PARIS — Louis Vuitton is shifting its sustainability strategy toward a “regenerative” roadmap, setting out plans to restore ecosystems, expand circular design practices and reduce water consumption, as the luxury sector faces mounting pressure to demonstrate measurable environmental progress.

The LVMH Moët Hennessy Louis Vuitton-owned brand’s new “Regeneration 2030” plan marks a move beyond limiting environmental harm to actively restoring natural systems.

The strategy builds on the brand’s progress made between 2020 and 2025. During that time, Louis Vuitton increased its use of certified raw materials, reduced plastic packaging and expanded renewable energy use across its operations.

“Now we are really targeting regeneration in our sustainability roadmap,” Louis Vuitton’s director of sustainable development Christelle Capdupuy told WWD. “The question is no longer to limit the negative impact.”

The shift reflects broader shifts across the industry, where climate change, biodiversity loss and resource scarcity are reshaping how companies approach sustainability. More than 90 percent of Louis Vuitton’s raw materials — including leather, cotton, wool and silk — are derived from natural resources, increasing business and financial exposure to environmental risks.

“Companies can no longer think of themselves as just foreign bodies in the environment they are working in,” Capdupuy said. “They must see themselves as living agents linked to the ecosystem on which we depend.”

From Reduction to Restoration

At the center of the roadmap is a target to help restore 1 million hectares of ecosystems globally by 2030. Of this, 400,000 hectares are already covered through a partnership with conservation organization People for Wildlife in northeast Australia. The remaining 600,000 hectares will be delivered through additional partnership programs.

The Australia project is not directly linked to Vuitton’s own supply chain, but is intended to support scientific research and take data to develop models that can be applied elsewhere, Capdupuy said.

“We are not doing that just to preserve the sourcing of any raw material,” she said. “We are doing that in order to support the scientific research, to learn how we can regenerate this ecosystem.”

Alongside biodiversity restoration, the company is targeting emissions reductions of 68 percent across Scope 1 and 2, and 55 percent across Scope 3 by 2030, in line with Science-Based Targets.

A central component of that effort is regenerative agriculture, which Louis Vuitton is prioritizing for key materials including leather, cotton, wool and alcohol used in fragrances. The company aims to source 100 percent of its alcohol from regenerative agriculture by 2026 and expand similar practices across other materials over time.

Regenerative agriculture is intended to improve soil health and enhance biodiversity.

“This kind of agriculture will allow us to decrease the pressure on the resources, regenerate ecosystems and capture carbon more efficiently,” Capdupuy said.

However, scaling these practices presents challenges, particularly for leather — one of the brand’s most important materials. The brand uses around 5,000 tons of animal skins for leather goods annually. Unlike cotton or wool, there is no established or widely recognized certification framework for regenerative leather production, Capdupuy noted.

To address this, Louis Vuitton launched its own program in 2023 to define brand standards and assess farm practices, working with scientists and agricultural experts. The company has since engaged more than 150 farmers across eight countries, and Capdupuy said more than half of its skin supply is now aligned with these internal regenerative criteria.

Regenerative agriculture brings “everyone around the table,” including scientists, suppliers, farmers and the internal teams. “It’s really a collective approach — super challenging, super disruptive, but at the same time, super impactful,” she said.

Water Becomes a Key Priority

A notable addition to the 2030 roadmap is a focus on water, reflecting increasing regulatory pressure and operational risk in key production regions.

The company has set a target to reduce water consumption by 30 percent within five years, focusing on both direct operations and upstream supply chains. Measures include the deployment of “waterless technologies” in manufacturing, improved monitoring systems and partnerships with organizations such as WWF, particularly in France, to support more efficient measurement, use and treatment.

“It’s a resource which is really under stress,” Capdupuy said, citing the combined effects of climate change and demographic pressures. “Given the urgency of the water situation, we decided also to increase our ambition to support water resilience initiatives.”

