October 18, 2019: Luxury brand Gucci has been operationally embedding its long-term sustainability strategy into the business over the last few years and has taken some next ambitious step to become entirely carbon neutral, recognising that additional measures are required in the immediate, given the urgent need for climate action. Gucci is, therefore, offsetting all remaining Greenhouse Gas (GHG) emissions annually from its own operations and the entire supply chain through four critically important REDD+ projects that support forest conservation around the world. As an unprecedented commitment to sustainability leadership in luxury and fashion, Gucci’s supply chain has become carbon neutral.
Gucci was one of the first luxury brands to adopt the Environmental Profit and Loss (EP&L), which acts as a benchmark to measure progress, during the implementation of Gucci’s 10-year sustainability strategy (2015-2025). A series of 2025 targets were created as a driver of this strategy against a 2015 EP&L baseline, including an objective to reduce GHG emissions by 50%. GHG emissions were also reduced by 16% and currently account for 35% of Gucci’s total footprint. Significantly, the supply chain is responsible for the bulk of these emissions (around 90%) as is generally the case with all luxury fashion companies. Gucci has made significant inroads in line with its targets over the last years and with its new carbon neutral approach, the company will continue to focus on avoiding and reducing its GHG emissions as a priority to reach its target by 2025.
“A new era of corporate accountability is upon us and we need to be diligent in taking all steps to mitigate our impacts, including being transparent and responsible for our GHG emissions across our supply chains,” said Marco Bizzarri, President & CEO of Gucci.
As the first priority in its carbon neutral approach, Gucci has implemented a series of initiatives around low-impact alternative and sustainable materials, sustainable sourcing, and manufacturing efficiencies to avoid and reduce its impacts across the supply chain. These initiatives have already shown promising results by avoiding around 440,125 tons of CO2 in 2018 and they will be continuously amplified. Then, on an annual basis, as a final measure to enhance these efforts, Gucci will offset the remaining GHG emissions across the entire supply chain supporting the conservation and restoration of vital ecosystems around the world.
