Kering Unveils Water-Positive Strategy for Sustainability

In a historic step for the international luxury fashion sector, Kering announced its first-ever Water-Positive Strategy, an ambitious commitment to becoming a Net Water-Positive company along its entire value chain by 2050. This strategic evolution puts water stewardship at the core of company sustainability and highlights the group's determination to regenerate water sources instead of simply limiting consumption.

Behind this program is a vision for real change. Kering intends to make quantifiable improvements in the quality, quantity, and access of water in 10 at-risk river basins by 2035. These river basins, strongly connected with the group's global supply chain, were chosen using a science-based analysis linked to Kering's freshwater objectives. By this targeted, data-driven strategy, the group hopes to aid the recovery of freshwater ecosystems and increase resilience in regions severely impacted by water stress.

Marie-Claire Daveu, Kering's Chief Sustainability and Institutional Affairs Officer, highlighted the urgency and transformational purpose of this effort. "The necessity for responsible corporate water stewardship to remain within planetary limits has never been greater," she said. "It is imperative that water commitments move beyond a reductions-only strategy to become water-positive, replenishing and restoring water and ecosystems related to all business operations."

The approach marks a drastic paradigm shift across the luxury industry—beyond modest environmental compliance and resource rationalization. Rather, Kering adopts a regenerative paradigm, one in which water ambitions are synchronized with the company's overall green ambitions. This comprehensive framework—a framework aptly termed the Climate-Nature-Water nexus—acknowledges the interconnecting relationships among water, climate change, and nature. By grappling with these systemic interdependencies, Kering aims to address the environmental crisis in an holistic and effective way.

In order to make its water-positive vision a reality, Kering has launched three significant strategic programs. The first is water-positive raw materials, with a priority on sourcing low-impact, recycled, and regenerative inputs that minimize water pollution and facilitate ecosystem restoration. The second program, the Water-Positive Stewardship Program, seeks to roll out best practices throughout the group's supply chain—especially in the areas of low-impact tanning and the use of cutting-edge water-saving technologies.

Perhaps the most transformative component of the strategy is the creation of Water Resilience Labs. These labs will be established in each of the 10 priority basins, beginning with the Arno Basin in Tuscany, Italy—a key region for leather processing and a critical site shared by multiple luxury fashion houses. Scheduled for opening in fall 2025, the Tuscany laboratory will be a co-innovation platform where local communities, public authorities, indigenous peoples, NGOs, and other stakeholders can get together to revive freshwater ecosystems and develop solutions jointly.

Kering imagines these labs not only as technology hubs, but as transformational platforms. Through the involvement of multiple stakeholders and working "from land to sea," the company seeks to provide results that are socially just, environmentally regenerative, and economically robust. This landscape-driven, inclusive model reflects Kering's assertion that sustainable water solutions must be locally derived and yet internationally informed.

As per Daveu, "Our approach is to be transformational. We will work together with local partners to achieve quantifiable water-positive impacts to increase social, environmental, and economic resilience and ultimately to contribute to the enrichment of the supply of clean water for everyone."

This new action by Kering not only solidifies its environmental leadership in luxury fashion but also raises the bar for company water stewardship. By integrating water regeneration into its business model, Kering is rewriting the definition of sustainable—showing that real environmental responsibility extends beyond mitigation to proactively restoring and renewing natural systems that all businesses and communities rely on.

With the Water-Positive Strategy, Kering not only tackles a vital planetary boundary but also sends a strong message to the fashion world and beyond: sustainability is no longer about minimizing harm—it's about maximizing good.