London – In 2012,
luxury conglomerate Kering committed to achieving a set of Sustainability
Targets by 2016. The targets were set by the group itself, as Kering
focused on specific environmental and social challenges it faced as a
group, ranging from leather traceability and responsible gold sourcing to
water pollution, carbon emissions and chemical use.
The targets aimed to guide the group in its overall approach to drive its actions and act as a
benchmark for progress made to be more sustainable across its entire
supply chain, including raw material sourcing. Now, four years after Kering
set itself these targets, the group has published its final report on its
sustainability journey, revealing whether or not they attained the results
planned through their targets. It is the first time a luxury group this
large has published a report on the social and environmental impact of its
supply chain and sheds light on why working sustainably in some areas is
harder than others.
The report unveiled a mixed bag of results, showing the group excelled in
some areas of its target, and struggled in others. Across its numerous
supply chains, Kering managed to reduce carbon emissions by 11 percent, cut
down on its waste outage by 16 percent and decreased its water usage by 19
percent – an impressive feat in its own right – but all fell short of
Kering’s target to cut three by at least 25 percent. The production of raw
materials currently accounts for 50 percent of Kering’s overalls
environmental impact, with the processing of the materials accounting for
another 25 percent, as the report highlight the wide variety of challenges
faced within raw materials.
For example, the group only attained 15 percent of its target goal to
source 100 percent of its gold from verified responsible sources. On the
other hand Kering achieved 99 percent of its goal to make all collections
PVC free, as well as 81 percent and 85 percent of its target to use paper
and packaging respectively from certified sustainably managed forests, with
at least 50 percent of it being recycled content. “At the beginning, it was
about what we can define as ethical, and this kind of sourcing, and what
does it mean operationally,” explained Marie-Claire Daveu,chief
sustainability officer and head of international institutional affairs at
Kering, to BoF. “You have to have a clear understanding of not only what’s
happening in your company, but what’s happening all over the world:
sourcing, legislation, best practices.”
Kering only achieved 64 percent of its target to source 100 percent of its
leather from responsible and verified sources, which do not transform
ecosystems into agricultural land. The luxury conglomerate also aimed to
source 100 percent of its crocodile skin, fur and precious skins from
certified and verified captive breeding or sustainably handled populations
by 2016. They managed to reached 91 percent of its target for crocodile
skin, 78 percent for shearling fur and 41 percent for precious skins.
According to the report, there are still “very few sources that are
transparent enough” and hold up to Kering’s standard for precious skins,
hence why the achieved goal is so low.
Although the luxury conglomerate aims to cut down on its emissions, Daveu
maintains that achieving a goal of zero emissions would be impossible for a
company as big as Kering. Instead, it has focused on were its supply chain
has the largest impact and works to offsets its other emissions. “You have
to adapt to the best practices, and at the end of the day, if you are not
able to emit zero emissions, we think it is our responsibility to offset
that,” said Daveu. The last part of Kering’s targets focused on social
impact, as the group set to evaluate all key suppliers at least once
every two years.
Kering performed 6,000 supplier audits over the past four years, which are
said to include both its direct and indirect suppliers and the results are
shared in the company’s annual Reference document. “The Targets we
committed to in 2012 guided us to build robust and responsible approaches
to address challenges within our business, and beyond, such as climate
change,” commented François-Henri Pinault, chairman and CEO of Kering in a
statement.
“These approaches are now integrated into our business and I am convinced
that this has built the strong foundation necessary across our Group in
order to go even further in the future. We will continue to enhance and
expand our sustainability efforts to accelerate change in our own business
and across the industry, particularly through our open-sourcing
philosophy.” Following the publication of its sustainability report, Kering
is set to announced the next phase of its sustainability strategy, which is
said to include the redefinition of its target at the end of 2016.
Photos: Stella McCartney, Balenciaga, Gucci, Bottega Veneta – Facebook