Salvatore Ferragamo Outlines Social Responsibility Plans

Since 2014, Salvatore Ferragamo has pledged a commitment to undertake a corporate social responsibility, and be transparent about its operations. Now, as analysis of the company’s 2017 Sustainability Report comes to light, it has outlined a three-year plan with six main target areas to encourage sustainable development and to minimise environmental impacts caused by production.

“Ensuring transparency with stakeholders, we aim to share not only the milestones that we have achieved, but the challenges that lie ahead and our future goals as well,” Ferruccio Ferragamo, chairman of the Salvatore Ferragamo Group, said of the six areas of focus, which include “people”; “Made in Italy”; “products and relationships with suppliers”; “territory and culture”; and “environment”.

At the heart of the project is the company’s workforce, which the chairman maintains is the very essence of the brand. “We firmly believe in our local community, synonymous with history and culture, and in the talent of young Italians, who are capable of resolving today’s problems and updating Italy’s creative legacy,” he continued. “It is in Ferragamo’s DNA to both preserve the past of Italian tradition and cultivate its future, and we have sustained this legacy by financing, on one hand, restorations of important works of art, like Neptune’s Fountain in Piazza della Signoria, Florence, and promoting, on the other, experimentation with sustainable materials, while remaining steadfast in our commitment to 'Made in Italy' products and our respect for the innovative spirit of Salvatore Ferragamo’s founder.”

"Made in Italy" is central to the brand ethos, and it takes its commitment to upholding the family legacy seriously. In 2014, it began inserting microchips and radio frequency identification tags into its women’s shoes to guarantee product authenticity and facilitate the tracking of counterfeit products. These strict measures helped Ferragamo to intercept and seize more than 268,000 counterfeit products around the world last year.

“More than an affirmation, this is a call to action to strive for continuous improvement and raise the bar ever higher, to promote a responsible business every day, based on respect for people, the territory, the environment and the community," Ferragamo added of the socially-conscious code of conduct.

To read the full report, including information on the company's new logistics hub at the Florence site, which, once complete, will mean standards of efficiency are LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) Platinum certified, visit Csr.ferragamo.com.