UK luxury fashion retailer Burberry has made the headlines for destroying £28m worth of products during the last year (over £90m over the last 5 years) in order to protect the luxury status of its brand.  It has drawn criticism from environmentalists and social media users alike for not respecting the labour and natural resources that go into making their products.

However, this is a common problem in the fashion sector and it appears to continue to be difficult to strike a balance between the real need of companies to protect the image of a high end brand against counterfeiters, unauthorised discounted sales, etc and environmental concerns.

Countering their critics Burberry confirmed that they recently joined the Ellen MacArthur Foundation’s Make Fashion Circular initiative aimed at preventing waste in the industry. The initiative certainly seems like a step in the right direction for providing a long term solution to the issue and it is encouraging to see that brand owners do take their environmental responsibilities seriously.

For the full article please see Guardian/Burberry