ABOUT TIME: Louis Vuitton has been polishing its sustainability credentials for years, although it’s largely kept quiet about its accomplishments. That changed this week when Positive Luxury, the London-based organization that vets and promotes the most sustainable luxury lifestyle businesses, awarded the French brand its Butterfly Mark.
Vuitton can display the interactive trust mark online, with customers able to click and see a full breakdown of the brand’s efforts and achievements as verified by Positive Luxury. The online company, cofounded in 2011 by Diana Verde Nieto, assesses brands across five criteria — governance, social framework, environmental framework, philanthropy and innovation — before handing over the Butterfly Mark.
To earn the butterfly, brands have to make a positive impact on people and the planet and go above and beyond the minimum standards laid out by international law, according to Positive Luxury.
“Great design, sustainability and a great business do go hand in hand,” said Louis Vuitton’s chief executive officer Michael Burke.
Vuitton earned its mark by doing things such as working with the Better Cotton Initiative, striving toward gender equality in the workplace, using environmentally friendly packaging and renewable energy, reducing CO2 emissions and waste, and sourcing ethical down feathers for its products.
Verde Nieto said in an interview Tuesday that Vuitton has done “a phenomenal amount of work over many years” and has invested much money in its quest to adopt environmentally friendly practices. Louis Vuitton is the biggest luxury brand to carry the Butterfly Mark.
Other brands to have won the butterfly include Berluti, Sergio Rossi, Gabriela Hearst, Trinny London, Miller Harris, Garrard, Tag Heuer, Baume and IWC Schaffhausen.