The South China Morning post recently wrote a story “Where Burberry waste goes now British fashion brand isn’t burning clothes any more,” that got us thinking about large brands and positive spins on waste as a new harvest of sorts.
In July, Fortune wrote a different story about Burberry allegedly burning that same waste (more than $37.6 million of it) to stop counterfeiters from copying their styles. According to The Times, more than £90 million in Burberry products have been destroyed in the past five years. With the amount of natural resources and human bandwidth required to create all those things, it’s very limited in scope and respect for people and planet.
Burberry obviously caught on as SCMP writes that “Burberry declared on September 6th that it would no longer be destroying unused goods, effective immediately.” Investors and environmental groups furious after the news, pushed Burberry to change its tune. In fact, Burberry’s environmental commitment is now part of a five-year “responsibility agenda” that also includes a promise to no longer use real fur in its collections and phase out collections that already include real fur.
Marco Gobbetti, Burberry’s CEO says “Modern luxury means being socially and environmentally responsible. This belief is core to us at Burberry and key to our long-term success. We are committed to applying the same creativity to all parts of Burberry as we do to our products.”
Read the full article here.