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It’s been quite a year for the British fashion designer Stella McCartney. First, she designed Meghan Markle’s wedding reception dress, and now she’s getting featured in Innovation of the Day for her innovative eco-friendly flagship store in London! We’ll let you decide which is the higher honour. 😉

Opening this month, Stella McCartney’s Bond Street store features an air filtration system, developed by Airlabs, which removes 95% of all airborne pollutants and traffic fumes. As well as this high-tech system, the store also includes wall decorations made from office waste paper, biodegradable mannequins and a moss-covered rock garden. It claims to offer ‘the cleanest air in London’, and the label hopes to raise awareness of the issues of air pollution in urban areas.

While Gucci made headlines banning fur in 2017, Stella McCartney has been committed to sustainability since the start of her career, eschewing leather and fur for two decades. But while McCartney has a deep-rooted commitment to sustainable practices, she also understands a powerful truth about consumers: we might celebrate the store’s wellness-boosting eco-credentials here, but consumers increasingly just expect brands to deliver a seamlessly guilt-free experience, even if they don’t actively seek it out. Indeed the designer told Vogue, “I don't want people to come and think, ‘Oh my god, this is an eco-store!’ It shouldn’t be noticed, because it should be a way of life!”

What would it take for your organization to be the Stella McCartney of your industry? Is your brand forward-thinking enough to tackle issues years before your competitors even notice them?

PS. For anyone thinking, ‘this would be a great idea for retailers in Asia’, we couldn’t agree more! Check out Zero-Waste Shopping and four other trends in The Future of Retail in Asia.

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