#SustyTalk: Positive Luxury’s Diana Verde Nieto on moving from opulence to ESG impact

#SustyTalk is all about keeping edie’s loyal readers connected to sustainability leaders across the world, whilst reminding us all that sustainability and climate action must go on through the current Covid-19 pandemic and beyond. It launched in the early stages of the pandemic in 2020 and has continued since then, keeping us connected to the leaders who are continuing to drive sustainability and climate action.

This latest #SustyTalk episode is part of edie’s 25th anniversary celebrations. edie launched in 1998, making us older than Google. We have dedicated exclusive features and interviews over the past two weeks to recapping on 25 years of seismic shifts for the sustainable business movement, and will continue to do so this spring and summer.

On hand to help us reflect on this transformation in the luxury sector is Diana Verde Nieto, who has more than a decade’s worth of experience working to help the sector become, in her own words, “a lot more conscious, muted and considered” – a transformation which has gone hand-in-hand with the adoption of stronger governance.

The Positive Luxury co-founder speaks with edie’s senior reporter Sarah George about whether the luxury sector is still as focused on nature as it was in 2020; whether new EU legislation can help stop greenwashing and allay confusion over certification; and how ESG strategies at luxury brands are evolving in the 2020s.

Verde Nieto says:“ESG is great, because it flows, but I think it should be GES. Because the governance is what actually makes the E and the S flow very nicely and makes business focus on the outcomes of their actions.

“I think that impact and purpose – these two words – are so over-used that people have lost sight of what they actually mean. But when you look at outcomes, that is [clear]… There is some appetite from boards, from leadership, for starting to change the way we see the world and properly changing, instead of trying to fix single topics.”

Note: In this talk, Verde Nieto references WWF’s 2008 ‘Deeper Luxury’ report. You can access this report here.

Note: Verde Nieto is publishing her first book, Reimagining Luxury, in early 2024. You can find out more here.

Click here to see our catalogue of #SustyTalk interviews

Want to be featured on a future episode of #SustyTalk? Email newsdesk@fav-house.com. Please bear in mind that our interview calendar is typically booked several weeks in advance.