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Kering hosts hackathon to support sustainable luxury

October 4, 2019

Kering Hack To Act Kering designed My EP&L as open platform for the fashion industry. Image credit: Kering

 

Luxury conglomerate Kering is looking to leverage technology solutions to help work towards a sustainable future in fashion.

From Oct. 4 to Oct. 6, Kering is hosting its first “Hack to Act” to encourage developers, designers, data analysts and others to create applications and other digital solutions that increase awareness of the connection between the fashion industry and the environment. Kering has been steadfast in its efforts to create more sustainable luxury goods and this “hackathon” is a move to involve leaders from other industries.

Hack to Act
For Hack to Act, Kering is welcoming tech and sustainability experts to the L’Atelier Richelieu in Paris. The event, billed as “48 hours to code for sustainable luxury,” includes workshops, pitch meetings, coding sessions and demonstrations.

At the core of the hackathon is Kering’s Environmental Profit & Loss (EP&L) open platform, which will serve as a data source with information about the group’s carbon emissions, water consumption, air, and water pollution, land use and waste production.

Kering is having its first green hackathon

This past World Environment Day, Kering launched a platform for luxury and fashion brands to gain insight on how they have impact on the environment.The group made its EP&L account interactive and public with the launch of the platform, providing its 2018 insights (see story).

Participants are encouraged to use My EP&L to integrate ethical environmental practices throughout the creative process, even using data to increase consumer awareness or improve interactions across Kering’s systems.

The winning team will receive a grand prize of 10,000 euro, or about $10,980 at current exchange.

Kering recently made another push towards sustainability by announcing its plans to become carbon neutral across its supply chain.

While Kering is already making efforts to avoid and reduce greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, it will also offset remaining emissions by supporting REDD+ conservation projects. It has also implemented new sustainability requirements through the Kering Standards for Raw Materials and Manufacturing Processes (see story).