She pointed to tightening government regulations in places such as California, where the house has two leather goods workshops, as evidence of increasing constraints on industrial water use.

“What we’re observing is that it’s starting to be subject to restrictions in certain parts of the world where we are operating,” she said. “That has been accelerating in recent years, so it required us to have a specific action plan.”

The company is also working to improve water quality by targeting zero discharge of hazardous chemicals across its value chain.

Decoupling Growth From Environmental Impact

Capdupuy said the strategy has put a sharper focus on the need to separate business growth from environmental impact — a long-standing challenge in the fashion and luxury sectors.

“We absolutely have to work on decoupling the two, and it’s possible,” she said.

The brand believes that shifting to regenerative materials can reduce emissions even as production volumes increase. For example, cotton sourced through regenerative practices can generate significantly lower emissions than conventional cotton, potentially offsetting the impact of higher volumes, she said.

Operational changes also play a part. Louis Vuitton has reduced energy consumption in its workshops by 30 percent between 2021 and 2025 and increased its use of renewable electricity to 95 percent. Using cleaner energy sources also decouples production growth from emissions, particularly in plants that previously used coal, she added.

In logistics, the company is targeting 40 percent low-carbon transport by 2030, including greater use of sea freight and electric vehicles. However, Capdupuy emphasized that planning and inventory management are equally important.

“The best transportation is the one you’re not going to emit,” she said, noting that better demand forecasting can reduce unnecessary shipments and associated emissions.

Circular Design and Repair

Circularity is another pillar of the strategy, with the company promoting what it calls “circular creativity” across product design, retail and operations.

Louis Vuitton carries out around 600,000 repairs annually across a network of 11 repair centers worldwide, mostly for handbags. It added shoes and sneaker repair this year, and the company plans to extend repair services across all product categories by 2030.

Design processes have also been adapted to incorporate repairability, reuse and recycling. All product categories now include eco-design criteria, and the company has introduced tools such as a repairability index to guide development.

Other efforts extend beyond products to include fashion shows, store windows and exhibitions, where materials are increasingly designed for reuse or to be repurposed.

Removing Virgin Plastics From Packaging

The company has reduced its use of virgin plastic in packaging by 90 percent compared with 2019 levels, with much of the reduction achieved through elimination rather than substitution.

“At least two-thirds was totally removed,” Capdupuy said, citing the example of perfume packaging where plastic film was eliminated by redesigning customer-facing presentation as well as working with employees to rethink movement and storage.

The changes have not affected customer perception, she said. “There is no compromise,” she added, emphasizing the importance of maintaining quality standards such as paper glossiness.

However, next-gen materials innovation remains an area of ongoing research. Alternatives to traditional animal materials such as leather have yet to meet the brand’s durability and aesthetic requirements, she said.

“We are not going to launch a raw material just because it is innovative,” Capdupuy said. “We want to shift everything we do in order to decrease our environmental impact, while keeping our customers super happy and have their expectation totally fulfilled.”

The brand did use BioFluff’s plant-based fur Savian in its most recent runway show in March, but the brand does not have fur metrics in its report, and did not respond to questions about its fur use or production plans.

Industry Scale and Collaboration

The scale and complexity of the transition must drive greater collaboration across the industry, Capdupuy said, including partnerships with suppliers, scientists and, in some cases, competing brands outside of the LVMH umbrella that share common suppliers.

“It’s really crucial for not only the luxury sector but for every sector. If you really want to be sustainable and shift to a resilient business model, you cannot work on your own,” she said.

For Louis Vuitton, the 2030 strategy is a roadmap to integrate environmental considerations into core business operations, rather than treating sustainability as a stand-alone department.

As regulatory scrutiny intensifies and resource constraints become a more pressing business concern, the ability to meet financial growth targets and align with environmental performance is emerging as a key challenge for the luxury sector.

“Yes, we can be regenerative,” Capdupuy said. “And we have this responsibility.”