Introducing the Sustainability Challenge of Textiles and Clothing

Abstract

As emphasized in the collection of articles for this special issue, clothing and textile production is one of the most polluting industries in the world. Its sustainability challenge involves multiple, interrelated, and complicated issues. Textiles and clothing now play a key role in the global public discourse on climate change, chemical society, water shortage, and human rights. Their production and consumption raise several questions and worries that create challenges about how people live their political, social, and economic lives. Many of the challenges concern several common societal and private practices and the role of various and often conflicting values associated with production and consumption. A large number of different actors and institutions from the corporate, governmental, civil society, media, and private spheres are involved as well. While there are technological solutions that solve some of the challenges, others require committed actions on the part of consumers, NGOs, government, business, and others; and increasingly so on an international scale. Particularly businesses and consumers have been identified as key actors here, due to the nature of the fast textile and fashion industry. Policy makers and activists ponder how businesses and consumers can be encouraged to take responsibility, take voluntary steps towards sustainability improvements, and at times even be outright forced to change their choices and behaviours. The deeper question is, however, whether, how, and to what degree they can take on new responsibility for ensuring that textile and clothing production becomes more sustainable. What mechanisms are currently used and which ones can be devised to make this happen? And how well are the ones presently in place working to solve this industry's sustainability challenge?Scholars stress that the problem areas in globalized textile and clothing production are highly complex. Technological fixes aside, they find that modifying behaviour and practice often requires the more complicated task of working with changing the values associated with production and consumption and doing so in a way sensitive to different cultural, geographic, and political contexts.

The Challenges for Sustainability Marketing Approach: An Empirical Study in Vietnamese Fashion SMEs

“…However, recent fashion studies about sustainability marketing focus too much on the large high-profile brands such as The Body Shop [16], Marks and Spencer [14], H&M [17], which in turn, lacking the generalization of the findings for SMEs. Few attempts to develop the theoretical model of sustainability for SMEs [6], [18]. However, most are conceptual studies.…”

Sustainability Issues in Textile and Apparel Supply Chains

“…As one of the world's most polluting industries [1], sustainability issues in the textile and apparel industry have received great attention [2]. With geographically long and complex global production networks, as well as the dual pressure for cost and lead time, implementing sustainability in textile and apparel supply chains is challenging [1,3,4].…”

“…With geographically long and complex global production networks, as well as the dual pressure for cost and lead time, implementing sustainability in textile and apparel supply chains is challenging [1,3,4]. The process of turning raw materials into finished garments has significant negative environmental and social implications, including air and water pollution and exploitation of human resources, especially where production is outsourced to lower labor cost countries.…”

Sustainability Assessment of Cotton-Based Textile Wet Processing

“…The cost of mordanting also needs to be considered in the case of natural dyeing [55]. There are also some mentionable research works on the technological development like, super critical dyeing, plasma dyeing, foam dyeing, but these are associated with high investment and maintenance costs [6,64]. Surface modification using those technologies can significantly reduce water, energy, chemical and time consumptions.…”

“…Achieving social sustainability is the responsibility of both the supply and demand sides of a society. The supply side, the manufacturers, and the demand side, the consumers, both should work hand in hand in practicing corporate social responsibility (CSR) and creating sustainability awareness [64]. Textile processing industries deal with some mechanical, chemical and biological hazards [67,70].…”