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If considering the history of luxury, it is possible to go back as far as the time of the pharaohs. During this period, luxury was reserved for the pharaohs, their spouses and some high-ranking dignitaries (embalming the body, building tombs, etc.). In the West, luxury products were created by traditional craftspeople and in very limited quantities, destined for the wealthiest individuals. Since the Second World War, a trend towards the industrialisation of luxury production has been observed. It aimed to respond to the growing demand of populations frustrated by years of privation (wars) and whose quality of life had improved. The luxury industry progressively underwent a strong concentration with the emergence of large groups, such as LVMH, today’s world-leading luxury group.

However, despite the fact that the emergence of this concept goes back several years there is no consensus on its definition among the academic community (De Barnier et al. 2008). When summarizing the features that can describe it, there are four that stand out. The first, naturally, is quality. A luxury product or service must necessarily be of impeccable quality. Superior quality is associated above all with the use of so-called noble and prestigious raw materials. These materials must be worked with a specific savoir-faire, by an artisan (real luxury), and if a machine is involved it must only be in a small part of the production process. The superior quality confers another important characteristic on the product, namely longevity. Luxury products are known for their ability to last a long time. Contrary to the “fast fashion” industry that adopts a logic of short-termism and planned obsolescence, luxury is managed with a long-term perspective (Janssen et al. 2014). In this regard, the after-sale services of brands increase the length of the products’ lifespan. For example, the Louis Vuitton brand has five repair centers in Japan that ensure that damaged products can continue to be used. The third and fourth characteristics of a luxury item are scarcity and exclusivity. Scarcity can be the consequence of natural or technological constraints (innovations) or can stem from constructed constraints (virtual rarity) (Catry 2007). Exclusivity, for its part, reflects the fact that the purchase of luxury products remains the reserve of a very limited segment of the population. It is also linked to the concepts of exclusion (“I am the only person to have the product”) and stratification of the population. For Vickers and Renan (2003), scarcity and exclusivity are important for luxury consumers who are seeking to show their membership of a group or confirm their social status.

To these four essential characteristics of luxury, a new dimension, which has become unavoidable, has recently been added: sustainability, leading to the concept of “sustainable luxury”. Luxury consumers have now broadened their expectations of quality to include environmental and social attributes. Through this choice, they can display a positive image, of being responsible people, and thereby compensate for the negative values often associated with luxury, namely ego, superfluity, irrationality and excess (Cervellon 2013; Janssen et al. 2014).

Surprisingly, even if studies have recently attempted to explore the possible links between the two notions of luxury and sustainable development, to our knowledge, there is not yet a consensual definition of the concept of “sustainable luxury”. In this chapter, we propose to define it as: “a product or service resulting from a production process that makes it possible to obtain an irreproachable quality in the respect of human and animal welfare, and whose lifecycle generates reduced impacts on the environment”. The luxury industry has never been as scrutinized in terms of the environmental and social consequences of its practices as it is today. The number of articles in the press implicating luxury businesses in scandals have noticeably increased. For example, Gucci has been targeted for the inhumane working conditions in its retail outlets in China, and Burberry for the deliberate destruction of its unsold inventory in order to preserve the rarity of its products.

In the face of these criticisms, the integration of sustainable development principles in the luxury industry has become unavoidable. In this regard, two strategic trends have been observed. A few rare companies have decided to make this new challenge central to their business model. The Stella McCartney brand is an interesting example of this; it has, for instance, banned all animal raw materials from its workshops. Other companies have chosen to limit the inclusion of sustainability to certain stages of their value chains. Table 2.1 provides some examples of responsible initiatives taken by luxury brands in recent years.

Table 2.1. Examples of responsible initiatives in luxury industry

Nature of engagement	Examples of brands	Examples of actions taken
	Hermès	Petit H: recycling leather and silk offcuts to produce small accessories
Use of responsible mate rials	Gucci	“Green” shoe soles
	Saint Laurent	New Vintage: products made by recovering unused fabrics from previous collections
	Hôtel Fouquet’s Barrière	Obtaining ISO 9001 (quality), ISO 14001 (environment) and SA 8000 (social) certifications
Labeling	Le Grand Hôtel Cannes	Green Globe Label
Creation of associations	Cartier	Founder member of the Responsible Jewellery Council