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If fashion brands are going to use K-pop celebs to expand their presence on the global stage, they need to also align with global climate goals. That’s the message of a campaign launched this month by activist group Kpop4planet appealing to Korean girl group Blackpink and the four luxury brands that have tapped its members as ambassadors: Chanel, Celine, Dior and Saint Laurent.
In a recent report, the UN Fashion Charter said there’s still a long way to go to meet its net-zero emissions goal, and signatories are dropping. It’s raised questions about impact and accountability.
Campaign co-founders Dayeon Lee and Nurul Sarifah are hoping to leverage the power of the K-pop community to force luxury brands to listen to their message and heed their demands for a healthier planet. Communications manager Christy Somos says that the sway of K-pop’s fan base should not be underestimated, recalling the foiled Donald Trump rally in 2020 and the support that K-pop fans generated for Black Lives Matter in the US that same year.
“Most K-pop fans are of the young generation, and we sincerely care about the environment — we are the youth who will be living in the climate crisis,” says Lee. “Blackpink are K-pop idols that have been raising their voices for the climate crisis, and asking their fandom — ‘Blinks’ — to join the climate action as ambassadors of COP26 and the UN Sustainable Development Goals. As fans, we think that Blackpink deserve cleaner and more sustainable clothes.”
The campaign, called ‘Unboxed: High Fashion, High Carbon’, assessed the climate commitments of each house, as well as the publicly disclosed progress toward them, and found that all four reported emissions increases between 2020 and 2021, the latest data the campaign could access. (For Saint Laurent, the analysis was based on data published by Kering, and for Celine and Dior, it was based on LVMH data, because the groups do not publish the necessary information for each individual brand.) Given the urgency of climate change, and the tangible and immediate effects that communities around the world are experiencing because of it, any increase is unacceptable, the campaign argues.
In response, a representative for LVMH said that the impacts of the global pandemic in 2020, plus other events including the acquisitions of Chateau Galoupet and Belmond in 2021, mean the years surveyed in the report “cannot be scientifically compared”. LVMH also pointed out that it has set a target for Scopes 1 and 2 that align with the Paris Agreement, “which is to say a 50 per cent [reduction] of greenhouse gas emissions by 2026, [against a] 2019 baseline. To achieve this target, LVMH has the objective of 100 per cent of renewable and low carbon energy by 2026 which excludes the use of fossil fuel as a source of energy.” It did not share a renewable energy target for Scope 3.
In a statement, Chanel said it is working to reduce emissions in both its own operations (Scope 1 and 2) and in its value chain (Scope 3), and that Chanel Korea signed a virtual purchase power agreement with Korea East-West Power in February to source renewable energy. Saint Laurent did not respond to a request for comment.
“At the end of the day, any increase is the wrong direction. We have been quite strict in the methodology, I’ll admit that, but I think it’s needed because a lot of rankings don’t go into that much detail about net-zero commitments,” says Ruth MacGilp, fashion campaign manager at non-profit Action Speaks Louder, which conducted research on the four brands’ climate efforts and commitments for the Unboxed campaign.
The campaign is just as much about luxury’s influence on culture and consumers as it is about the brands’ measurable footprint. “Luxury brands create the trends, and we need them to create a trend towards climate action,” says MacGilp. “The celebrity influence they have has a huge knock-on effect for consumers. That’s another reason for partnering with Kpop4planet: it’s not just about the brands themselves, but they’re spending a huge amount of money to influence young, Asian consumers, and seeing sales grow a huge amount by engaging these K-pop stars.”
Until there’s more drastic change in the industry, that engagement with and influence on K-pop fans globally is increasingly problematic, says Lee.
Concern about climate change, and even actions like planting trees, are already common among K-pop fans. Lee says they do not want Blackpink to shun the brands, but rather for the brands to start living up to the fans’ expectations and to the sustainability ambitions they associate with the band members, who have all spoken out repeatedly about the climate in addition to serving as ambassadors for the UN climate conference in 2021.
“We are proud of seeing Blackpink as global ambassadors for famous luxury brands. We’d like to see more — that’s why we are asking luxury brands to do better, so that we can keep working on a sustainable future,” says Lee. “Luxury brands should be responsible for climate action if they really want to target us as their potential customers.”
The campaign has momentum, with Blackpink fans already joining in from around the world, so far from the US, Mexico, Indonesia, Costa Rica and France. “As Blinks, we wanted to participate in this campaign because it is in line with the values advocated by Blackpink and their commitments,” says Kawthar, the organiser of Blackpink France Fanbase, who asked to be identified by only her first name. “We immediately agreed to collaborate with Kpop4planet because it continued the efforts that Blackpink had started, but also because it is a cause that is important to us as humans. We have been educated since we were children to become aware of the risks of climate change so we knew this campaign was important to lead.”
Some of South Korea’s biggest news outlets have also covered the campaign, an indication for Lee that it’s being taken seriously. “K-pop fans are interested in our campaign because this is the issue that their favourite idols are associated with,” she says. “We have made a lot of changes so far in the Korean industry — streaming platforms and entertainment companies — so, I think [the media] are paying attention to this campaign to see if we are going to make another change this time. I believe we will.”
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