Conversations around sustainability have grown steadily louder over the past two decades, reaching a crescendo at last year’s COP26 meeting, where world leaders delivered impassioned speeches about the climate emergency. And it is an emergency – British Met Office researchers say there is a “50-50 chance” the world will warm by more than 1.5°C over the next five years.
Sustainability is a broader concept than many people realise, encompassing not just the environment but also society and the economy. The pillar that tends to attract the largest media pickup is the environment.
Wildfires in Australia, floods in Germany, rising sea levels in China, unprecedented heatwaves across South Asia – climate change has had a real, painful cost for communities everywhere.
For much of the 20th Century, it was left to governments to tackle climate issues. The smog and polluted rivers across the UK and US in the 50s – a consequence of almost no environmental laws on industry – were eventually reined in by regulation.
Later, NGOs such as Friends of the Earth spearheaded campaigns focused on corporations harming the environment. Corporate social responsibility (CSR) began entering the mainstream in the 80s, but businesses have only recently begun treating it as more than just another cost centre.
In 2022, every industry is focused on sustainability and the luxury sector is no exception. Here are some examples of how companies in the fashion, travel and mobility sectors are getting sustainability right.
Fashion industry
The fashion industry has long been guilty of substantial environmental harm – the production of these goods accounts for 10 percent of the world’s carbon emissions, while 85 percent of all textiles are dumped on an annual basis. The rise of fast fashion – affordable apparel that looks good, is produced cheaply and doesn’t last very long – has exacerbated the problem.
However, on the luxury front, brands are taking some positive steps. While this may be partly attributed to the rise of millennials and gen Z as their key audiences – people who tend to prefer buying into more socially conscious brands – it should nonetheless be celebrated.
Luxury resellers are bringing premium goods into the circular economy. French luxury group LVMH – whose portfolio includes Dior, Givenchy and Louis Vuitton – has launched an online resale platform of deadstock, or leftover fabric.
Your next pair of Prada shoes might contain Econyl, a recycled nylon made from abandoned fishing nets; Alexander McQueen dresses are using another recycled material, polyester; and some Emporio Armani glasses even contain bio-based materials. At Paris Fashion Week in October, Stella McCartney showcased its Frayme Mylo – the world’s first luxury handbag to be produced using mycelium, the root structure of mushrooms.
Here in the region, Saudi ethical fashion brand Abadia uses luxury deadstock to produce traditional Middle Eastern-inspired designs. Abadia’s clothing features ethically-sourced leather and the brand prides itself on providing the artisans making these items – who are mostly women – with a sustainable source of income.
Travel industry
Like fashion, travel was not an industry traditionally related with sustainability. Aviation is said to account for about 2.4 percent of global carbon emissions, and around 5 percent of global warming.
Over-tourism in destinations such as Venice and Bali has had adverse social and environmental effects, while tourism-dependent coastal communities in Thailand, the Maldives and Madagascar are feeling the impact of climate change through rising sea levels.
As the demographic of luxury traveller becomes more climate conscious, developers are offering more sustainable experiences. In the UAE, the Sharjah Investment and Development Authority (Shurooq) showcased three of its recent eco-tourism projects at the recent Arabian Travel Market. Shurooq’s five-star Lux Al Bridi Resort will open next year and is adjacent to the Sharjah Safari project – the region’s largest conservation park, and the biggest wildlife safari outside Africa.
A couple of hours’ flight away in India’s southern state of Kerala, Spice Village in Thekkady offers some impressive sustainability credentials. Its cozy huts are naturally cooled by elephant grass using a traditional tribal technique; 75 percent of energy comes from solar power; and an on-site RO filtering and bottling plant eliminates the need for single-use plastic bottles.
Over in Saudi Arabia, like so many things in the kingdom, the Red Sea Project’s ambitions are impressive. This archipelago of 90 islands – featuring sweeping deserts, landscapes with volcanoes and canyons – aims to set new standards in regenerative tourism, sustainable development and providing opportunities for local communities while providing a leading regional experience of ‘barefoot tourism’.
Mobility sector
For luxury carmakers, there are numerous roads to sustainability. Electrification is an obvious route, but for non-electric vehicles, there are plenty of avenues being undertaken along the journey to a cleaner future.
Lincoln recently unveiled the Star – an electric concept SUV that bridges a futuristic aesthetic, bleeding-edge autonomous driving, experiential technology, and impressive performance.
While the century-old carmaker plans to release four EVs by 2026, it has also been focused on improving fuel economy and lowering CO2 emissions in its latest combustion models.