LVMH's environmental and social governance work for its Watches & Jewellery division operates within the group's overarching LIFE 360 framework — Lifecycle Initiative for the Environment, the comprehensive sustainability programme launched in 2021 to consolidate the group's pre-existing environmental commitments and set forward targets to 2026 and 2030. For Tiffany, Bulgari, Chaumet, Fred, Repossi, and the watch maisons, LIFE 360 covers traceability of raw materials, decarbonisation, biodiversity protection, circularity of products and packaging, and social and human-rights commitments across the upstream supply chain.

Traceability of diamonds and coloured stones

The most visible sustainability commitment in the division is Tiffany's diamond traceability programme. Since 2019, Tiffany has communicated to customers the country of origin or country of cutting and polishing of every individually registered diamond of 0.18 carats or larger, an industry-leading transparency commitment that pre-dates the LVMH acquisition. The maison has also pursued direct mine relationships in Botswana, Russia (subsequently constrained by sanctions), Canada, South Africa, and Namibia. Synthetic diamonds are not part of Tiffany's product offering at the time of writing.

For coloured stones, the division participates in the Responsible Jewellery Council certification framework, which sets standards for human rights, labour, environmental performance, and product disclosure across the gold, platinum-group-metal, and diamond supply chains, with coloured-stone provisions added in subsequent revisions. Bulgari and the other LVMH maisons hold RJC Code of Practices certification.

Traceability of coloured stones remains a more difficult problem than diamond traceability owing to the fragmented and frequently artisanal nature of much coloured-stone supply. The maisons have engaged with origin-attestation efforts including Gemfields' Inkwenkwezi tracking and certain origin certification schemes for individual high-value stones, but full chain-of-custody traceability for coloured stones at scale remains an industry-wide challenge that no single maison has yet solved.

Gold and metals

For gold, LIFE 360 commits the maisons to sourcing from RJC Chain-of-Custody-certified suppliers, which means refined metal that has been segregated from non-certified supply through every step of the supply chain. The division has also moved toward greater use of recycled gold, with Bulgari, Chaumet, and Fred reporting significant or full recycled-gold sourcing in recent annual reports. Recycled gold reduces the demand pressure on freshly mined material and the associated environmental and social impacts of artisanal and large-scale mining.

Platinum-group metals are sourced through similar RJC-certified channels. The watch maisons have additional commitments around steel and other case metals, with TAG Heuer, Hublot, and Zenith all engaged in supply-chain sustainability work appropriate to their respective product lines.

Carbon and energy

LIFE 360 sets group-level decarbonisation targets aligned with the Science Based Targets initiative methodology. The targets cover Scope 1 (direct), Scope 2 (purchased energy), and Scope 3 (upstream and downstream) emissions, with the watches and jewellery division contributing to the group total through manufacturing operations, retail energy use, and the upstream emissions of mined raw materials.

For the maisons, the most material decarbonisation work is concentrated in two areas: retail-network energy use, where the LIFE 360 commitment is to renewable electricity sourcing, and upstream supply-chain emissions, which depend heavily on the carbon intensity of mined gold and rough-diamond production. The recycled-gold pivot is materially relevant here, as recycled gold has substantially lower embodied carbon than primary mined gold.

Air-freight reduction has been a focus area for the watches and jewellery division, given the prevalence of high-value air shipping in the supply chain and its disproportionate carbon impact relative to ocean freight.

Biodiversity and water

The biodiversity dimension of LIFE 360 is particularly relevant to the upstream mining components of the supply chain. Mining for gold and rough diamonds can have significant local biodiversity and water impacts, and the division's traceability and supplier-engagement work includes biodiversity provisions for upstream operations.

Tiffany's relationship with the World Wildlife Fund and its public positions on no-go areas for mining (including world heritage sites and protected coral environments) pre-date the LVMH acquisition and have been continued under group ownership. Chaumet, Bulgari, and the other maisons participate in industry biodiversity initiatives appropriate to their supply-chain footprints.

Social and human rights

The social pillar of LIFE 360 covers human rights and labour standards across the upstream supply chain, with particular focus on artisanal mining communities and conditions in cutting and polishing centres. RJC certification provides a baseline framework, and individual maisons have additional supplier-engagement and audit commitments above the RJC floor.

The division has also engaged with sanctions and reputational issues affecting specific origins, including the constraints on Russian diamonds following 2022 sanctions and the long-running concerns about Myanmar coloured-stone sourcing. The maisons' positions on these have been consistent with industry good practice and have generally led rather than lagged peer behaviour.

Reporting and assurance

LVMH publishes annual sustainability reporting with division-level disclosure for Watches & Jewellery, including LIFE 360 metric progress, qualitative descriptions of maison-level initiatives, and third-party assurance on key performance indicators. The reporting follows GRI Standards and increasingly aligns with the Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive framework that applies to large EU-listed companies. For trade observers and investors interested in luxury sector sustainability practice, the LVMH annual report and the maison-specific sustainability communications are among the most detailed publicly available references.

In the trade

The maisons' sustainability work has competitive significance beyond reputation management. Provenance-conscious buyers — particularly in the high-jewellery and engagement-ring segments — increasingly factor traceability and ethical sourcing into purchase decisions. Tiffany's pre-existing traceability programme was an asset in the LVMH acquisition rationale, and the broader division has positioned sustainability as a material differentiator versus less-transparent competitors. The trade-wide shift toward traceability has meaningful implications for upstream operators including miners, cutters, and dealers, all of whom face increasing buyer-side expectations on documentation and chain of custody.

Further reading

• LVMH — sustainability commitments and LIFE 360
• Responsible Jewellery Council — certification framework
• Tiffany & Co. — sustainability and diamond traceability