PARIS – With economic headwinds roiling the luxury sector, LVMH Moët Hennessy Louis Vuitton is continuing to stick to its environmental improvement commitments, said group director of image and environment Antoine Arnault.
He was speaking at this year’s “Store Awards,” which recognize environmental improvements and efficiencies at LVMH’s own brands. The event was just a few days short of the one-year anniversary of its Life 360 Summit at UNESCO, when the company presented a slew of sustainability strategies.
Arnault reflected on the company’s challenges in the interim.
“I remember concluding it by saying that whatever happens in the near future, we need to remain consistent with what we decided. No matter what the economical weather is like, we needed to remain consistent,” Arnault said. His thoughts turned out to be prescient.
“Unfortunately, the weather has been a little hard this year. As you as you have all noticed our business is not thriving as it used to. In the end, of course, our brands remain strong, [and] are well-positioned, but let’s be honest, it’s not the best year for our sector or for our group,” he said.
Arnault added that despite these turbulent economic and political times, the company has stayed the course on its expressed goals.
“The good news is that all of our maisons have remained consistent,” he said. “It was not easy to remain faithful and consistent to these objectives. They are difficult to attain, they are expensive, but everyone was faithful to it, and it’s a great pride that that our objectives have been reached.”
LVMH Environment Development Director Hélène Valade highlighted that the company has formed alliances with business partners to support their suppliers, and that the LVMH houses are working together on initiatives such as upcycling of unsold products or pooling transportation of products.
The company welcomed several of its retail partners, including Hang Lung chairman Adriel Chan and Swire Properties chief executive officer Tim Blackburn, both of which represent retail properties in mainland China and Hong Kong. LVMH has formed alliances with the landlords on key objectives in the region, and signed a partnership with Hang Lung in 2022 and Swire last month.
Chan said his properties have achieved many of the milestones set out in the agreement signed with LVMH two years ago. Half of the company’s malls in mainland China now run on renewable energy, he said, and the company has set up an energy platform to measure real-time energy consumption and benchmarks.
Chan added that Hang Lung will have a new announcement about renewable energy “in the near future.”
Hang Lung is also working on a research project with LVMH regarding refrigerants in air conditioning. “We’re moving into thought leadership with this partnership,” Chan said. The results will be applied in all of their real estate projects throughout Asia. “All of these examples, although they’re a little bit technical, they showed how Hang Lung and LVMH are working as partners to innovate together in rigorous, data-driven projects. And all of this we’re doing is to raise the bar for landlord and tenant collaborations.”
LVMH also welcomed executives from its UAE regional partners, Chalhoub Group, EMAAR, ALDAR and Majid Al Futtaim, all of whom are signatories to the “Unity for Change” initiative signed at COP28 in 2023.
The signatories announced new goals for the partnership with a key initiative to send zero waste to landfill by 2030 for LVMH and Chalhoub Group, and a 50 percent reduction in waste sent to landfill by the other partners. They will also integrate traceability systems and standardize recycling policies through a digital system.
Goals to reduce carbon emissions were introduced, including achieving a minimum of 5 percent annual energy savings for all shopping malls starting in 2024 plus other energy reduction targets to hit by 2026 and 2030, specifically within the beauty sector, and to implement an eco-design checklist for renovations and new projects, including energy-efficient lighting and the use of natural paints.
“As a family, as a group, and in a family business, the key element is to create a sustainable business. But how can we create a sustainable business if we are not having a sustainable environment?” said Patrick Chalhoub, president of Dubai-based luxury goods retailer and distributor Chalhoub Group.
“The power is to do it in a collaborative way between tenants and developers, between the all the developers together, in order that we can reach much stronger and bigger targets in a much faster way and in a coordinated way,” he added.
LVMH also announced its internal “Life in Architecture” guide to sustainable building practices will be made widely available for other companies to use as a resource for more eco-aware design, and the publication of a “Best Practices Guide,” in conjunction with French NGO Paris Good Fashion, which is committed to accelerating change and transforming the practices of fashion companies. The guide offers ideas to improve the ecological footprint of boutiques and is made available on the organization’s website.
Big winners of the store awards were Parfums Christian Dior at K11 in Hong Kong, the Celine store in Seoul and Louis Vuitton in Kuala Lumpur, all of which were recognized in more than one category.
LVMH also added new categories focused on people, including nods for improving employee well-being and training on environmental issues, to highlight the company’s commitment to its staff, and categories in pop-up design and window displays, which are key target areas of improvement as they are temporary by design.
France’s minister of ecological transition, energy and climate Agnès Pannier-Runacher said that LVMH’s role in publicly announcing its energy reduction targets in 2022 was intrumental to the country hitting its own reduction goals.
“Energy savings is not just a question of the energy crisis. It is, in fact, one of the most efficient actions if we want to reduce our [carbon] emissions – most efficient because it doesn’t cost much, just a change of behavior,” she said. “It’s just a question of focus, and it proves to be quite rewarding when it comes to [profit-and-loss statements], and this is maybe what you’ve seen in your own experience and your own stores.”
Pannier-Runacher added that she is continuing to push the idea within France, as well as the European Union level for companies to reduce their energy consumption.
