FASHION & ACCESSORIES
EMMY LONDON
Emmy London is a luxury lifestyle collection of shoes and bags for life’s big days. At the heart of the brand’s ethos is an unwavering commitment to creating the perfect balance of beauty and comfort, whilst always taking care of the detail. The collection is designed in London by Emmy herself and is hand made in their Portuguese workshop. The company celebrates 20 years of Emmy London in 2024 and are proud of organically growing an independent retail brand whilst navigating the inevitable challenges of life & business.
SUSTAINABILITY PURPOSE
Emmy London runs on small stock levels offering ‘Ready to Wear’ shoes and ‘Made to Order’ services which support their commitment to avoid overproduction, minimal waste whilst maintaining a level of choice for their customer. In doing so the brand closely controls material selections, the tanneries supplying leather and suedes are LWG Gold certified, wools with Woolmark certification and more sustainable components and packaging. Emmy London's aim is to create beautiful products whilst being transparent about their sustainable ethos and efforts.
Established
2004
Headquarters
London, UK
First Certified
2023
Categories
Shoes
Website
Distribution
Worldwide
A WORD FROM THE FOUNDER
During the 20 years of Emmy London, sustainability has been at the core of our offer, but in more recent years we have focussed on areas of the product, packaging, or logistics to improve our sustainable credentials. I’m proud of our efforts, but acknowledge that it is a journey, we are evolving alongside our suppliers all the time to strive for better. Collaborating with our suppliers and nurturing long standing relationships has been at the heart of this journey, being kind and fair to suppliers is at the top of my priority list as a designer, business owner and as a human with a passion for progress.
EMMY SCARTERFIELD
FOUNDER & CREATIVE DIRECTOR
BUTTERFLY MARK TESTIMONIAL
Why did we choose to become Butterfly Mark Certified? As a team we were keen to embark on this journey as it provided a comprehensive structure for us to measure our commitment to sustainability. It opened our eyes to areas of the business we hadn’t explored before and provided a unique overview of how we are succeeding in our mission alongside the areas we need to focus on to improve. It’s been a very worthwhile project, enjoyable, collaborative and with a positive outcome.
EMMY SCARTERFIELD
FOUNDER & CREATIVE DIRECTOR
Case study
SUSTAINABLE SOURCING
Emmy London strives to minimise its environmental impact and ensure the longevity of their shoes sourcing only from certified suppliers. Emmy London runs a small stock and made-to-order service that supports their commitment to avoid overproduction. By producing in small quantities, the brand can control more closely the resources it is using and reduce excess inventory that may end up in landfill. When selecting materials such as suede and leather, the brand goes to suppliers are Leather Working Group (LWG) gold or silver certified tanneries, and source wool from suppliers who hold Woolmark certification. The brand also creates products using vegan suede, that is made partly from recycled plastics. The brand also chooses suppliers based on their ability to meet their sustainability requirements, their ability to be transparent about their practices and who are willing to work collaboratively with them to achieve mutual sustainability goals.
Case study
DIVERSITY, EQUALITY & INCLUSION
Emmy London is a female founded business and currently employs 90% women in their workforce. Part of their brand mission is to ‘dress women confidently’, putting women’s confidence at forefront of their design ethos. The business is a member of the network “Women’s Chapter” and have partnerships with other female-led businesses that cross promote each other’s products to respective customer bases. By 2026, Emmy London has a goal to implement a programme of support to promote women in creative industries, with focus on developing women for leadership roles & supporting entrepreneurship.
Case study
CLIMATE
Emmy London sources all electricity for their facilities from renewable sources – such as wind, solar or hydro. Their main shoe workshop and supplier uses onsite solar energy and they have retrofitted the lighting systems of the company’s facilities to energy efficient LED lighting. The logistic distribution follows the DHL Go-Green delivery for customer orders and by the end of 2024 Emmy London will introduce an option in their eCommerce checkout for customers to contribute to reforestation. By mid 2024 the business will complete the company's first Carbon assessment, with a plan to improve performance across their business and tier 1 suppliers ngoing forward.
WHERE NEXT?
The next challenge for Emmy London is to address the logistics of their return/exchange traffic. By delivering more accurate information on fit, materials and colours the brand can improve their return ratio which will impact energy, packaging and carbon footprint as well as create a more seamless experience for customers, employees, and suppliers.