LONDON.- Christie’s, the world’s leading art and luxury business, has had its Sustainability plans to reach Net Zero by 2050 approved by the Science Based Targets initiative (SBTi), the UN-backed regulator that sets industry benchmarks for the measurement of carbon emissions.

In 2021, Christie’s set ambitious goals to become a more sustainable business, becoming the only international auction house to date to do so. Christie’s fourth Environmental Impact Report (2023) published in April confirmed that, based on current industry standards, it made a 57% reduction in carbon emissions last year against the baseline year of 2019.

Guillaume Cerutti, Christie’s Chief Executive Officer, said: “The SBTi approval is a significant milestone in our commitment to climate leadership in the art market. Climate science shows it is still possible to limit global temperature rise to 1.5°C, but we are all too aware how dangerously close we are to that threshold. We will continue to collaborate with the wider art community to drive systematic change in our industry.”

Julien Pradels, Global Head of Operations at Christie’s, commented: “We have worked hard since 2021 to make changes in our business and to partner with our suppliers on new ways of working and adapting the products we use to reach our near term targets in 2030. Now we need to focus efforts towards the new Net Zero target we have set for 2050, which includes a reduction in emissions of 90%. Behavioural change at every level remains central the most important part to reaching this target.” and we need to adopt to these new parameters collaboratively.”

Christie’s  

• is committed to reducing its carbon emissions by 50% by 2030 and by 90% by 2050

• has pledged to communicate – and continue to share progress and learnings  

• collaborates, not only within the business but with external partners to support climate-focused initiatives that effect positive change