How Do You Define Sustainable Luxury?

No, it’s not an oxymoron.  Surprisingly this is becoming a very relevant topic of discussion.

I’m on a project team that is creating a business model for a luxury eco lodge in Sierra Leone, West Africa.  But what ensure that we will have the quality of facilities and experience we need to consider our resort “luxurious,” and attach the associated $685/night price tag?  Further yet, considering luxury through the lens of sustainability, how does one define sustainable luxury?  Does that mean that utopian luxurious experiences are to be measured against Channel Rock-esk and IslandWood like construction and facilities?  Both of which are beautiful in their own right, AND both of which make me want to wear Birkenstocks with wool socks.

The plan is to create a modern Robin Hood like model that  “extracts” resources from the rich and gives back to the poor.  In order to achieve this though it begins to feel like we must be a sheep in wolf’s clothing.  How do we retain our values and still provide the quality of experience our wealthy guests will expect?

Let’s start with defining luxury.  It could be that difficult right?  Ha!

All of the research that I have done uncovers that fact that defining luxury is becoming more and more of a slippery topic. There is a lot of debate and differing opinions that surround how you define and qualify this word even as it applies to hotels and resorts.

According to the Five Star Alliance, who have helped to define luxury in terms of hotels and resource, “there no longer seems to be one standard definition to help determine what is or is not luxury.”  — Interesting, maybe this could work in our favor!

I did come across one resource that has helped to put some parameters at least on what the current market expects from luxury branding.

·       Price: The brand offers products which belong to the most expensive products of their category.

·       Quality: The brand offers everlasting top-of-the-line products, which won't be disposed of even after long utilization or defect, but rather repaired and which often even gain in value over time.

·       Aesthetics: The brand behaves like a chic and vain dandy, who would never leave the house in less than perfect style. Whenever and wherever the brand is seen, it embodies a world of beauty and elegance.

·       Rarity: In contrast to mass-market brands, the brand needs to limit its production and tries not to disclose its (high) sales numbers. The brand plays hard to get and is not available at all times or places.

·       Extraordinariness: The brand has a mind and style of its own and its products offer a "kick" and surprise with the "expected unexpected."

·       Symbolism: The brand stands for "the best from the best for the best"; its charisma fills the room, and regardless of whether it is of a conspicuous or understated nature, deep inside, it is swollen with pride.

Okay, let’s take those one by one.

Price – Alright, that doesn’t seem to hard, let’s just add another zero.

Quality – I like this one!  It resonates with sustainability.

Aesthetics – Got it — we have to always have our game on!

Rarity – Hum, interesting . . . this speaks to the exclusivity that is often associated with VIPs.  This makes me think that in the design of our facility we will need to be very conscious about how we lay out where our entrepreneurial training location will be.  We may need to have a location off site or at extreme ends of the property to protect guests from feeling their space is not sacred.  The note on not disclosing sales numbers represents the discretion that people of affluence expect in protecting their anonymity. We will need to be careful to find a way to create an agreement with the community in regards to the benefits they will receive that does not require us to disclose our net income – even if our metric for community contributions is measured as 20% of that.

Exraordinariness – This is the playful and more creative design part of the experience.  The tricky part is this is largely qualified by ones own personal taste and preferences.  What to one person is gaudy and excessive is another person’s bling.  The key here may be it’s timeliness (paying attention to global fashion trends) and it’s functionality that leaves one thinking “they have thought of everything.”   An example of this might be in the detailed conveniences.  From collar stays in the top drawer to anticipating the time desert should be served.  And taking it one step further by interjecting location and culture specific traditions into part of the experience — creating that unique one of a kind experience.  I see great potential here for sustainability paying both a functional service role here with a unique flavor and unexpected special twist. 

This article on Luxury Hotels: Luring the Next Generation indicates that the up and coming generation of millionaires are gravitating away from the “bling factor”. . . that’s good news for us.  One thing however that the article does bring up, and something that we have not entirely factored in, is the need for extreme security. “. . .  in some markets, security will become increasingly important; the bulletproof glass and steel doors now in some locations will be replaced by bazooka-proof glass and personal panic rooms.”  Having gone through and evacuated from a coup in Sierra Leone in 1997, I understand these precautionary measures are not unreasonable to expect.

Back to specifically — Sustainable Luxury . . . when I stopped just focusing on luxury alone in my research I was surprised to find a number of sites that are currently defining and discussing, you guessed it — sustainable luxury.  Here are a couple that I was most impressed with:

1618-paris.com has published a guide on the topic of sustainable luxury, started a world fair and conducted a workshop earlier this year on the topic.

Sustainable Luxury Forum 2013 (the 3^rd one) is actually happen this June 18-19 in Geneva, Switzerland addressing the luxury dilemma of how to balance business opportunities with social change and impact.

Interesting!  I wish I could go!