Sustainable luxury
From New York Times, a good article on how luxury brands are embracing responsible business practices.
“Increasingly, consumers are demanding that the goods they buy be made in ways that do not harm the environment or the workers who make them. They are often willing to pay more for “green” products or “fair trade” goods. And in the current economic downturn, luxury brands are searching for new reasons to persuade consumers to pay for their high-priced products.”
It makes sense for luxury brands to take a strong stand in this area. “Slow fashion,” like the slow food movement, emphasizes the amount of labor it takes to create a product and support for those small suppliers who provide quality inputs. In the case of Ermenegildo Zegna Group, that translates into improving the water supply for farmers in Mongolia, which not only raised the living conditions of farmers but has also created a more reliable, higher quality cashmere wool.
Let’s hope this trend-setting category continues to build the momentum in sustainable business practices.
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John Wilpers, Global Blog Coordinator, GlobalPost.com
April 9th, 2009 at 11:19 am
Dear Jennifer,
First of all, I have to tell you that you have a terrific blog! And I love your mission as you outline in your “About” section: Too few businesses want to “profitably align their brand and business strategies with social & environmental impact.” We’d like to see your great work get more exposure here in the United States.
My name is John Wilpers. I am the Global Blog Coordinator for GlobalPost, a new international news organization that launched on Jan. 12. We were featured in the New York Times last month. We have also been featured in the Wall Street Journal, National Public Radio, MSNBC, MediaShift on PBS, the Columbia Journalism Review, the Online Journalism Review, and many more.
My job is to build a list of blogs that will appear on GlobalPost where we have approximately 65 correspondents in some 46 countries plus high-profile correspondents writing about major themes (Commerce, Diplomacy, the E.U., Environment/Green, Health, NGOs, Sports, Technology, Wheels).
We are looking for enlightening, informative posts from bloggers writing (in English) about those themes. After reviewing thousands of blogs worldwide, we believe that your “Fruitful Strategy” blog is one of the best. It is provocative, informative, and a must-read for our audience.
So, I would like to extend an invitation to you to have the most recent post of “Fruitful Strategy” included on the Commerce page of GlobalPost.com as part of our “Global Blogs” service.
Denise Lee Yohn
April 12th, 2009 at 10:14 am
call me cynical but i wonder how many of these luxury brands are engaging in responsible business practices because they want to vs. how many are doing so because they have to — that is, they have to give their customers a “justification” for buying their pricey products — now that conspicuous consumption is out of fashion, i suspect that social responsibility provides big spenders a way to justify their purchases to themselves (to relieve their guilty conscience) and/or to others (to have a ready defense if necessary)???