Founded in 1856, Burberry is a venerable British brand known for its trench coats, cashmere scarves & iconic check. Creativity has fuelled Burberry throughout the brand’s 166-year history as they are guided by the core belief that creativity opens spaces. Their purpose informs the choices they make as a company and shapes their long-term goals.
Burberry Beyond
Throughout its history, Burberry has been inspired by nature and the outdoors, enabling explorers and innovators to open new spaces and unlock endless possibilities. Their ambition, driven by their purpose and values, is to do well by doing right. Through creating luxury products made to last, tackling the climate crisis and empowering their people and communities around the world, they can work together to secure a better future for their industry, the planet and generations to come.
Their responsibility strategy, Burberry Beyond, encompasses everything they do across their Company, supply chain and communities to create a better world for the next generation. They have set ambitions across four priorities–Product, Planet, People, and Communities– supported by 12 targets against which they track progress to create lasting change.
Sustainability Initiative: The Old & the New
Burberry is partnering with leading global resale platform Vestiaire Collective, to offer customers a new way to trade in their pre-loved Burberry pieces, so they can be enjoyed for longer. Customers in the UK and US can trade in their women’s outerwear and handbags on the Burberry x Vestiaire Collective platform, in exchange for a Burberry gift card. Vestiaire Collective will then oƦ er customers a price for their pre-loved item. Once the price has been accepted by the customer, the item will need to be shipped to Vestiaire Collective, where a rigorous authentication and quality control process will take place. All Burberry pieces will be available to purchase globally, giving customers around the world access to more items. Through its Resale as a service programme, Vestiaire Collective accompanies luxury brands as they embrace circularity, and continuously helps shape a more responsible and circular fashion industry.
Product
Burberry is committed to responsible craftsmanship and they have set ambitious targets covering raw materials, circular business models and eliminating plastic in packaging to meet their sustainability goals. Their targets include:
- Sourcing Certified Key Raw Materials: Their collections increasingly feature products made with certified key raw materials. Through the use of these materials and engagement with suppliers, they also stimulate wider demand across their industry for materials that are less impactful on the environment. 100% of key raw materials in Burberry’s products are to be certiƩ ed and traceable by FY 29/30.
- Embedding Circular Business Models: The enduring quality of Burberry’s products means their appeal and value are long-lasting. To increase their longevity for customers, they provide a dedicated luxury aftercare service. They are also trialling new circular business models, including rental, which will help inform their approach.
- Eliminating Plastic Packaging: All Burberry’s retail bags and gift boxes which have a beautiful, luxurious feel, are plastic-free, fully recyclable and reusable. Additionally, they have set a target to eliminate plastic from their consumer packaging by FY 25/26 to eliminate unnecessary plastics used in transit packaging and maximise recycled content (with at least 50% of plastic to be made from fully recycled content) by 2030.
Other Ongoing Initiatives and Policies
- Aftercare: Burberry offers a global luxury aftercare service to extend the life of their trench, leather and cashmere products for as long as possible.
- Animal Welfare: The brand has banned the use of fur and exotic skins in all of their collections, as well as specific materials requirements as per their Responsible Sourcing Policy.
- Revalue Waste: Burberry follows clearly defined waste hierarchy principles for waste arising in the business. These cover reuse, resell, repurpose, donation and recycling. They also focus on limiting the causes of waste across design, supply chain and merchandising.
Eliminating Waste:
- Burberry is launching a UK-based pilot for product rental with My Wardrobe HQ (MWHQ), the UK’s leading fashion rental platform. They have also begun a trial with Cocoon, a luxury bag subscription service in the UK. These pilots will help inform their circular business model strategy going forward.
- In FY20/21, Burberry launched the ReBurberry Fabric programme in partnership with The British Fashion Council. The initiative enables them to donate leftover fabrics to fashion students and encourages the next generation to consider new ways of thinking about material sourcing. The total amount of fabric donated in FY 2022/23 totalled more than 220,000 metres and was distributed equally to 32 universities. This programme encourages the next generation to consider new ways of thinking about their creative methods and material sourcing and gives them the opportunity to develop tomorrow’s approach to fashion design and production.
Leather
Even when product patterns are carefully planned to maximise the use of a leather hide, the process inevitably creates small offcuts. Leather is a challenging material for their industry to recycle, so they’re actively engaging with their supply chain partners to repurpose leather waste through innovative partnerships. They are a member of the Leather Working Group, a multi-stakeholder organisation that aims to improve the tanning industry by creating alignment on environmental priorities, highlighting best practices and providing guidelines for continual improvement. They also encourage their tanneries to be audited by the Leather Working Group and to monitor their water, energy and chemical consumption.
Repurposing and Recycling Leather
Burberry has partnered with Alta Scuola di Pelletteria Italiana, a leather school based in Scandicci, Florence, and San Patrignano, an organisation supporting marginalised young people in the area, where their Burberry Manifattura site is located. The school has trained San Patrignano residents in leather goods disassembly and repurposing using excess Burberry materials to create different products.
