Chapter 15
Sustainable Supply Chain Management
of Clothing Industry—Current Policy
Landscape and Roles and Limitation
of Multi-stakeholder Initiatives
Dominika Machek, Caroline Heinz, and Naoko Tojo
Abstract High environmental and social impacts arisen from long and complicated
global supply chain of clothing industry has been long recognized. However, a thorough review of the sustainable supply chain management (SSCM) policy development pertaining to clothing industry at the EU level indicates that legislative measures
specifically addressing SSCM of clothing industry is currently lacking. Multistakeholder initiatives (MSIs) emerged as a non-legislative governance measure
engaging various stakeholders, and its role to fill in the governance gap has
been highlighted in, among others, the global supply chains of clothing industry.
Interviews with nine Swedish brand representatives participating in three selected
MSIs—Sustainable Apparel Coalition, Sweden Textile Water Initiative and Textile
Exchange—on one hand elucidate tangible contributions of the three case MSIs to the
brands’ SSCM measures. We meanwhile also observe the trend of various MSIs to
consolidate their efforts and harmonise their activities, and that the discourse within
the MSIs tend to be dominated by a few large brands. The outcome of such discourse,
such as standards which in light of current lack of legislative measures could serve
as default global standards, may become a suboptimal compromise from sustainability standpoint. The paper closes with potential future way forward to enhance
sustainability of clothing supply chain.
Keywords Clothing industry · Textiles · Sustainable supply chain management
(SSCM) · Government interventions · Multi-stakeholder initiative (MSI) ·
Privatisation of standards · EU · Sweden · Brand’s perception
D. Machek
CSR Västsverige, Göteborg, Sweden
C. Heinz
Sofies, London, United Kingdom
N. Tojo (B)
International Institute for Industrial Environmental Economics at Lund University, Lund, Sweden
e-mail: naoko.tojo@iiiee.lu.se
© Springer Nature Singapore Pte Ltd. 2021
Y. Kishita et al. (eds.), EcoDesign and Sustainability I, Sustainable Production, Life Cycle
Engineering and Management, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-15-6779-7_15
199
Sustainable Supply Chain Management
of Clothing Industry—Current Policy
Landscape and Roles and Limitation
of Multi-stakeholder Initiatives
Dominika Machek, Caroline Heinz, and Naoko Tojo
Abstract High environmental and social impacts arisen from long and complicated
global supply chain of clothing industry has been long recognized. However, a thorough review of the sustainable supply chain management (SSCM) policy development pertaining to clothing industry at the EU level indicates that legislative measures
specifically addressing SSCM of clothing industry is currently lacking. Multistakeholder initiatives (MSIs) emerged as a non-legislative governance measure
engaging various stakeholders, and its role to fill in the governance gap has
been highlighted in, among others, the global supply chains of clothing industry.
Interviews with nine Swedish brand representatives participating in three selected
MSIs—Sustainable Apparel Coalition, Sweden Textile Water Initiative and Textile
Exchange—on one hand elucidate tangible contributions of the three case MSIs to the
brands’ SSCM measures. We meanwhile also observe the trend of various MSIs to
consolidate their efforts and harmonise their activities, and that the discourse within
the MSIs tend to be dominated by a few large brands. The outcome of such discourse,
such as standards which in light of current lack of legislative measures could serve
as default global standards, may become a suboptimal compromise from sustainability standpoint. The paper closes with potential future way forward to enhance
sustainability of clothing supply chain.
Keywords Clothing industry · Textiles · Sustainable supply chain management
(SSCM) · Government interventions · Multi-stakeholder initiative (MSI) ·
Privatisation of standards · EU · Sweden · Brand’s perception
D. Machek
CSR Västsverige, Göteborg, Sweden
C. Heinz
Sofies, London, United Kingdom
N. Tojo (B)
International Institute for Industrial Environmental Economics at Lund University, Lund, Sweden
e-mail: naoko.tojo@iiiee.lu.se
© Springer Nature Singapore Pte Ltd. 2021
Y. Kishita et al. (eds.), EcoDesign and Sustainability I, Sustainable Production, Life Cycle
Engineering and Management, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-15-6779-7_15
199