One year on: the LVMH internal carbon fund

London - There is no arguing clothing brands and manufacturers have large carbon footprints. Despite sustainability being a core concern for many businesses, the environmental impact the fashion industry has left on the planet is not insignificant.

While some brands like Stella McCartney have embraced sustainability by not using leather or fur, there is still a carbon footprint to consider. When LVMH last year set up its internal carbon fund, it set a precedent, one of the first challenges of businesses is not to take responsibility for their impact, but to officially recognise their operations have implications.

In 2014 LVMH produced 370,000 metric tons of emissions

LVMH in 2014 was responsible for roughly 370,000 metric tons of greenhouse gas emissions. In a nutshell, greenhouse gases trap heat in the atmosphere, which makes the Earth warmer, creating climate change. Lighting, heating and energy for its production activities all generate CO2 emissions. Not to mention that most of the raw materials used by LVMH brands come from nature, be it cotton, leather or ingredients for its perfumes and cosmetics.

When the company launched its internal carbon fund in 2015, its program was based on nine factors to improve environmental performance, including eco-design, responsibly sourcing raw materials and supply chains and environmentally-friendly manufacturing. processes.

The fund launched with all of the luxury group's 70 houses contributing to the fund via calculations of their respective carbon footprints. Each house must contribute 15 Euros per tonne of CO2 emitted. These projects were selected using five criteria: the carbon impact (its share of avoided CO2 emissions compared with the total emissions), the carbon efficiency of the investment (the amount invested to prevent the emission of one tonne of CO2), the trigger effect (pilot project), performance (strong commitment to the project) and innovation.

The aim is to reduce its green house gas emissions by 25 percent by 2020, and this year the fund has increased to six million euros, of which the projects in the fund will focus on reducing energy consumption.

Photo credit: LVMH internal carbon fund film, Louis Vuitton campaign