Kering Announces the 4th edition of its Kering Generation Award in China

Kering, in partnership with innovation platform Plug and Play, has announced the 4th edition of its Kering Generation Award in China. This year’s theme, “Pioneering Water Positive Impact in Luxury” seeks to highlight once more sustainability-driven innovations in China’s fashion and beauty industries. Since its 2018 inception, the Kering Generation Award has championed sustainable startups in the region, with recent expansions to Japan and Saudi Arabia as well as the Jewellery industry. 

As climate change intensifies challenges like floods, droughts, and water scarcity, the award aims to spotlight start-ups and solutions that address water stewardship across the luxury value chain. The initiative builds on Kering’s groundbreaking commitment to biodiversity, first unveiled during COP16, when it became the world’s first company to set science-based freshwater targets. 

This year’s edition proposes to explore innovation around water stewardship across the value chain of luxury industry through 3 different sub-themes: “Rejuvenate Earth Water Ecosystem”, “Navigate Industry Water Risks” and “Enhance consumers' water consciousness and transform lifestyles”.

With a scouting process kicked off in January 2025, selection will be based on a variety of criteria such as innovation, tech maturity, potential for commercial success, social and environmental impact, and relevance to fashion. The winners will be revealed during Shanghai Fashion Week in October 2025. The first prize winner will receive €100,000, with the top three finalists gaining access to Kering’s industry network, mentorship from sustainability experts, and a visit to Kering’s Paris headquarters. The laureates will also join an exclusive “Glaciers and Climate Change” polar study tour. 

Aiming to empower young entrepreneurs, this edition's awards, will for the first time cooperate with Tsinghua x-lab, expanding the cooperation of industry, academia, research. Tsinghua x-lab, as an educational platform for discovering and cultivating Tsinghua University's “Creativity, Innovation and Entrepreneurship” talents, has gathered many hard science and technology startups and innovative talents from Tsinghua University. 
 

About the Kering Generation Award

In 2017, as part of its Sustainability strategy, Kering joined the "Plug and Play - Fashion for Good" accelerator to identify more sustainable and innovative materials and processes in Europe. In 2018, in partnership with Plug and Play China, Kering launched the first edition of the "Kering Generation Award" to support Chinese start-ups with a positive environmental and social impact. Since then, the "Kering Generation Award" has been launched in Japan, and then in Saudi Arabia with the support of the Fashion Commission.

About Kering

A global Luxury group, Kering manages the development of a series of renowned Houses in Fashion, Leather Goods and Jewelry: Gucci, Saint Laurent, Bottega Veneta, Balenciaga, Alexander McQueen, Brioni, Boucheron, Pomellato, DoDo, Qeelin and Ginori 1735, as well as Kering Eyewear and Kering Beauté. By placing creativity at the heart of its strategy, Kering enables its Houses to set new limits in terms of their creative expression while crafting tomorrow’s Luxury in a sustainable and responsible way. We capture these beliefs in our signature: “Empowering Imagination”. In 2023, Kering had 49,000 employees and revenue of €19.6 billion.