Two weeks ago Gucci’s CEO, Marco Bizzarri, launched the CEO Carbon Neutral Challenge: an initiative that calls on leaders across the fashion industry to commit to a carbon neutral future. When a company joins the initiative it must complete a full audit of its greenhouse gas emissions within one year, and commit to six principles that will lead to the reduction of its carbon footprint. Member companies will be listed on the Gucci website, and will hold themselves accountable for hitting their targets. Earlier this year Kering, the French luxury goods group of which Gucci is a part, announced that all its brands – which also include Saint Laurent and Balenciaga – would begin work towards carbon neutrality.
A step in the right direction, for sure. This initiative is a powerful signal of a key trend for 2020:
GREEN PRESSURE. We’ve been tracking the search for a more sustainable consumerism since, oh, forever. The thread that’s run through much of it? Eco-consumption as a status play. Now, though, that search is reaching a crucial tipping point. Rising awareness of a climate emergency, combined with the mainstreaming of affordable and high-quality eco-alternatives, means that eco-consumption is becoming less about the status of opting in, and more about the shame of failing to do so. In 2020, rising numbers of consumers will be navigating a world of rising GREEN PRESSURE in which they seek to avoid the social shame attached to consumption that damages the planet.
Shame Therapy. Luxury fashion group Kering owns brands that are still, for many, a status play in their own right. But given the fashion industry generates more greenhouse gas emissions than all international flights and maritime shipping trips combined, Kering are right to be concerned that the social shame attached to their products may soon come to outweight the status. Brands in other industries are also making bold moves to reduce the shame attached to their offering: airline KLM recently ran a campaign asking consumers to consider flying less often. Let’s be clear: a systemtic shift in the nature of, and our attitude to, consumption is needed. And in these moves it’s just about possible to glimpse the beginnings of that shift. The key challenge for you in 2020? Consumers won’t expect you to be perfect. But they will expect that you start making the big changes needed. If you don’t, the GREEN PRESSURE attached to engaging with you will become just too much to bear.
READ MORE ABOUT GREEN PRESSURE AND OTHER KEY TRENDS FOR 2020 IN OUR COMPLETE 2020 TREND REPORT!
