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The Roman house has just announced the creation of the Bulgari Virus Free Fund, a non-profit organization that will finance institutions at the cutting edge of innovative research for the remission and treatment of different types of viruses. Already at the forefront of CSR, Bulgari is even more so since the coronavirus pandemic struck, and has recently ostensibly strengthened its commitment to sustainability and social responsibility.
Funding research against viruses
The Italian luxury brand Bulgari announced yesterday, Wednesday, June 17, the creation of the “Bulgari Virus Free Fund”, a non-profit entity that will invest in innovative research aimed at curing various types of viruses.
Initially, the entity will focus on the urgent fight against the new coronavirus (Sars CoV-2), but in the future it will finance prestigious institutions focused on the most sophisticated research.
In particular, the Fund will support two main institutions: the Jenner Institute at Oxford University in the United Kingdom, which brings together researchers from all over the world and focuses on the creation and development of new vaccines, and the National Institute for Infectious Diseases at Lazzaro Spallanzani in Rome, which was already supported by Bulgari during the peak of the health emergency with the donation of a high-tech microscope.
The partnership with the Jenner Institute will also cover four years of doctoral studies for two students, while the Bulgari Clinical Fund will support clinical trials of new therapies, drugs and vaccines against COVID-19.
Strengthen its image as a model civic company
The Italian luxury house has always been at the forefront of CSR initiatives: its collaboration with Save the Children for more than ten years – thanks to which more than 90 million euros have been raised and more than 2 million underprivileged children helped throughout the world – and its recent fight against coronavirus through various projects to support hospitals in Italy, Switzerland, Great Britain and Japan can amply demonstrate it.
But Bulgari has recently taken a new step in its social commitment.
The coronavirus crisis has in fact acted as an accelerator. “Children, health, but also art and the environment have always been among our priorities. But in recent months, we have witnessed the shocking effects of Covid-19 around the world. We want to go beyond the emergency. We have started to think beyond the gel, about what we can do to ensure that this will never happen again” reacted the group’s CEO, Jean-Christophe Babin.
Since the outbreak of the epidemic, the jewellery brand is therefore more than ever keen to bring issues related to corporate social responsibility to the forefront, especially since the crisis has raised the need for ethics among consumers: “Clients are more and more interested by the ethics of the company not only in terms of sourcing but also in terms of the way we treat our employees, what we contribute to our community besides paying taxes on our profits, so we see indeed a shift from product focus only…to, let’s say, the philosophy behind the product” said the head of the company, which is owned by LVMH Moët Hennessy Louis Vuitton.
For example, if the brand had already reduced its use of plastic by 19% between 2017 and 2019, it plans to completely eliminate it in its stores, offices, factories, products and hotels by the end of 2020 with, among other alternatives, cotton slippers and packaging made from paper and wood waste.
Bulgari is therefore considerably stepping up its efforts to build a circular economy and has even joined forces with several international brands to develop the AURA blockchain network, which will enable consumers to track the luxury products they buy in order to guarantee their authenticity. The brand will also apply this blockchain technology to fundraising to ensure full traceability of customer donations so that they can measure the concrete effect of their generosity.
Committed for many years to optimizing its ethical, social and environmental performance, the luxury house has thus intensified its actions since the beginning of the crisis.
In the context of its CSR policy, Bulgari feels today more than ever responsible for continuing to overcome the challenges posed by the present in order to create a better world. And to lay the foundations towards the future of luxury.
Read also > Gucci reduces its environmental impact and develops its equilibrium platform on ecological issues
Featured photo : © Bulgari[/vc_column_text][/vc_column][/vc_row]
