In the late 1980s, Pier Luigi Loro Piana was in a bind. As a chief executive of the Italian luxury-fashion company Loro Piana, he
wanted to offer his customers the finest animal fiber in the world: the hair of the vicuña, a small llama-like creature native to the high
plains of the Peruvian Andes. The problem was that the animal was listed as endangered, its fleece subject to an international
embargo.
The solution he came up with was to become involved in the animal's protection. Until the embargo, which had been put in place
in the 1970s, the vicuña had been at risk of being hunted to extinction. Its hair, finer than the softest cashmere, fetched high prices on
the global market. (Loro Piana's father Franco had been among the first to import it to Italy.) But the demand had at one point cut the
total population to just 5,000. And while the ban on exportation allowed the numbers to rebound, there was little chance the hunt
would be permitted again.
The answer, he decided, was to partner with the government of Peru to develop a new way to harvest the vicuña's hair. Instead of
the animal's being killed for its fleece, it would be sheared like a sheep. The company would get the raw material to make its coats,
scarves and sweaters. The Peruvians would be blessed with a new source of income. And best of all, the vicuña would continue to
recover. "We needed to find a socioeconomic role for the animals to give the local Peruvians an incentive to protect them," says Loro
Piana. "A live vicuña needed to be worth more than a dead one.
Call it an act of selfish environmentalism. In 1994 the Italian firm became the majority partner in a consortium, the first
organization since the ban to be allowed to buy, export and market the luxury fiber. Today the company runs a 2,000-hectare reserve
dedicated to the preservation and study of the vicuña. Across the entire Andes, the animal's population is nearing 200,000. Once every
two years, those in Peru are gathered for shearing. The rest of the time, they range wild.
Loro Piana isn't the only company that has turned green in service of its bottom line. Just as its chief executive realized that
without the vicuña, there would be no vicuña scarves, other executives around the world are becoming aware that ecological
degradation has the potential to put their businesses at risk. "A lot of companies start out with the environment as a way to look good,"
says Phil Radford, executive director of Greenpeace USA. "Then they find out there are both reputational and financial gains."
【題組】41. What is the article mainly about?
(A) How companies can protect their supply chains by protecting the environment.
(B) Why vicuña, a small llama-like creature, is no longer an extinct animal.
(C) What companies can do to gain reputation as well as financial benefits.
(D) Where customers can purchase the finest fiber in the world.
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