Prada

Italian luxury fashion house Prada Group has made history as the first luxury brand to obtain a sustainability term loan deal.

The £42.9m (€50m) deal was signed with French cooperative banking group Crédit Agricole and lasts for five years.

Prada will be required to fulfil three sustainability-related conditions as part of the deal. The first centres on the company’s brick-and-mortar retail stores, with a number of them required to hold a Gold or Platinum Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design green-building certification.

The second condition requires the company to increase employee training hours and the third requires the group to use regenerated nylon (Re-Nylon) for product production. Also referred to as Econyl, the material is created from plastic waste such as reclaimed fishing nets and can be recycled, recreated and remoulded. The company said its ultimate goal is to convert all its virgin nylon into Re-Nylon by the end of 2021.