40 British luxury brands sign Walpole Sustainability manifesto

British luxury lobby group Walpole said 40 members have become signatories to its Sustainability Manifesto.

Earlier this year, Walpole launched the British Luxury Sustainability Manifesto – a commitment to helping the British luxury sector become the global leader in sustainability with a focus on four key pillars.

The pillars include tackling plastic packaging and circularity initiatives to extend product life and waste reduction to safeguard the environment, addressing carbon emissions, renewable energy usage, water consumptions and discharge of chemicals.

It also aims to guide partners and suppliers towards sustainable practices and advocate equal and respectful working conditions. This means supply chain collaboration to focus on responsible sourcing and supply chain traceability and compliance with human rights and labour laws, diversity and gender pay gap.

Founding signatories to the manifesto include Harrods, Burberry, Dunhill, Johnstons of Elgin and Mulberry, but a total of 40 brands have now pledged their support to make British luxury a global leader in sustainability.

Luxury is a fast growing sector to the economy

According to Walpole, luxury is one of the fastest growing and most successful industries in the UK. British luxury is worth 48 billion pounds to the UK economy, it is growing at a rate of 9.6 percent annually and it employs 156,000 people across the country in long-term, sustainable jobs.

The manifesto says “as we enter a new decade, environmental and social sustainability is becoming non-negotiable for luxury brands, with consumers, employees, investors, regulators, media and pressure groups demanding change.”

“Many British luxury businesses have been trading for centuries, with new brands established every year. Therefore, UK luxury has both the opportunity and responsibility to play a key leadership role in the shift towards a more sustainable future for all.“

Image Burberry campaign via Walpole