Louis Vuitton Guam first with solar panels

Guam - Louis Vuitton has been associated with luxury and is synonymous

with the art of travel featuring its iconic trunks, luggage and

handbags. It can now add environmental stewards, as its global store on

Guam became the first and only LV store in the world to install a solar

panel system.

Although there are Louis Vuitton stores located in over 60 countries,

its global store at the Tumon Sands Plaza is the first and only store

to have a solar panel system. It's an initiative general manager

Edouard Faure says has been a long standing priority for Louis Vuitton

in protecting the environment. "We feel its very important and overall

the responsibility of the company and probably its even more important

in a small island like Guam where we know the resources are limited and

so we need to try to do our beset to best part of the community in this

sense," he said.

He says having a store on a tropical island makes it ideal to use solar

panels and hopes it inspires other stores to follow. The store features

210 solar panels where Louis Vuitton will be producing 54 kilowatts of

electricity making it the largest private power producer on Guam. "But

basically it's helping us reduce our electricity conception as well as

doing other initiatives with the air-conditioning the lighting and

everything," he said.

Louis Vuitton meanwhile has been reinforcing environmental measures in

areas such as architecture, merchandising and creative development for

years. Locally, its staff and management have involved itself with

environmental projects having established a green committee and taking

part in beach cleanups, recycling and finding new and innovative ways

to go green including participating in Earth Hour this past weekend.

"All the stores participated in earth hour, we dimmed the lights, and

we try to do the small things, which are not a huge thing but I think

the amount of the small things makes the big things happen at the end

of the day and so we feel its very important and we're very proud of

doing that," he noted.

Faure adds the solar panel installation was a significant investment in

the beginning but in the long run it will not only help its goal of

being environmentally friendly but make its team on Guam proud of the

company they work for.