YOOX NET-A-PORTER

YOOX NET-A-PORTER

Develop a unique sustainability vision and produce the group’s first report

#reporting
#stakeholder engagement
#sustainability strategy
#content and stories

Brief

In the aftermath of the merger between Yoox and Net-a-Porter the ambition was to develop a distinctive sustainability vision capturing the essential elements of the new group’s identity and strategic positioning. This together with the production of the group’s first report.

The challenge was twofold: on the one hand bring together the two sides of the company (Yoox and Net-a-Porter) and on the other side to set the agenda in a sector (luxury e-commerce) where there is no track record in sustainability.

Through a structured engagement process, we collected input from internal and external stakeholders to identify YNAP’s social, environmental and economic impacts and priorities, and understand how sustainability can support the business.

INTERNAL INPUTS

Interviews and thematic workshops with 40 executives and managers from across the business, covering London, Milan, Bologna and New York, discovering what people think about sustainability priorities. We asked a wide range of internal teams to evaluate ESG topics and prioritise them based on impact on future business success and ability to underpin the five-year plan (opportunities, risks, etc.)

EXTERNAL INPUTS

Combination of qualitative interviews with key stakeholders and a dedicated online survey to understand the views of YNAP’s most engaged customers. The aim was to discover what issues are most important in forming stakeholder opinions on YNAP and in supporting their decisions. We carried out a survey of 24,000 top-spending customers to discover values, attitudes to social and environmental issues, and expectations of YNAP.

Strategy & Sustainability Governance

One of the main outputs of our work was to develop sustainability vision that would capture the spirit of the newly formed group and bring together in a single, strategic framework its various social and environmental commitments.

We chose to organise the vision – “Empowering People” – around three pillars: Education, Empowering women and Responsibility. The stakeholder engagement initiatives were fundamental in achieving this result, alongside benchmarking of relevant sectors, YNAP’s business plan and constant dialogue with the client.

We also advised the company in setting up its sustainability governance process to support YNAP in consolidating ownership of sustainability topics both with top management and at the board-of-directors level.

Report

We suggested an innovative approach to the creation of YNAP’s first sustainability report in order to keep a balance between a narrative approach and the rigour required of a formal disclosure document.

The solution was to have a document in two distinct parts:

– a first narrative and “emotional” first section explaining commitments and initiatives, organized according to the strategic vision;

– a more technical second section containing GRI disclosures and performance.

We managed the entire editorial project spanning content organisation and production (English texts) to translations into Italian and graphic design by our partner agency yvat & klerb.

Result

YNAP published its first sustainability report at its AGM in April 2017. The vision and report provided the basis for communications campaigns, including widespread media coverage of its announcement of a fur-free policy.

The company’s sustainability strategy was “highly commended” at the Responsible Business Awards 2017 in London in the “New Entrant of the Year” category.