LIFEWORTH REVIEW OF 2007: FOURTH QUARTER October to November
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Lifeworth Review of 2007 GOTO www.lifeworth.com Lifeworth Review 2007: The Global Step Change
Jem Bendell
Adjunct Associate Professor,

Griffith Business School, Australia

Founder, Lifeworth, Switzerland

Responsible Luxury


How Mr Della Valle's sentiments have translated into effective action is debatable, given that his company, Tod's, came bottom of the first worldwide ranking on the social and environmental performance of the world's largest luxury brands, which was published by WWF-UK in November. 'Deeper Luxury: quality and style when the world matters'9 was covered by over fifty newspapers and magazines worldwide, and numerous blogs, with the Financial Times headline "Luxury brands fail to make ethical grade."10 UN corporate reporting expert Dr Anthony Miller, commented that the luxury goods industry looked like it was "having its own Nike moment," referring to the mid-90's criticism of labour practices in Nike's supply chain that made the company invest heavily in its corporate responsibility programme.11 Fashion UK commented the report "could herald a huge change in the way global luxury brands operate".12

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9 Jem Bendell and Anthony Kleanthous, 2007, http://www.deeperluxury.com [Note that the co-author of this review was the co-author of the said report]
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10 http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/dbe49fbc-9dda-11dc-9f68-0000779fd2ac.html
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11 Media Response to WWF-UK Report on Luxury Brands Could Be Tipping Point for the Industry, Lifeworth Press Release, 12.06.2007, http://www.csrwire.com/News/10355.html
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12 fuk.co.uk/news/wwf_deeper_luxury_report
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Leading industry executives speaking at the International Herald Tribune (IHT) conference on luxury, in Moscow, on the day of the report's launch, portrayed a growing awareness of the importance of ethical performance. Laurence Graff, chairman of Graff Diamonds, and Yves Carcelle, chairman and chief executive of Louis Vuitton, spoke positively of their company's responsibilities. Tom Ford, the former Gucci top designer said that "we need to replace hollow with deep."13 However, in Conde Nast Porfolio.com, Lauren Goldstein Crowe contrasted "the words v. the reality," citing the WWF-UK report as an opportunity for needed leadership on this agenda.14

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13 At IHT luxury conference, ethics are in vogue, Alison Smale, International Herald Tribune, November 28, www.iht.com/articles/2007/11/28/style/rlive.php
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14 http://www.portfolio.com/views/blogs/fashion-inc/2007/11/29/luxury-and-ethics-the-words-v-the-reality
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The industry response to the report was mixed. Within days, Just-Style.com reported that "PPR Group commits to improving sustainability" as a result of the publication.15 Pierre Simoncelli, Managing Director of Sustainable Development at L'Oreal, which owns luxury brands like Ralph Loren and Giorgio Armani, said the report "demonstrates that a quality product must involve a quality value chain, where everyone in that chain benefits and their environment is sustained. Bendell and Kleanthous' analysis should be welcomed as an important contribution to the strategic planning of all high-end brands and their suppliers." However, the director of the Council for Responsible Jewellery Practices was not pleased, slamming the report for what he saw as its negative tone.16 WWF-UK 's co-author of the report Anthony Kleanthous explained in the Guardian that, although 'press coverage has focused on the ranking, and on what these companies are failing to do right for the environment... the main thrust of the report looks to a future in which the very definition of luxury deepens to include not only technical and aesthetic quality, but also environmental and social responsibility."17

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15 http://www.just-style.com/article.aspx?id=99314
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16 CRJP Asks WWF-UK to Withdraw 'Deeper Luxury' Report, www.diamonds.net/news/ExportItem.aspx?ArticleID=19927&Action=Print
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17 http://commentisfree.guardian.co.uk/anthony_kleanthous/2007/12/brand_awareness.html
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The longest chapter focuses on commercial reasons for that new approach to luxury. It examines key challenges facing the industry and suggests that greater depth and authenticity is a strategic response. These challenges include modern technology, which means that what's on the catwalk today can be copied and in high-street retailers within weeks, and growing levels of counterfeiting, both of which the report suggest requires brands to offer something deeper than purely appearance. Sales growth in societies with high social inequality means that luxury brands face a crisis of legitimacy and a regulatory backlash, the report says, so their products will increasingly need to benefit the local economy with good jobs. The more youthful profile of luxury consumers worldwide means luxury brands need to find ways to build in value to casual fashion items, without making them non-casual, with sustainability and ethics an obvious approach, the authors contend. The report also argues that the increasing availability of luxury items means that brands must find new ways of maintaining their cachet, rather than relying on the memory they were once scarce and exclusive, and that superior social and environmental performance is a way to restore that cachet. The report therefore offers a business case for responsible enterprise that does not depend solely on levels of consumer awareness. The consulting firmed hired by WWF to research and co-write the report, Lifeworth, subsequently launched the Authentic Luxury Network to bring together executives, designers, analysts and entrepreneurs who want to lead the creation of more sustainable and ethical luxury.18

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18 www.authenticluxury.net
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The scale of the environmental challenge is so great and pressing, and the reach of NGOs into Asian societies currently so limited, that if the brands that affluent Asians esteem can excel in sustainability, then awareness of sustainable living may grow in emerging economies fast enough to curb global consumption and pollution within environmental limits. Other efforts to promote that awareness are growing. For instance, the Malaysian government embraced the concept of eco fashion and luxury, through the launch of the ecoStyle awards, with entertainment company IMG. The award was established to honour several leading international designers, acknowledging their efforts to present stylish sustainable initiatives and opportunities to the world. Nominees included Anna Cohen, ready to wear, Q Collections furniture, Stella McCartney, and Terra Plana footwear. In December the winner Dr. Ken Yeang, a leading green architect, was announced at the ecoStyle Gala event in Kuala Lumpur. 19

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19 http://www.ecostylemalaysia.com/
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