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Kering to improve animal welfare standards

Alice Ierace
13 May 2019

International luxury fashion group Kering has published new animal welfare standards in order to ensure and verify the humane treatment of animals across the Group’s supply chains. 

The Kering Animal Welfare Standards are the first-ever set of full standards covering animal welfare for luxury and fashion and aim to drive positive change in industry practices, and beyond.

They cover all the species around the world that are part of the Group’s supply chains. The first phase of the Standards, launched last Friday, also includes detailed requirements for the treatment of cattle, calves, sheep and goats throughout their entire lives, as well as guidelines for abattoirs. Developed over three years with input from animal welfare experts, farmers and herders, scientists and NGOs, the standards are based on the latest scientific research as well as legislation, comparative standards, best management practices and guidelines from different sectors.

Kering’s Standards feature a number of requirements for animal management that would significantly improve the welfare of animals in countries around the world if they were adopted by the industry more broadly. Kering has been piloting the standards on the ground with farms in different regions and will continue to work closely with the farmers to support further implementation.

The Standards are structured in Bronze, Silver and Gold tiers to provide clear guidance on critical compliance and with the expectation that the Group’s suppliers will make continuous improvements. At the Bronze entry level the Standards reflect minimum requirements, which equal, and in some cases go beyond, European legislation. Notably, the Kering Animal Welfare Standards are advocating that the good practices entrenched in the European Union are implemented on an international scale, which is already a substantial improvement in many countries that have little or no animal welfare regulations in place.

Marie-Claire Daveu, Chief Sustainability Officer and Head of International institutional affairs at Kering, commented: “Improving the welfare of animals must be an imperative for our industry and Kering wants to amplify the focus of attention from a few species to all of the animals, including livestock, within fashion’s global supply chains.

“Reflecting François-Henri Pinault’s vision, our standards are aligned with our commitment to a holistic approach to sustainability, which means having best practices that encompass animals in our supply chains, wildlife around them and biodiversity conservation more broadly. We hope for widespread adoption of the standards through collaborating with our suppliers, our peers in luxury, the fashion industry at large, and with the food sector, in these shared supply chains to ultimately shift how we, as a society, treat animals and nature.”

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