Finalised in April 2026, this ESG Harmonization framework marks the first step a Franco-Italian initiative launched in 2024.
The initiative responds to a concrete reality: the fragmentation of differing approaches creates an increasing administrative burden for suppliers, in particular small workshops - the guardians of the artisanal expertise underpinning luxury excellence - placing disproportionate pressure on the sector’s most vulnerable structures.
In this context, the two institutions aim to ease the burden on suppliers by establishing a common language and a shared Harmonization framework of business conduct principles and supporting documents aligned with the ESG priorities of the sector. On this basis, each operator is then entrusted with the freedom and responsibility to independently shape its due diligence approach to ESG topics across its supply chain.
The framework covers business conduct principles that reflect main national and international laws, regulations, standards, and good practices that should guide suppliers in managing correctly in the field of the following areas:
- Governance
- Health and Safety
- Human rights and labour conditions
Environmental compliance
The framework is anyway accompanied by a list of suggested documents that suppliers may consider having in place or available where applicable.
By providing a common language, and a minimum common set of business guiding principles, the reference framework offers a sound methodological basis on which each operator may, autonomously, develop its own approach to environmental and social responsibility within its supply chain — recognising that the wider the diffusion of sound sustainability practices across the sector, the greater their overall effectiveness. In any case the adoption of this framework does not relieve supplier to comply with applicable laws and regulations.
The two institutions will continue working to bring the framework to life among different kind of stakeholders. They will constitute a consortium of universities and schools so as to support the development of ESG best practices and skills throughout the whole supply chain.
