Are business models at odds with sustainability: Landmark Group

• 120 billion new garments are made every year…of which 30% are worn only once and only 1% is recycled
• Fashion retail is among top 5 polluters globally
• Enough waste is being generated by the fast furniture retail segment to go to the moon and back every 6 months

…even as 56% Arab youth are expected to shun a brand that’s not environmentally responsible.

It raises a serious question – are business models at odds with sustainability, observed Rajesh Garg, Group CFO, Landmark Group during a session at the Middle East Retail Forum (MRF) 2022.

Watch the full session video here.

So, what’s the solution?

“At Landmark Group we strongly believe that it’s much easier to fix the planet than ruin it. That’s why some of our brands embarked on the sustainability journey quite some time ago. For example, 92% of Splash’s products are sustainably and responsibly sourced,” Garg shared.

“We’ve remained steadfast in our commitment towards saving energy consumption, reducing waste across our facilities. We’ve successfully saved 10% energy across our 2,000+ stores. Interestingly, this has resulted in considerable cost saving,” he added.

However, along the way the Group also realised that it’s difficult to manage what’s not being measured.

“So, we created an end-to-end carbon accounting model linked with our ERP system that enables end-to-end tracking of products – from sourcing to shipping – to build comprehensive carbon statements. We firmly believe that within next 5-7 years a company’s carbon statement might become more crucial than the financial statement,” Garg emphasised.

What the future holds?

“We want to be a climate-positive circular business, and we plan to achieve this through sustainable products, sustainable operations and sustainable customer journey,” Garg concluded.

You can read more sustainability focused articles here