The luxury sector has been a late mover to promote sustainable and ethical practices. Yet, diverse actors from the ecosystem, customers, large companies, smaller companies, federations, have raised their voices to not only express concerns but also change their practices. There is still some debate and skepticism about the relevance, the importance and the reality of corporate social responsibility in the luxury sector, but if we take for granted that an organization wants to be sustainable, what are the main challenges that have to be faced? We build our enquiry on the case study of three “pure players” of sustainability on the luxury market and identify three types of controversies that make it “tough to be at the top”. Innovative solutions are numerous to reorganize luxury activities to answer key concerns at different levels of the value chain, yet they also involve choices. The luxury sector tends to be a “storytelling industry” where discourses may hide reality, but it is important to tackle the issue of sustainability without lifting the debates and difficulties. That is where ethical competences are embedded.
