Burberry names new corporate responsibility VP

By

Sandra Halliday

Published
Jul 4, 2022

As doing the right thing becomes ever more important to companies in the fashion sector, luxury giant Burberry has named a new vice-president for corporate responsibility with Caroline Laurie joining the company from DIY specialist Kingfisher.

Her role will take in Burberry’s approach to sustainability, including incentives, targets and KPIs.

She had a similar remit at the owner of the B&Q and Castorama brands as director of responsible business and sustainability for the past eight years, although she actually joined the company as far back as 2005, starting as a buyer.

Before that she spent nine years at UK supermarket giant Asda.

Burberry has embraced a more sustainable future in the past decade, although it hasn't always got it right with the company having been stung by criticism of its policies when it was found in 2018 to have been burning millions of pounds worth of unworn clothes and unused beauty products. It vowed it wouldn’t do this again and at the same time announced that it would stop using real fur.

Since then, the news has been all positive coming out of the company as far as its sustainability drive is concerned

And it will complete its first five-year corporate responsibility plan this year. That includes having cut its market-based emissions by 92% since 2016. 

The company is targeting net zero and being climate positive by 2040 and as part of this is aiming to cut its Scope 3 emissions by 46% by the end of this decade. It was actually the first luxury brand to commit to that climate positive 2040 goal.