Sustainable Luxury

This ensemble is an outgrowth of an issue of the academic quarterly `The Journal of Corporate Citizenship. The book contains 11 papers (pruned from 20 submissions). They examine whether and how buyers and sellers of luxury goods and services address sustainability. The works extend the discussion of sustainability into the comparatively unexplored realm confidently and credibly. Each paper is plush with insights, finely written, and scrupulously documented. The authors examine both negative and positive aspects of the luxury industry. On one hand, luxury is seen as feeding itself on scarce resources, continuously triggering or stirring up conflicts, and being opaque about the supply chain. On the other hand, sustainable luxury is often viewed as the concept of returning to the essence of luxury with its traditional focus on thoughtful purchasing and artisanal manufacturing, to the beauty of quality materials and to respect for social and environmental issues. Among several bottom-line conclusions, this one stands out: sustainable development is certainly not a salient purchasing criterion for most luxury buyers, but it can become a rejection factor if specific negative information are released about the brands. Other research in the book shows that sustainable development (SD) is certainly a desirable concept, but there is, as yet, no overwhelming demand for it. The situation, however, has many facets, like a polished diamond: It is luxurious to drive without petrol and, in California, to drive a Tesla car instead of a Ferrari . The risks of brand damage for breaching sustainable development standards are huge for luxury products. Jean-Nol Kapferer, advisor to the president of the French business school Groupe Inseec, and Anne Michaut-Denizeau of HEC Paris, an academic institute for management sciences, drive the point home. Based on attitude surveys they conducted, they say: One main source of the potential negative reactions of luxury consumers is their false assumption that, because of their high prices, luxury brands must have taken care of SD already. If consumers learn this is not the case, it would backfire. The editors are themselves at the top of the runway. Miguel Angel Gardetti is a textile engineer working with fashion companies. He founded the Center for Studies on Sustainable Luxury in Argentina, which he directs. He is also the head of the Center for Study of Corporate Sustainability in Buenos Aires. His co-editor Ana Laura Torres works at the center in the capital city. She collaborated in the creation of the Sustainable Textile Center there. The two researchers edited `Sustainability in Fashion and Textiles, which Greenleaf published in March 2013. They assemble an intriguing collection. The papers originate from around the world: a description of ethical source initiatives in Sweden and Finland; the identification of challenges, concerns, and aspirations of garment designers and manufacturers in the San Francisco Bay area; comparisons of luxury consumers in Portugal and Brazil; and case studies of species used in the luxury industry, such as the Tibetan antelope and vicua, and crocodiles and pythons, which are regulated under the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora. One paper examines how luxury companies manage diversity (gender, age, ethnicity, nationalities, disabilities and sexual orientation) within their organizations culture. The group subject to the review encompasses 17 firms, including Louis Vuitton Mot Hennessy, Tiffany & Co., Hugo Boss, and Prada. At the conclusion of his contribution about using luxury branding as a catalyst for social change, Gjoko Muratovski, head of the communication design department at Auckland University, makes a salient remark. Based on the success of luxury brands, he says, [I]t can be argued that sustainable behavior can be promoted as a desired

MIGUEL ANGEL GARDETTI is founder of the Center for Studies on Sustainable Luxury, Argentina. ANA LAURA TORRES collaborated in the development of the Sustainable Textile Center, Argentina.

Foreword Mara Eugenia Girn Introduction Miguel Angel Gardetti, and Ana Laura Torres Part 1 1. Is Sustainable Luxury Fashion Possible? Frdric Godart and Sorah Seong 2. Fake Remake: The role of the luxury fashion market in driving sustainable fashion practices Angela Finn and Kim Fraser 3. Luxury marketing strategies related to ethical sourcing Cecilia Mark-Herbert and Catarina Holmsten-Carrizo Part 2 4. Redefining Luxury in the 21st Century - Where Was Yours Made? A Case Study of Made in San Francisco Connie Ulasewicz 5. Sustainable consumption: Luxury branding as a catalyst for social change Gjoko Muratovski 6. Luxury vs. Conscious consumption: Are they really paradoxical? A study of Brazilian and Portuguese luxury consumer behaviour Ana Carolina De Pierro Bruno and Edgard Barki 7. Are luxury purchasers really insensitive to Sustainable Development? New insights from research Jean-Nol Kapferer and Anne Michaut-Denizeau Part 3 8. Luxury Lodges in New Zealand and prospects for elegant disruption Martin Perry 9. Diversity of human capital as a driver for corporate responsibility engagement: The case of the luxury industry Catarina Pessanha Gomes and Masaru Yarime 10. The wild side of luxury: Can nature continue to sustain the luxury industry? Xenya Cherny-Scanlon About the editors