Gucci Sets Sights on Positive Climate Impact with Updated Strategy

The Kering-owned luxury brand outlined an ambition to move beyond offsetting any emissions it cannot eliminate to focus on restoring and regenerating natural environments. It is establishing a “Natural Climate Solutions Portfolio” with a goal to protect and restore ecosystems that mitigate climate change.

Under its updated strategy, the company will work to conserve critical forests, restore and protect mangroves, which can store up to ten times more carbon, and invest in efforts to scale up regenerative agriculture initiatives.

“The idea is really to try to find a way where biodiversity means business, because business is the one that should — for us — drive the change going forward, not vice versa,” said Gucci president and chief executive Marco Bizzarri during a panel discussion at this year’s World Economic Forum.

It’s an approach Bizzarri hopes others in the industry will follow, but he acknowledged the pressure the pandemic has placed on sustainability initiatives. “One year ago, I would have told you that the private sector could [very likely] have done [the work] by itself, but after the pandemic and the impact on the supply chain, there are so many companies that are in trouble. Asking them [now] to invest in regenerative agriculture is crazy, so you need to as companies work together with the public.”