Our Burberry Beyond strategy encompasses our work with respect to the sustainability-related impacts, risks and opportunities that exist within our value chain.
With its Product, Planet, People and Communities pillars, the strategy aims to strengthen Burberry’s resilience by reducing our environmental footprint and ensuring the Company behaves responsibly towards our planet, our people and the communities we impact.
In FY 2025/26, we carried out a double materiality assessment (DMA) to identify and evaluate the sustainability topics across our value chain which are material to us as a business. Undergoing a DMA enables us to understand materiality from two lenses: financial materiality (the impact the environment and society have on Burberry’s financial position) and impact materiality (the impact Burberry has on the environment and society). Understanding our materiality enables us to monitor the most significant IROs across our value chain and manage these accordingly. The results of our DMA have been used to support the evolution of our Burberry Beyond strategy and will continue to guide our actions across these sustainability topics.
We are building a stronger Burberry by listening to our stakeholders. Regularly engaging with stakeholders throughout the year helps us to understand their priorities and shape how we deliver our strategy (as detailed on pages 39 to 40). In addition to this ongoing engagement, we also incorporated insights from stakeholders as part of our FY 2025/26 DMA process. Using a combination of public reports and primary data from conversations and surveys, we ensured our stakeholders’ priorities were represented in the DMA and material topics were identified and prioritised based on this.
Performed using the concepts and framework of the European Sustainability Reporting Standards (ESRS), our DMA involved a multi-step process of identifying, assessing and validating sustainability-related IROs across our value chain. Partnering with a third-party AI-based application, which gathered information from millions of publicly available sources, we used a data-driven, evidence-based approach. Data sources included mandatory regulations, corporate reports and media, in addition to information garnered from voluntary initiatives and standards and frameworks created by self-regulatory industry bodies and NGOs, such as the Global Reporting Initiative (GRI) and Sustainability Accounting Standards Board (SASB) standards. We also included data representative of the opinions and voices of stakeholders (as mentioned in the Stakeholder engagement section above). This comprised feedback derived from discussions with key supply chain partners, customer insights and reports, as well as the results of a survey conducted with our Sustainability Committee and Ethics Committee members. The outcomes of this analysis provided us with an understanding of the external and internal context within which we operate, including a list of relevant sustainability topics across our value chain to be evaluated for IROs.
Based on the outcomes of the context analysis, a long list of IROs was evaluated by 20 subject-matter experts across the business. For financial risks and opportunities, subject-matter experts determined the likelihood of the topics occurring and the magnitude of potential financial effects if they were to occur. The scales used for this assessment were aligned with our Group Risk Management Framework. For negative and positive impacts, the IROs were assessed based on scale, scope and irremediability (for negative impacts). All IROs were also determined by their classification (actual or potential), time horizon and their placement on the value chain.
The assessed IROs were then validated by the Corporate Responsibility and Sustainable Finance teams to ensure consistency across the scoring and alignment of assumptions made. All financial risks and opportunities were also reviewed against our Group Risk Management Framework and principal risks (see page 95 for more information). The IROs were then mapped to a list of topics and sub-topics aligned to the ESRS. The materiality thresholds applied to the DMA were quantitative and agreed across Corporate Responsibility and Sustainable Finance to ensure levels were reflective of our organisational size and structure while taking account of our external impacts.
The calibration of the IROs resulted in a final list of 10 material sustainability topics and 24 sub-topics. This list of material sustainability topics was approved by the Audit Committee in March 2026. The material sustainability topics and sub-topics identified in our DMA process as being the most significant to and for our business are listed on page 42 of our Annual Report.
Sustainability is a core part of Burberry’s strategy, with the Board responsible for both its oversight and its integration across the business.
Our Governance Framework of Committees oversee the implementation of our Sustainability strategy, Burberry Beyond and provide regular updates and key information to the Board.
These include:
For further information on our governance framework, please see the Corporate Governance page.
Further details on these executive committees and their actions in FY 2025/26 can be found in our Annual Report 2025/26.
Our Responsibility agenda contributes to a range of the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals, where we feel we are uniquely placed to make a positive difference. We recognise the power of working in collaboration to drive real change in the industry, which is why SDG 17 runs across the breadth of our strategy enabling progress in all areas of our work. We are focused on working together with industry peers, business partners and other key stakeholder groups to find long term solutions and promote wider industry change.
Our partnerships include, but are not limited to:
As a member to RE100, a global initiative committed to 100% renewable electricity, we promote the use of renewables in our own operations and supply chain.
We are a principle partner of the Living Wage Foundation & Global Living Wage Initiative, an organisation that encourages responsible employers to go further and pay a real Living Wage based on the cost of living, not just the government minimum.
We engage with Accounting for Sustainability (A4S) - a forum which aims to inspire action by finance leaders to drive a fundamental shift towards resilient business models and a sustainable economy.
We work closely with other brands as part of the Corporate Water Leaders group, a global network of working groups dedicated to solving industrial water challenges and furthering water stewardship.
We are members of The Fashion Pact, a global initiative of companies in the fashion industry, which aims to forge a nature-positive, net zero future for fashion.
We are a signatory to the UN’s Fashion Industry Charter for Climate Action which aims to drive change across the fashion industry, with an initial goal of reducing aggregate GHG emissions by 30% by 2030.
We are a member of the Textile Exchange, which is a global non-profit driving beneficial outcomes for climate and nature across the fashion, textile, and apparel industry. The organisation guides a growing community of brands, manufacturers, and farmers towards more purposeful production from the very start of the supply chain.
Burberry has been an active member of the Zero Discharge of Hazardous Chemicals (ZDHC) Foundation since 2014, a non-profit organisation dedicated to phasing out hazardous chemicals from the textile, apparel, leather and footwear value chains to help protect our planet.