They have also funded a two-year research project with The Hong Kong Research Institute of Textiles & Apparel (HKRITA) to develop a system for leather goods recycling.
Planet
Burberry is committed to becoming climate-positive by 2040. To demonstrate this, they have set science-based targets to reduce absolute carbon emissions across their own operations and value chain. Their targets have been validated by the Science-Based Targets initiative (SBTi) and are in line with a 1.5°C degrees pathway set out in the Paris Agreement and the SBTi’s Net-Zero Standard. Their targets in this area include:
Reducing Scope 1,2 and 3 emissions:
- Across their own operations, Burberry aims for 95% reduction in scope 1 and 2 carbon emissions by FY22/23 (from FY16/17) and maintains this year-on-year through to FY39/40.
- Across their extended value chain, they aim for a 46% reduction in scope 3 carbon emissions by FY29/30 (from FY18/19)1 and a 90% reduction in scope 3 carbon emissions by FY39/40 (from FY18/19)
- Become climate-positive by FY39/40 by neutralising residual emissions through a carbon removal project
Embedding sustainable manufacturing processes across the supply chain:
Burberry continues to extend its sustainable manufacturing initiatives–covering energy, water and waste– both within its own manufacturing and across its supply chain
Protecting nature:
Burberry is committed to protecting nature through materials certifications, responsible sourcing, collaborating with experts to review their strategies and investing in high-quality emissions reductions to support mitigating deforestation globally. They contribute to the sustainable management of natural forests and support zero deforestation across their products and supply chain by 2025.
Ongoing Initiatives and Policies
- Reducing Scope 1, 2 and 3 emissions
Burberry reduced absolute greenhouse gas emissions from their own operations (scope 1 and 2 emissions) by 93% from their FY 16/17 baseline, achieving a 9% year-on-year improvement versus FY 21/22. They planned to undertake several energy audits in FY 23/24 to identify the energy efficiency opportunities required to meet and maintain their 95% reduction target through to FY 39/40.
They also decreased their scope 3 emissions by 11% from FY 21/22, and by 40% since their FY 18/19 base year. Within their supply chain, they are working closely with their manufacturing partners to promote energy efficiency and the use of renewable energy. In FY 22/23 they also rolled out training on climate action to their EMEIA Ʃ nished goods vendors. This training is designed to increase supplier understanding of the business case for climate action and teach them how to accurately calculate emissions, set emission reduction targets, and identify opportunities for cutting emissions.
- 100% Renewable Energy Across Sites
Burberry is a passionate advocate of renewable energy use and in FY 22/23 they maintained their use of 100% renewable electricity in their own operations. They now have solar panels installed at their headquarters in London and their distribution sites in Italy and the US.
They are an active member of RE100, a global initiative committed to 100% renewable electricity. As a signatory to RE100, they promote the use of renewables in their supply chain and have created a bespoke renewable energy guide for their Italian suppliers.
- Water Conservation Across Supply Chain
Their Water Conservation programme’s mission is to preserve water for the future by delivering water-responsible luxury fashion. They have developed a water resilience assessment allowing them to evaluate and monitor the progress of their supply chain water resilience profile. They work closely with sites identified as hotspots, where water management levels are disproportionate to their water intensity and risk, to co-develop strategies to improve water resilience. They aim to have zero hotspots by 2030.
- Implementing Sustainable Chemical Management
Their mission is to ensure the safety of the people, the planet and the products they create by implementing best practices for sustainable chemical management across their value chain. Burberry prohibits the use of unwanted chemicals in their value chain, as set out in its Manufacturing Restricted Substances List (MRSL) and Product Restricted Substances List (PRSL). They also implement the ZDHC Supplier to Zero (S2Z) programme across their value chain.
- Approach to Waste
Burberry seeks to minimise waste across its supply chain and to send zero waste to landfills across its key operations, abiding by clear waste hierarchy principles. These comprise reuse, resell, repurpose, donate and recycle. They also focus on limiting the causes of waste across design, supply chain and merchandising.
They continue to support creative communities and promote a circular economy by donating to schools through the British Fashion Council and have funded a two-year research project with the Hong Kong Research Institute of Textiles & Apparel to develop leather recycling processes.
- Partnering to Protect Nature
Burberry aims to protect, restore and regenerate nature across its value chain and are member of the Taskforce on Nature-related Financial Disclosures (TNFD) Forum to share learnings with others on how to improve disclosure on biodiversity risks. Prior to the UN Biodiversity Conference in Montreal in December 2022 (COP15), Burberry signed the COP15 Business Statement calling for mandatory assessment and disclosure of impacts and dependencies on nature.
They carried out a biodiversity impact assessment in FY 21/22 with The Biodiversity Consultancy. This identifies that their most significant biodiversity impacts are in their raw materials supply chain, particularly farming practices associated with natural fibres, including wool, cashmere and cotton. The sourcing of leather and wood-derived packaging also poses risks of deforestation.
They are working to address the biodiversity impacts identified in their impact assessment by sourcing raw materials that are certified to sustainability standards. For example, certified organic cotton helps to improve soil health and reduce the use of harmful chemicals.
