How One of Luxury's Biggest Companies Is Radically (& Quietly) Changing the Way You Shop

Yahoo Style
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A pair of vegan shoes by Stella McCartney.

When you’re spending big on a luxury item, what are the things that convince you to put down your credit card? That a product is expertly crafted? Yes. That it’s beautiful? Sure. That it’s made in a responsible way, with minimal impact on our environment? Maybe….

The majority of shoppers still put aesthetics first when when it comes to luxury goods, but that hasn’t stopped one of the industry’s top leaders from making sustainability a major part of his agenda. On Thursday night at the Parsons New School for Design, Kering ceo François-Henri Pinault spoke extensively about the luxury conglomerate’s efforts towards sustainability. (Joining him on stage were Natural Resources Defense Council director Linda Greer, Parsons AAS program director Timo Rissanen, and Parsons creative adviser Simon Collins.) Kering, which owns Balenciaga, Gucci, and Stella McCartney—an industry leader who has raised the bar for environmental standards—is releasing its Environmental Profit and Loss report in May 2015, which will measure each brand’s environmental footprint, from carbon emission and water use to waste and air pollution.

François-Henri Pinault, Linda Greer, Timo Rissanen, and Simon Collins on stage at Parsons on Thursday night.

What does that mean for luxury shoppers? Diamonds sourced from sustainable mining operations. Less wasteful packaging. Techniques that reduce the amount of water used to make a handbag. And even leathers generated from live animal cells.

While that last one is still a ways away, many of those other processes have been fully implemented, and any differences are virtually invisible to the consumer’s eye. They’re also a major part of Kering’s long term vision, not only because it’s good morals, it’s good business. “Stella is a very profitable brand,” Pinault said of the company’s shining sustainability star, whose leather- and fur-free goods are admired far beyond the fashion industry. “You do it like [Stella], or you don’t do it.”

When it comes to communicating sustainability consumers, the exec believes it’s more about the big picture. “They want to be informed,” he said, explaining that 40-50% of Kering items bought in-store are researched online beforehand. “Luxury is about storytelling. It’s not about fast fashion.”