Luxury with a Heart

This year's very deserving nominees are:

Burberry is passionate about driving positive change. For over 10 years the brand has worked to help the communities that support the fashion industry and protect the natural resources on which the business depends. Burberry was this year a signatory of The Fashion Pact –a global alliance between 32 of the world's leading fashion companies to tackle climate change. Through the Pact, Burberry builds on their work over the last decade to limit global warming, protect the world's oceans and restore biodiversity, and are working with the other signatories to help transform the industry.

The home of diamonds since 1888, De Beers are committed to making a positive impact on the people and places involved in their journey. In July, De Beers began transporting 200 elephants from South Africa to Mozambique as part of a major conservation initiative to protect the welfare of wildlife and help restore Mozambique’s elephant population. De Beers also announced the launch of a three-year $315 000 partnership with WomEng to develop the next generation of highly skilled women engineers to encourage young women to study STEM subjects and to pursue engineering careers in South Africa, Namibia and Botswana.

Social impact and citizenship has always been essential to the mission of The Estée Lauder Companies UK & Ireland. This year, ELC aimed to improve child literacy within its communities through a new partnership with world-leading education charity, United Way. This partnership reflects The Estée Lauder Companies’ global commitment to help children acquire the necessary tools and skills to become healthy and productive adults; to effect lasting changes for themselves, their families, and their communities; and to break the cycle of poverty.

In March 2018 and March 2019, NET-A-PORTER celebrated International Women’s Day, reinforcing its commitment to supporting the empowerment of women, through the launch of exclusive designer t-shirts with proceeds benefitting Women for Women International, a non-profit organisation that helps women living in war-torn countries to rebuild their lives. The empowerment of women is key to NET-A-PORTER and ties into YOOX NET-A-PORTER GROUP’s sustainability vision pillars.

Selfridges began 2019 with The State of the Arts, part of its ongoing commitment to harness the collective power of dozens of contributing artists, galleries and arts collaborators to make art accessible to all. Continuing its long-term campaign – Buying Better Inspiring Change – Selfridges announced its commitment to phase out the sale of exotic skins – in particular python, alligator, crocodile and lizard. The brand also launched The Beauty Project this year: a multi-faceted and thought-provoking exploration on the definition of beauty and what it means in today’s society.