18 September 2024 - Today, Chanel and the University of Cambridge announce the extension of their partnership for another three years, accelerating decisive action on sustainability transformation.
Since the beginning of the collaboration in 2021, Chanel teams have partnered with experts from across the University, including the Institute for Sustainability Leadership (CISL), the Institute for Manufacturing (IfM) and the Cambridge Judge Business School (CJBS), to deliver on three core impact areas:
Building sustainability skills and knowledge
Through bespoke executive education programmes, nearly 500 leaders and key operational team members across Chanel have been upskilled on different topics, ranging from biodiversity and climate change to efficient usage of materials.
In these immersive programmes at the University, each cohort explored the depth of research, academic rigour and tools available to promote a sustainable mindset and business transformation. All leaders who have participated in these sessions take their learnings back to their wider teams, enabling more sustainable decision-making across the business. This ranges from day-to-day operational improvements to longer-term systemic change and investment.
Implementing innovative solutions
Alongside education programmes, teams from CHANEL Fashion worked with technical experts within IfM to run a series of intensive ‘sprints’, prototyping effective solutions for Chanel and its value chain. These focused on different product categories, as well as exploring circularity and material usage.
As another outcome of this work, Chanel teams developed improvement programmes across manufacturing sites, resulting in significant energy and material use savings year-on-year.
Supporting students on their path to sustainability leadership
Chanel has sponsored students from underrepresented backgrounds to join CISL’s Master’s in Sustainability Leadership programme. These bursaries have helped students unlock new opportunities, networks and address challenges facing the world. Students’ work includes tackling climate change displacement, scaling social enterprises and advocating for collective action. To date, CHANEL has provided the largest support to a CISL Master’s programme by a single company.
Moving forward, the next phase of the partnership will build on these areas, focusing on:
- Strengthening ongoing education programmes for Chanel leaders to develop the knowledge, mindset and capabilities for a sustainable business transition
- Continuing to explore and implement innovative solutions across the value chain
- Working together to develop research on regenerative business practices
- Continuing to provide bursary funding to students on sustainability leadership courses at the University
Kate Wylie, Global Chief Sustainability Officer, Chanel said:
“In order to address the global challenges we face today, we need solutions informed by the latest research and innovations. Our long-term partnership with the University of Cambridge is vital to this. From providing deeper education to leaders to implementing innovative solutions in our operations, we have collaborated on concrete changes to advance our sustainability ambitions. The programmes have inspired a collective sense of responsibility for sustainability, which is leading to business transformation. Now, we are focused on maintaining momentum in these areas, as well as helping inspirational students from diverse backgrounds shape an inclusive approach to sustainable action.”
Lindsay Hooper, Interim CEO, CISL said:
“The energy, commitment and intellectual curiosity of Chanel's leaders in relation to sustainability is remarkable. As CISL and the wider University of Cambridge, we have seen leadership teams question, engage, and commit to action – and most importantly, implement it. Chanel has a unique opportunity to work throughout its value chain to research, role model, and learn from leading practice in sustainability.”
Chanel’s collaboration with the University of Cambridge builds on its long-standing commitment to working with leading academic institutions, NGOs, industry associations and governments around the world to support research and action on sustainability issues. Most recently, Chanel set the goal to reach net-zero greenhouse gas emissions across its value chain by 2040, validated by the Science-Based Targets initiative (SBTi).