Prada obtains green certification for 80 stores worldwide

By

Dominique Muret

Translated by
Nicola Mira

Published
Feb 16, 2022

Prada is stepping up the pace of its sustainability drive by focusing on its retail network. The Italian luxury group has tapped the Arc technology platform to track, manage, and improve the performance of its shops in terms of energy and water consumption, waste management, product shipping and people’s well-being. As a result, Prada has been awarded the LEED certification for 80 of its monobrand stores around the world, and is aiming to have 300 certified stores by 2024.

The LEED certification was introduced in the USA by the US Green Building Council in 2000, and is the world’s most widely used green building assessment system. It is obtained through a credit awarding system, based on a number of sustainable development elements relating to the building in question.

Prada has equipped its stores with a system developed by FGB (Future Green Building), a consultancy firm linked to the Arc platform, which measures the stores’ air quality and collects all the data necessary to assess their environmental impact. Simultaneously, a questionnaire was submitted to employees in order to assess the green status of all Prada stores.

In detail, 81 Prada stores obtained the LEED v4.1 Operations and Maintenance (O+M) certification - one store had been awarded the certification in 2019 - and 57 stores were awarded the LEED v4 certification, referring to interior design and construction. In addition, three Prada facilities are LEED-certified with reference to building design and construction: the Scandicci factory near Florence, the Levanella logistics hub near Arezzo, and the laboratory of the Prada-owned Marchesi patisserie in Milan.

Among the Prada stores that are now LEED-certified, the label’s flagship in London and those in Galleria Vittorio Emanuele and via Montenapoleone in Milan, and the group’s Parisian stores in rue de Grenelle (Prada) and rue du Faubourg Saint-Honoré (Miu Miu). “Prada is the label with the highest number of LEED certifications in the luxury sector,” stated the group in a press release, noting also that the Miu Miu store in Shanghai, located within the International APM luxury shopping mall, is the first luxury shop to be awarded the Platinum certification, LEED’s highest.