Ferragamo: Lifecycle design and sustainable supply chains

FERRAGAMO
Progetto: Lifecycle design and sustainable supply chains
Project Leader: Federico Brugnoli, Elena Barone
Master in Fashion Sustainability and Industry Evolution a.y. 2022/2023

Ferragamo is one of the world’s leaders in the luxury industry and whose origins date back to 1927.

It is renowned for the creation, production, and worldwide distribution of luxury collections of shoes, leather goods, clothing, silk products and other accessories for men and women, including eyewear, watches and perfumes distributed under license agreements. Ferragamo continues to reinterpret and evolve its Founder’s spirit and heritage with creativity, innovation, and a sustainable approach. Uniqueness and exclusivity, together with the perfect combination of style and refined Made in Italy savoir-faire, are the hallmarks of all Ferragamo products.

During the brief given by Silvia Airaghi, Sustainability Coordinator and Giovanna Barbato, Sustainability Specialist the students were asked to evaluate how different choices on product design, production, distribution, use and end of life affect the overall impact of goods. Starting from a simplified-LCA on selected Ferragamo products, the students will be asked to propose and evaluate alternative scenarios to reduce the product overall footprint. Each proposal will need to be supported with figures, data, and reasons and in line with Ferragamo’s context.

Industry Brief

The students were asked to go through the following phases:

– Understand the reference context
Comprehension of Ferragamo culture, value, target market and context. Presentation of initiative or case studies to show the brand culture could be presented. Material on sustainability strategy and reports shall be provided. Individual research will be essential for the students to enrich the set of information available.

– Simplified Life cycle assessment
Starting from the product bill of material each student will conduct a simplified LCA. Through the study of the materials and components composing the finished product and eventually with interviews to company industrial personnel the students will dive into the company’s product.

– Hotspot identification
Each student will be asked to critically analyse the LCA output to identify what are the most relevant contributors to environmental impact, where to focus to reduce the product impact, according to the company sustainability objectives.

– Evaluations and presentation of alternative proposals
Each student will assess and evaluate different solutions to suggest Ferragamo management on how to reduce the product impact, considering all the lifecycle stages of the product and input/output composing the process. The solutions presented will need to be concrete and applicable to the context and business model described, innovative and supported with facts and figures.