Giles Gibbons

Good Business - Sustainability | Strategy | Impact

July 7, 2023

1. Haute stuff

Is green the new black? The luxury market is undergoing a radical transformation as it adapts to the growing spending power of Gen Z.

Gen Z along with Millennials accounted “for the entire growth of the luxury market in 2022,”, and are predicted to represent 70% of luxury spending by 2025, according to Bain & Company. This is a generation which has high standards, especially when it comes to the sustainability credentials of the brands they wear. As their disposable income grows, so does the importance of meeting their expectations.

Which gives rise to several questions. Do they really hold luxury brands to a higher standard than other brands? And if so, what are the issues they focus on? Is it child labour, environmental concerns, materials, inclusivity, and diversity? What are they looking for and how are you future-proofing your brand today for tomorrow?

The sector is changing quickly, and these questions are crucial to guiding a path forward that delivers for people, planet and profit. At the Global Fashion Agenda's Fashion Summit in Copenhagen last week, the first industry-specific guide for fashion brands to reduce their impacts on nature was launched. At the Summit, Paul Polman, former CEO of Unilever, urged the sector to “play its part in building a nature-positive economy and the CEOs and companies who move without delay will reap the benefits – and so will their investors.”

To navigate this space, at Good Business we’re speaking to eminent sustainability professionals in the luxury fashion sector to gather their expert views. This will inform a briefing note on the growth of expectations in the industry, what issues are most important, and how fashion houses are transforming their businesses. Is this relevant to you? Drop us a message- we’d love to hear what you think.

In return, we’ll share an insider view of what experts and industry professionals are seeing happening, where the biggest challenges ahead lie, and what they are doing to address these rising expectations.

2. Affirmative inaction

Last week, the Supreme Court struck down affirmative action programs in higher education, meaning that colleges and universities cannot consider race in the admissions process.

The importance of this ruling cannot be understated, and it will undoubtedly impact minority students at selective colleges and University across the USA. Beyond this, the ruling has potentially huge knock-on effects on diversity and inclusion in the corporate world; as a recent article in The New York Times emphasises – if you haven’t already made the connection for how this will impact businesses – wake up.

The idea behind affirmative action is simple: create rules and regulations that require institutions to proactively pursue equity – efffectively attempting to level the very uneven playing field. To date, organisations have benefitted enormously from the affirmative actions implemented in higher education; these initiatives help in creating a diverse pool of talented potential candidates, and in-turn have a positive impact on the productivity and success of businesses.

This ruling means that businesses are no longer going to be able to just sit back and wait for the candidate pool to fill itself – a more proactive approach is desperately needed. But the good news is there are plenty of ways that corporates can do so - from providing direct funding to colleges to equip them with the resources needed to support students, funding community organisations which focus on developing underprivileged children’s development and readiness for higher education, to funding the college admission process itself.

82 US employers, including some of the world’s largest companies such as Google, Meta, Apple among others submitted amicus briefs to the Supreme Court in support of race-conscious policies in college admissions. We will wait with anticipation to see if the corporate world steps up to support diversity in higher education as the US government is failing to do so. 

3. The borrowers

Keeping up with the Joneses is hard work. With increasingly sophisticated tech and equipment proliferating across all areas of life, ‘having it all’ is a costly pursuit, and one that comes with a hefty environmental cost.

The answer can come in a mindset shift – from owning to sharing. After all, many of these things are a joy to use occasionally and painful to buy – perfect candidates for a different approach. At Good Business, we’ve long been big enthusiasts of the sharing economy, and therefore disappointed that the actual uptake has been small and many of the platforms that introduced us to the sharing economy have folded. This has in part been attributed to the convenience of having new stuff delivered to your door, but also by limited trust, particularly for peer-to-peer platforms – a tough pill to swallow for a concept based on a sense of community.

However, there’s a new frontier of the sharing economy: having shared goods in serviced apartment blocks. This is growing in the US and although it’s delivered more as an additional service for landlords to offer tenants than a grassroots community activity, having furniture and bikes ready to use in the foyer still reduces the need to buy, and they’re shared with your direct neighbours. These facilities focus on high-quality and durable goods is an added selling point for landlords but it is also a good way to make the sharing model a desirable one.

It’s only one of many ways to deliver shared resources but we’re excited to see the creation and refinement of sharing economy methods make the great concept work in practice.

4. Shipping showdown

Today marks the end of the Marine Environment Protection Committee (MEPC 80), where delegates from the UN’s shipping agency, the International Maritime Organization (IMO), gathered in London for preliminary talks on preventing shipping pollution and implementing a new greenhouse gas strategy across the industry.

In May, we shed light on the shipping industry’s contribution to the world’s greenhouse gas emissions and the role ports play in this. Whilst we touched upon the negative impact ship crisscrossing has on our oceans, the onset of this week’s summit has reinforced the scale of the problem.

The global shipping industry is responsible for transporting nine-tenths of our goods around the world and accounts for at least 2.5% of the world’s total GHG emissions. And yet the IMO doesn’t have a goal for cutting emissions to ‘net-zero’.

Hence the importance of this conference – as it is expected to set a new timeline on decarbonising the industry, by updating its current target of halving shipping emissions by 2050, from 2008 levels. The decisions made at the #mepc80 summit have the potential to shape the future of the shipping industry's environmental impact.

Observers have noted that if the London meeting can agree on new, ambitious goals for shipping (such as Maersk’s “bullish” approach by targeting zero emissions by 2040), it could be the biggest advancement against climate change since the Paris agreement.

As the summit wraps up, the shipping industry stands at a crucial crossroads. With its immense contribution to global greenhouse gas emissions, ambitious targets, and the promotion of investments in green technologies are needed. Decisions made now will determine if the industry can truly navigate towards a low-carbon future.

We’ll be keeping tabs…

The Goods: Serving sustainability

The fight for tennis’ most coveted trophy got underway this week at Wimbledon, and tickets for centre court aren’t they only thing we’re excited to get our hands on at the tournament this year.

Stepping onto the court of eco-innovation, the All England Lawn Tennis Club, which hosts the most anticipated event in the tennis calendar, has released a collection of sustainable activewear, aiming to promote the ethos of Wimbledon and embody their motto “In Pursuit of Greatness”.

The collection features more than a hundred items, ranging from classic polo shirts to Panama hats and their famous Wimbledon Championships towel, and includes an outfit made almost entirely from recycled plastic. As part of their commitment to deliver on their environmental goals, from next year, 99% of the fabric used in the collection will be recycled.

And, in a departure from the signature purple and green that is so intrinsic to the Championships, the collection dons the colours white and blue to symbolise its sustainability, reminding us that even the oldest traditions can adapt for the changing times.

So, if you’re heading to Wimbledon this year, make sure you check out this ace of a collection and hit the courts in sustainable style. Game, set, match – Wimbledon!

When it comes to sustainability, where do we go next? Hear our CEO, Giles Gibbons, give his take on the progress that’s been made over the last 20 years and the challenges that lie ahead on Matthew Gwyther's podcast - Doing It On Purpose. Listen to the podcast here.