Moncler close to carbon neutral goal

Italian luxury brand Moncler is within months of becoming carbon neutral across all its own sites, including production facilities, logistics centres, offices and shops, the company has announced.

As part of a wide-ranging new sustainability plan, Moncler says it will be 100 per cent carbon neutral at its own sites in 2021. The carbon neutral goal is being achieved through a combination of efficiency programmes, renewable energy and CO2 offsetting projects.

The company’s Moncler “Born to Protect” Sustainability Plan sets targets for the next five years — the first time the brand has outlined specific goals since the creation of a sustainability unit in 2015.

The Moncler Plan is based on five “pillars”. They include acting on climate change, thinking circular, and tracing and sourcing responsibly. The company also pledges to boost diversity through a diversity and inclusion council and to support local communities.

“At Moncler, we will embrace these challenges with humility and with ambition, searching and improving, in the knowledge that even small steps can lead to great results,” said Remo Ruffini, chairman and CEO of Moncler.

Other key commitments include: using 50 per cent sustainable nylon (both recycled certified nylon, according to the Global Recycled Standard, and bio-based certified nylon) by 2025; and recycling more than 80 per cent of nylon fabric scraps by 2023. The brand is also aiming to trace 100 per cent of “key raw materials” by 2023.

“The world is facing ever more urgent social and environmental challenges. The pandemic is a reminder that we can, we must, always go beyond what we have already achieved if we are to make our future better,” Ruffini added.

Campaigners praised the Moncler initiative but questioned some of the detail. Kate Larsen, founder of social enterprise advisory SupplyEsChange, highlighted the lack of mention of two key issues affecting climate change: water and the transport of people and goods. According to the brand’s website, Moncler conducted seven audits on wastewater from tanning processes in 2019, but the company doesn’t clarify its future targets. Vogue Businessunderstands the company is working on the details of a more specific action plan.

As for transport, in 2019 the company launched an emissions monitoring system for the transport of raw materials from its Italian logistics hub in Castel San Giovanni to façon manufacturers in Europe and started monitoring the transport of finished products from the logistics hub on a worldwide scale. The target for 2020 mentions a “study of logistics solutions with a lower environmental impact” and the adoption of 65 per cent of low environmental impact vehicles in the company car fleet.

The company already annually reports on emissions generated by employees’ business travel in its non-financial statement and has joined the Science Based Targets initiative to set targets on direct and indirect emissions.

“As with all brands, the challenge with making commitments such as these is in execution — for example identifying scalable solutions for aspects of the strategy, like traceability,” says Leslie Harwell, managing partner at Alante Capital, a venture capital fund focusing on sustainable apparel production and retail.

Internally, Moncler has set up three-month and six-month milestones depending on the goal, as well as groups dedicated to the achievement of the goals and to budget allocation. Every year, Moncler will also update the public on its progress through non-financial statements and its website.