind. Luxury brands are often criticized as being ‘unsustainable’, associated with a lifestyle of overconsumption, excess, and waste. A shift reflecting the concerns of consumers of all social classes towards social and environmental issues, and a preference towards buying ethical and environmentally friendly products has brought sustainability concerns to the forefront of luxury brand’s production and marketing.
Collective Responsibility.
Arguably one of the most important steps towards the fashion industries adoption of ethically considerable and sustainable practices was the signing of the Fashion Pact in August 2019, by luxury brands such as Chanel, Ralph Lauren, and Prada, alongside high street brands such as H&M Group and Zara, and other brands often associated with ‘fast fashion’. The pact outlined agreements to combat greenhouse gasses and place a greater emphasis on sustainability, recognizing collective responsibility between the companies to take effective measures to mitigate their environmental impacts. The fashion industry accounts for 10% of global carbon emissions, as we know, this has major knock-on effects on climate change. Under the wider historical setting of the Anthropocene, we have seen how the immense levels of resource use have grown exponentially in recent years, and the history of human-environmental interactions is present in the development of international garment economies. With the consumption of apparel expected to rise from 62 million metric tons in 2019 to 102 million tons within the next 10 years, it's important for steps to be made to mitigate the issues created by garment manufacturing.
The other side of the coin sees luxury goods as scarce products of limited supply, moderating consumption due to restricting product availability. This conveys the idea that luxury products encourage more ‘reasonable, responsible consumption and help protect natural resources’. Luxury brands focus on adapting traditions according to a recognizable branding, rather than producing garments that conform to the latest fast fashion fads, ultimately maintaining the brand's heritage and producing garments that will last. This is reflected in the ‘aspiration for high quality and superior durability of luxury brands’ which ‘reveals the affiliation between luxury and sustainability’, arguing luxury brands are more sustainable as they are less likely to overproduce garments, like many fast fashion brands.
Gucci Goes Green to be Green.
As one of the most globally recognized luxury brands, Gucci has begun to challenge the assumptions that luxury brands are associated with overconsumption and waste through re-evaluating its practices to see how the House can become more environmentally friendly in all its actions. Further than the ‘Fashion Pact’, Gucci has adopted the Environmental Profit & Loss (EP&L) account, monitoring all GHG emissions from its business. The brand itself is aiming to decrease its greenhouse gas emissions by 50% by 2025, reducing its total environmental footprint by 40% by 2025, and ensures sustainable practices are being implemented in every stage of its production and using 100% renewable energy by the end of 2020. To do so, they are attaining 100% traceability for their raw materials, aligning with their parent company Kering's Standards for Raw Materials and Manufacturing Processes by 2025.
Good on you!
Gucci is very transparent about its sustainability goals and aims to reduce its environmental impacts. Many of the steps it is taking are published on its dedicated website, 'Gucci Equilibrium', an online platform designed to ‘connect people, planet, and purpose. However, not all brands are so open to sharing details about their environmental and ethical standings.
‘Good On You’, a sustainability assessor that analyses and rates brands and companies based on their levels of ethical and environmentally friendly practices. They state Gucci’s environment rating as ‘good’, noting its targets to reduce emissions and its policy approved by CanopyStyle to prevent deforestation of ancient and endangered forests in its supply chain. It’s further committed to reducing chromium and other hazardous chemicals from its leather tanning processes.
This assessor is a very useful tool to compare different brands' ethical and environmental standings. It assesses brands based on their treatment of people, animals, and the planet, rating them out of 5 and providing a detailed description of why they have received this rating, using statistics provided by the brands in question. As many sites do not easily publish this information, all the hard work is already done for you to allow you to see and support brands that are employing ethical and sustainable practices in their production and distribution.
Thinking Outside of the Box.
Starting from the first step of the product experience, Gucci's packaging has been redesigned with strategic design choices to have a reduced impact on the environment. Packaging of a luxury item is important as a ‘symbol of a gift to oneself or another person’.
The new designs are produced using only cardboard from sustainably managed forest sources. This ensures environmental justice, as unsustainable practices such as deforestation have a negative impact on the planet, seeing many forests illegally torn down for the production of consumer goods. Environmental justice is further seen in their paper’s unique ornate green color, which is produced at the beginning of production. This not only decreases the use of inks but as an uncoated paper means it is 100% recyclable. The use of inks in dying processes has a severe impact on the environment, as excess dyes are often released into polluted water, affecting aquatic life, ruining soils, and entering the food chain. The shopping bag handles are produced from black torchon, using 100% recycled polyester, and looks further into details by being knotted, to avoid the use of glues. The natural-colored dust bags and suit carriers are made of a mix of regenerated cotton and recycled polyester, finished with the black Gucci logo. Ribbons are 100% organic cotton and hangers are made of recycled polystyrene.
Further than just packaging, Gucci is ensuring its sustainable methods are incorporated in its logistics. Aiming to eliminate single-use plastics by 2030, the brand is in adherence to the Fashion Pact. Furthermore, the brand recognizes the environmental impact of transporting goods, which creates environmental stressors such as air pollutants from emissions, water pollution, noise, and oil pollution. They have redesigned their boxes for easier reuse and changed their shape to optimize transport, meaning fewer vehicles are needed, and their carbon footprint linked to transportation is subsequently lowered. They have reused industrial packaging where possible to minimize their plastic footprint. This can be seen in the 'Take Back' program, which enables the plastic protective boxes for their accessories to be reused to avoid making new plastic boxes.
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