DURABLE ELEGANCE

“These times have undoubtedly shaken up many of our certainties and shaken many truths we took for granted. All over the world, it was the occasion for a profound questioning of our consumption patterns, our ways of working, our relationship with time, and our relationship with others.

Thierry Guibert, CEO Lacoste

Over the last century, the fashion industry has evolved following the traditional cycle of two collections per year. Since the early 2000s, new players have appeared offering a whole new way of conceiving and consuming fashion, with an increased rate of new collections, to the point of offering several dozen per year.

This constantly renewed offering, driven by fast-paced production times, low prices and manufacturing costs, and low quality products that quickly become obsolete, has fuelled a growing demand: today 100 billion items are produced each year – that’s almost twice as many as twenty years ago.

Most importantly, this over-consumption of textile products has had both social and environmental impacts that can be clearly identified today. Increased pressure on production costs has accelerated the breakdown of supply chains and the relocation of production to developing countries, leading to increasingly unstable and sometimes even unacceptable working conditions.

 Our planet is also affected by this over-consumption. Upstream, producing ever more textile fibres requires the use of increasingly intensive agriculture and a major shift to synthetic fibres made from fossil resources. The uncontrolled use of chemicals for dyeing fabrics also has a negative impact on the natural environment and local ecosystems. Downstream, synthetic fabrics release increasing amounts of microfibres during each wash cycle that typically end up in our oceans. At the end of the chain, the vast majority of these clothes, which are worn for shorter and shorter periods of time, end up in landfill sites or are incinerated, even though a significant amount could be recycled or reused.

Lacoste has always been guided by the legacy of our founder. Almost 90 years ago, René Lacoste designed stylish and timeless clothes that provide the greatest freedom of movement. He made the quality of his products a source of desire for his customers, thus establishing a lasting connection to his brand.

Altruistic, as well as being committed to reducing inequalities and preserving environnement, he and his wife Simone Thion de La Chaume have always focused on sharing expertise and preserving natural ecosystems. During the Second World War, for example, René Lacoste entrusted young workers with the planting of 40,000 trees for the family golf course at Chantaco. He combined environmental and social action by preventing these men from being sent to Germany to do forced labour for the ‘STO’ (Compulsory Work Service). Later, the couple allowed caddies to train on the same golf course, helping to produce a whole generation of young champions. Lacoste couple continued to seek and reveal the potential of youth, to encourage their inclusion and growth.

This story has shaped the development and success of the Lacoste company over the past decades. Today, faithful to this legacy, Lacoste has devoted time to analyse the developments of the industry and our own ecosystem with the desire to reinforce future development around the founding principles of our creator.

Therefore, our teams have prepared a global review in conjunction with stakeholders via a materiality analysis. We have conducted an environmental review of all our activities around the world. We did not avoid any questions about the company’s social, corporate and environmental responsibility. Through this comprehensive insight, we were able to identify and prioritise our impacts, and define the main social expectations related to our activities. We were able to identify the strengths upon which we can build our future development, as well as our areas of improvement for the coming years.

At Lacoste, we are proud that we have never compromised on our demand for quality. We have maintained an offering centred around a range of timeless products designed to last. We have maintained a rhythm of two collections per year. We modernise our historical industrial facility in Troyes, France, to preserve, transfer and develop our expertise.

However, over the last twenty years, structural changes in the industry have also forced us to adapt. Like most other companies, Lacoste has extended its industrial and commercial network around the world by relying on a network of partners who share our ethical values and quality requirements. Nevertheless, the fragmentation of our supply chains has also exposed us to the risks of more complex traceability and less direct control over the social and environmental practices of our production ecosystem. We are also aware that the practices which underpin a linear economic model can no longer be sustained with the fragile natural balance of our planet.

We have emerged strengthened by this work and with a strong conviction. Our long-term growth is inseparable from an economic model that demands less from the planet and offers more to people. This is why Lacoste is now committed to a process of transformation by making its sustainable development strategy the primary example of their purpose:

Elevating elegance to a value that transcends differences

For People and Communities

At Lacoste, we believe that through diversity the collective becomes stronger. This is why Lacoste wants to take action to make our society more inclusive, to promote equal opportunities and to allow women and men to flourish by overcoming the barriers linked to their social background or disability.
We also wants to include the local communities involved in its supply chain, so that they can benefit from the positive effects of the business and their living conditions can be sustainably improved.

For Planet

Lacoste has always designed products to last. Faced with the current linear economic model, Lacoste wants to prove that the circular economy is the way forward for our industry. By embracing and implementing these principles, we and our partners are committed to the Ellen MacArthur Foundation’s Make Fashion Circular initiative to minimising the environmental impact of our operations, but also to extend the life of our products and manage the end of life of textile materials.

In a world that too often tends to focus on what divides us, we want to put elegance back at the heart of the game. For Lacoste, elegance goes far beyond chic clothing and external appearance. Faced with the challenges of our time, we believe that elegance is a value to be placed at the heart of the game. Elegance is above all a respectful relationship with the rules, an honesty towards oneself and towards others. It is both a way of being and making society. Fair play has always been part of our company’s DNA. We acknowledge our mistakes with humility and welcome criticism as an opportunities to improve. More than ever, we believe that this demand for exemplary behaviour can bring people together across social and cultural divides. Elegance can then become a transformative force, capable of freeing movement and energies to form fairer and more sustainable societies.

Our approach to sustainable development integrates the many actions that have already been implemented, in some cases for decades. The company is now taking a decisive step forward and is putting its long-term action into a new initiative.

Co-constructed with all the players in our ecosystem, our approach is now structured along three pillars so that Sustainable Elegance benefits as many people as possible:
People, by elevating vulnerable people toward their full potential;
Communities, by elevating our supply chain toward sustainable growth;
Planet, by elevating our products toward environmental excellence