Lausanne, Switzerland

The debate surrounding sustainable luxury is not new, but very prevailing as luxury consumers’ expectations and behaviors evolve rapidly. The traditional definition of luxury as ‘anything unneeded’ is neither helpful nor relevant in today’s markets. Luxury has become both a commendable and widely obtainable need and necessity.  

When it comes to corporate responsibility, luxury companies don’t become model citizens overnight. But merely complying with public demands for responsible practices won’t protect them very long or even contribute to solve social or environmental problems.

But, how to be good and do well ?                           

What do the terms such as ethical consumerism or discerning luxury consumption really tell us about future luxury spending habits? How to go beyond mere compliance to gain a competitive advantage? How best in class luxury companies succeed in their endeavor of changing their stakeholders’ behaviors? How to make a real difference to society in reinventing a new business model? How to future-proof its company and ensure sustained value for all stakeholders ?

The Atelier of Sustainable Excellence™ aims to provide a learning & sharing platform for engaged CSR/Sustainability professionals from the luxury/prestige sectors, academia and non-governemental/not for profit organisations to :

• Anticipate the trends shaping the luxury industry
• Share business initiatives addressing social and environmental challenges.
• Experiment sustainable excellence during a highly interactive “GameShop”.

Provisional program and confirmed speakers.

• Mr Burak Cakmak, GUCCI, CSR Director, Keynote speaker
• Prof. Sandor Czellar, PhD, Marketing Professor, HEC Lausanne University
• Mrs Iris Maria Alexis Van der Veken, Rosy Blue Diamonds, Manager Corporate Affairs. Chair, United Nation Global Compact Network Belgium
• Mrs Corinne Paget-Blanc, Jaeger-LeCoultre, Communication Director
• Mr Christopher H. Cordey, Wholebeauty, Chief Catalyst Officer
• Mrs Veerle Vrolijk-van Wauwe – Transparence SA, CEO
• Powered by LEGO® SERIOUS PLAY®, participants will build a common vision of the luxury goods industry in 2030. They will test how their  informed understandings of this industry and its interactions with key stakeholders –be they investors, consumers, retailers, environmental activists, or members of supply chains –  shape their future business models. The expected output will be a glimpse into the core values that the luxury goods industry will need to promote, as a whole, to future-proof itself and ensure sustained value for all its stakeholders. This session will be facilitated by Mrs Joyce Miller, PhD and Mr Eli de Friend, Caprese

Program may subject to change. Number of participants will be limited. Registration and inquiries

Kao Corp., a major Japanese manufacturer of chemical products, announced, that it won the Minister of Economy, Trade and Industry Award for the Ninth Green Sustainable Chemistry (GSC) Award. http://www.japanfs.org/en/pages/029984.html

More news on Kao Corp CSR activities and involvments. http://www.kao.com/group/en/group/csr.html

Gucci’s newly designed packaging is FSC-certified and recyclable. Image courtesy of Gucci.

« If we wait for customers to make sustainable development a condition for purchasing, then nothing will happen. It’s as if green products were somehow not normal. They are normal, it is the other products that are not normal. It’s up to us to work out how to make green products the new normal. » –

as said by PPR (which owns Gucci Group) chairman and chief executive officer François-Henri Pinault weighed in on customers unpreparedness to pay extra for sustainable development, in an interview with WWD. 

The newly designed luxury packaging has undergone a major transformation. According to the press release, the bags, boxes, and tissue paper no longer have plastic laminate surfaces (not uncommon in luxury packaging); ribbon and garment bags have been switched from polyester to cotton; and the bags provide transparency and read: « This shopping bag is FSC certified and made of 100% recyclable material ».

The luxury brand is also cutting down on excess packaging altogether. Shoes will be packed in one flannel instead of two. Gift boxes will only be given out when requested. Gucci is going to replace all of its mannequins with a new eco-friendly version, designed by Frida Giannini, made with shockproof polystyrene–a long-lasting and 100% recyclable raw material–fully made in Italy and finished with water-based paints.

Surely these efforts are applaudable, but replacing all the mannequins? We’re not sure what they’re planning to do with the old ones but it would make a lot more sense to hold on to them before creating and replacing more long-lasting mannequins. Apart from packaging Gucci is pursuing energy-saving initiatives in their retail stores and also aims to reach the following targets by the end of this year: a reduction of 35 tons of plastic waste; a reduction of 1,400 tons of paper consumption; a reduction of about 10,000 tons of Co2 emissions; and a reduction of about 4 million litres of gas oil consumption.  Source PPR press release.

  WJCEF (World Jewellery Confederation Education Foundation) will launch its inaugural Executive Course in Corporate Social Responsibility on June 20-22, 2010, in Antwerp, Belgium. Hosting the event is HRD Antwerp. The Executive Course was designed for WJCEF by AIFOMD (Association Internationale de Formateurs en Objectifs du Millénaire pour le Développement) in cooperation with UN-ONG-Irene. Delivering the course will be a team of CSR experts from the Université de Genève, the University of St. Michaels’s College in the University of Toronto, and MHC International. The course was devised with the active support and participation of ECOSOC, and it is the first time that a dedicated CSR programme has been developed by a United Nations for the benefit of the international jewellery sector. More news.