Ahead of the 5th anniversary of the Paris Agreement, LVMH mobilizes all employees for rollout of new environmental strategy
LVMH
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© DR / LVMH
Five years after the signature of the Paris Agreement, the LVMH Group is holding LVMH Climate Week. The week-long online event invites the Group’s 160,000 employees to share the priorities of the new LIFE 360 (LVMH Initiatives For the Environment) program, setting an ambitious environmental roadmap for the coming 3, 6 and 10 years. The event encourages all LVMH teams to join the effort around the rallying cry “Be The Change!”
Climate change concerns everyone. As the world leader in luxury whose businesses depend directly on nature, LVMH is on the front lines of this challenge and has special responsibility to deliver exemplary performance in mitigating the impact of its activities on the environment. LVMH has achieved or exceeded the targets set for 2020 within the scope of its LIFE 2020 policy and is now ready to pursue even more ambitious environmental goals. This engagement is natural for a Group whose business model is anchored in the enduring quality of its products and in local production that draws on exceptional skills.
LVMH Climate Week, from December 8-11, will bring together the Group’s 160,000 employees via an online platform, unified by a clear call for action: “Be the Change”. The agenda includes 12 focus sessions with guests including several Creative Directors of LVMH Maisons, along with senior executives and staff members, all centered on concrete solutions that allow everyone to actively contribute to sustainable luxury.
“The mobilization of the entire LVMH Group and all our teams underscores the importance we place on this issue every single day. We want to send an extremely powerful signal as we embark on a new path forward which is absolutely imperative given the urgency of the situation. This path is extremely ambitious, and at the same time initiates a virtuous circle, because we know better than any company the power that springs from innovation and creativity. In the future, creativity will be virtuous, or it will not be. I have complete confidence in the ability of the people of LVMH to meet this challenge together,” said Antoine Arnault, LVMH Director of Image, Communication and the Environment.
LVMH Climate Week also provides an opportunity to highlight LVMH Maisons’ commitments to environmental performance, along with their impressive array of solutions and innovations, notably to promote a circular economy. This will provide a starting point to update the Group’s targets for reducing carbon emissions, as well as methane and nitrogen protoxide emissions (which are much more powerful greenhouse gases than carbon dioxide).
The precise targets will be announced in 2021 with the launch of the new LIFE 360 program and its four pillars: climate, biodiversity, creative circularity and transparency. This program will provide a roadmap that allows the Group to align with the trajectory for 2030 set by the Paris Agreement, based on scientifically validated assessments. The plan will establish new climate targets for LVMH, notably using 100% renewable energy at all Group sites and eliminating fossil-based virgin plastic in packaging by 2026.
LVMH Climate Week kicked off on December 8 with an opening ceremony hosted by Antoine Arnault, LVMH Director of Image, Communication and the Environment, and Hélène Valade, LVMH Environmental Development Director. They welcomed prominent speakers including Laurent Fabius, President of the COP 21 summit, Valérie Masson Delmotte, Co-Chair of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), and Bertrand Piccard, founder of the Solar Impulse Foundation. They shared insights and their recognized experience on climate issues. New-generation members of LVMH were also invited to lead and provide input for the conversations, expressing their legitimate concerns about the future of the planet.
Reflecting the urgency of addressing climate change, three focus sessions addressed key subjects for the LVMH Group:
- Can preserving biodiversity help us mitigate climate change?
- Carbon offsetting – Real change or greenwashing?
- Can the fashion industry ever be sustainable?
Signaling the fundamental impact of climate issues on the creative process, the latter session will welcome the most remarkable panel of designers ever assembled to discuss these challenges, with Felipe Oliveira Baptista, Creative Director of Kenzo, Kim Jones, Dior Men’s Creative Director, Jonathan Anderson, Creative Director of Loewe and Stella McCartney, Creative Director of her eponymous brand. They will share their experience and convictions about the best ways forward to create a more sustainable world for everyone.
In addition, LVMH Climate Week includes a Solutions Showroom, presenting 49 concrete solutions, especially for stores and production sites. These solutions from partners identified by the Group, including the Solar Impulse Foundation, propose innovative approaches to help Maisons further reduce their carbon footprint.
The startup Desserto, for example, which received a special mention at the LVMH Innovation Award 2020, has developed a plant-based leather from cactus grown in Mexico. The material can be used in both leather goods and packaging. Another firm, Secante, makes custom LED lighting, while Celsius proposes a geothermal energy solution to heat and cool buildings, ensuring year-long low-carbon comfort for occupants.
LVMH Climate Week culminates with the LIFE in Stores Awards, recognizing the seven most virtuous and innovative solutions at LVMH Maisons to improve the environmental performance of their stores.
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To watch the replay of the LVMH Climate Week conferences, click here.