AMPLIFYING CREATIVE CIRCULARITY
To achieve the targets set out in the LIFE 360 program regarding creative circularity, the Group and its Maisons are deploying a range of sustainable services – such as repair, refill or recovery services through repurposed product channels – and expanding the application of sustainable design in its products and packaging. LVMH constantly optimizes its existing materials and also invents new sustainable materials.
The LIFE 360 plan achieved its 2023 target of introducing new circular services in Maisons. To continue to fulfil its commitments, LVMH harnesses creativity, one of the Group’s core values, to reduce the environmental footprint of its products. Throughout the Maisons, it takes advantage of upcycling, recycling, and repurposed fabric or leather offcuts, while also developing new sustainable design processes to redefine standards in luxury. LVMH Circularity, set up in 2023, organizes the use of repurposed materials in its production lines through partnerships between innovative startups and the Group’s Maisons.
EXPANDING SUSTAINABLE SERVICES
The Group and its Maisons deploy initiatives to make their products more sustainable. Repair and refill services, which customers increasingly expect and demand, enhance brand image and customer relationships, especially as they extend product life. Consequential initiatives include Guerlain deploying refillable pots, Louis Vuitton repairing over 600,000 leather goods items each year, and 14 Maisons implementing a “repair and care” task force. The Group also launched LVMH Circularity to structure its repurposed materials channels, with projects pursued by Christian Dior Couture and Louis Vuitton with Weturn to convert the materials contained in their unsold products into new resources. At the same time, a takeback program entitled Re-Crafted was launched by RIMOWA in 2024 in Japan, Germany, the US and South Korea. It enables customers to bring obsolete or damaged products back to store so they may be reconditioned, reused or recycled. In beauty, 56% of Sephora stores around the world now offer a service where they take back empty bottles, collecting over 6 million units since 2009. Sephora and several other Perfumes & Cosmetics Maisons have also joined reuse coalitions to trial returnable packaging in cosmetics and perfumes.
PICKING UP THE PACE OF THE SHIFT TO SUSTAINABLE PACKAGING
The Group’s Maisons are developing sustainable packaging designs to put an end to the use of fossil-based virgin plastic – as per the LIFE 360 target – and to cut down on the quantities of raw materials used. In 2024, customer packaging was composed of 41% recycled materials (glass and plastic) but still contained 7,224 metric tons of fossil-based virgin plastic. LVMH has joined various alliances to accelerate and help devise the right solutions to achieve its targets of reducing its packaging-related footprint: PEFerence – to expand the commercial use of a biosourced, recyclable material; Pulp in Action – to devise solutions for harnessing pulp for packaging applications; and Perfect-sorting – to optimize the sorting of cosmetics and food packaging. The Group has also established a partnership with Dow to incorporate biosourced and circular plastics in the packaging used by various Maisons.
GENERALIZING SUSTAINABLE DESIGN
LVMH intensifies its efforts and aims to apply sustainable design principles to all its products by 2030. The Maisons review the entire product life cycle with respect to strict sustainability criteria, from sourcing through to end of life. Over 3,700 products were assessed in 2024 using the Fairly Made system, including 563 from Le Bon Marché, resulting in a compliance rate with sustainable design criteria of 33%. Sustainable design also extends to packaging, with customer packaging comprising 46% of recycled materials (including glass, plastic, paper and cardboard). LVMH has joined a number of alliances to develop sustainable solutions to substitute virgin plastic with recycled or biosourced materials.
CREATING DESIRABLE AND SUSTAINABLE MATERIALS
LVMH positions creativity at the heart of its circularity strategy, associating upcycling with recycling and repurposed offcuts to redefine standards in the luxury industry. In 2024, the 600 official Olympics outfits were made using 100% eco-designed materials sourced from the Group’s workshops. The Group innovates by inventing sustainable materials, such as lab-grown keratin developed with Central Saint Martins and Imperial College, or using recycled plastic marine waste (Parley Ocean Plastic®) in its Beach Capsule Fall 2024. The LVMH material library now lists 180 certified sustainable materials, making them available to all the Maisons.
REDUCING AND RECOVERING WASTE
The LVMH Group and its Maisons aim to reduce waste generation by 10% at all production and logistics sites by 2030. Louis Vuitton is investing in new cutting technologies to limit textile and leather losses from the production stage. LVMH also aims to recover 100% of operational waste from production and logistics sites. Announced at the LIFE360 Summit in 2023 at UNESCO, LVMH Circularity provides a framework for these objectives. This initiative allows us to collect, recycle and reinject textile scraps, rolls and unsold products into our value chains. In 2024, Christian Dior Couture launched a collection in recycled denim made from these unused deposits of the Group, in collaboration with the start-up Weturn. For the third year in a row, Le Bon Marché Rive Gauche and Nona Source, an internal start-up that recycles the dormant stocks of luxury houses, are strengthening their collaboration by unveiling a new collection made from these deposits.
The audit of production and logistics sites, as well as the training of its employees, are also part of the LIFE360 trajectory related to waste management.
To find out more: LVMH Waste Management Program
