This year, Prada joined the G7 Fashion Pact and started using recycled nylon from old fishing nets, plus it’s now the first luxury company to sign a green loan – Vogue speaks to chairman and exec director, Carlo Mazzi, about upping its eco-credentials and why he feels a sustainability ranking for companies isn’t the solution.
Like most major fashion brands, Prada has stepped up its sustainability game this year. In June 2019, the Italian fashion house announced the launch of its Re-Nylon range, together with a commitment to use only recycled nylon by the end of 2021. Then at the G7 summit in August, it became one of 32 brands to sign the Fashion Pact, a promise to meet three key sustainability goals: eliminate greenhouse gas emissions by 2050; reduce single-use plastics by 2030 and support innovation to destroy micro-fibre pollution. And in early November, the brand became the first luxury company to sign a sustainability-linked loan, which means it will lose out financially if it doesn’t deliver on its green targets.
“We are very focused on sustainability,” Carlo Mazzi, Prada’s chairman and executive director, tells Vogue. “We know that we have to invest; it’s clear that we have to make efforts. We are continuing to [look at] saving energy, saving raw materials. But these initiatives are not enough. These [are the] kinds of initiatives we started five, six, seven years ago.” In recent years, Prada has also invested in an energy efficiency plan, as well as unveiling three new garden factories in Italy designed by Guido Canali, highlighting the importance of nature.
So what’s behind this increased focus on gaining greener credentials? “Today, we must contribute to changing the culture of people. The large majority of the younger generation are in favour of sustainability. Very soon all of the population will share this value,” Mazzi explains. “If we want to continue to be a creative and innovative company, we need to understand our customers [and] what could be next; what they consider [to be] important in their lives.”
In fact, the Prada chairman describes the need for a wider cultural shift in order to fully address the issues around sustainability and climate change. “At the moment, we are at the start but not at the end of this path,” he says, pointing to Donald Trump’s decision to pull out of the Paris Agreement. “In the US, for instance, the government is planning to write off its participation in the Paris programme. This is because the majority of American people do not agree [with the need to tackle the climate crisis]. As soon as the majority share these [values], every politician will change their position.”
The brand has committed to reaching net-zero emissions by 2050 as part of the aforementioned Fashion Pact – a target that Gucci’s owner Kering is already working on via a programme of reduction and carbon offsetting. Does Prada feel pressure to keep up? “We have to understand that [each company] is as important as the other, in my opinion,” he says, arguing that introducing a system whereby companies are ranked on the scope of their sustainability programmes isn’t the answer, but that each brand should be responsible for delivering powerful change in its own right. “The movement of a butterfly’s wings in Amazonia can change the destiny of the world, as a famous scientist said.”
– Courtesy Vogue
