15 Sustainable Supply Chain Management of Clothing Industry …
205
In addition to waste prevention work led primarily by the Swedish Environmental
Protection Agency (EPA), the Swedish Chemical Agency also set textiles as one of
their priority products using hazardous chemicals (Kemikalieinspektionen 2011), and
have been active in exploring possibilities of closing material loops while avoiding
hazardous substances.
In 2016, the Swedish EPA put together a policy proposal for more sustainable
handling of textile and textile waste in response to government commission. In
addition to setting an overarching waste reduction and reuse/recycling targets, they
also provided two policy options for three life cycle phases of textiles—production, consumption and waste management—respectively. The four policy options
they suggested for sustainable production and consumption were (1) facilitation of
dialogue with clothing industry sector, (2) financial support for SMEs to develop
alternative business models, (3) Green public procurement to enhance reuse and
recycling, and (4) information to consumer. Concerning option 1, the Swedish EPA
and Chemical Agency have been organising “textile dialogue day” twice a year,
which enjoy the participation of a large number of various stakeholders.
15.2.3 Reflection
As seen, a number of policy measures and documents recently developed both at the
EU level and in Sweden highlight textiles as a priority product group. Many aims
to address upstream environmental and/or social impacts of clothing industry in one
way or the other. Meanwhile, except for the mandates in waste related laws, the 2006
REACH Regulation and 2014 non-financial information disclosure Directive, they
are essentially voluntary policy measures such as provision of financial support and
information dissemination. The fact that the vast majority of clothing companies
in Europe are SMEs with less than 50 employees reduce the relevance of the nonfinancial information disclosure Directive.
15.3 Roles of Multi Stakeholder Initiatives for SSCM
of Swedish Clothing Brands 1
Given this policy context, we now seek to explore the experiences of Swedish clothing
brands in participating in three MSIs selected for the study—Sustainable Apparel
Coalition (SAC), Sweden Textile Water Initiative (STWI) and Textile Exchange (TE).
MSIs were selected based on the following criteria: (1) if they address environmental challenges in apparel supply chains, (2) participation of Swedish fashion
brands, (3) solid establishment of the MSIs judged based on the duration of establishment and participation of leading brands. Concerning the first criteria, to gain
1 The content of this section is primarily based on (Machek 2018), unless otherwise mentioned.
205
In addition to waste prevention work led primarily by the Swedish Environmental
Protection Agency (EPA), the Swedish Chemical Agency also set textiles as one of
their priority products using hazardous chemicals (Kemikalieinspektionen 2011), and
have been active in exploring possibilities of closing material loops while avoiding
hazardous substances.
In 2016, the Swedish EPA put together a policy proposal for more sustainable
handling of textile and textile waste in response to government commission. In
addition to setting an overarching waste reduction and reuse/recycling targets, they
also provided two policy options for three life cycle phases of textiles—production, consumption and waste management—respectively. The four policy options
they suggested for sustainable production and consumption were (1) facilitation of
dialogue with clothing industry sector, (2) financial support for SMEs to develop
alternative business models, (3) Green public procurement to enhance reuse and
recycling, and (4) information to consumer. Concerning option 1, the Swedish EPA
and Chemical Agency have been organising “textile dialogue day” twice a year,
which enjoy the participation of a large number of various stakeholders.
15.2.3 Reflection
As seen, a number of policy measures and documents recently developed both at the
EU level and in Sweden highlight textiles as a priority product group. Many aims
to address upstream environmental and/or social impacts of clothing industry in one
way or the other. Meanwhile, except for the mandates in waste related laws, the 2006
REACH Regulation and 2014 non-financial information disclosure Directive, they
are essentially voluntary policy measures such as provision of financial support and
information dissemination. The fact that the vast majority of clothing companies
in Europe are SMEs with less than 50 employees reduce the relevance of the nonfinancial information disclosure Directive.
15.3 Roles of Multi Stakeholder Initiatives for SSCM
of Swedish Clothing Brands 1
Given this policy context, we now seek to explore the experiences of Swedish clothing
brands in participating in three MSIs selected for the study—Sustainable Apparel
Coalition (SAC), Sweden Textile Water Initiative (STWI) and Textile Exchange (TE).
MSIs were selected based on the following criteria: (1) if they address environmental challenges in apparel supply chains, (2) participation of Swedish fashion
brands, (3) solid establishment of the MSIs judged based on the duration of establishment and participation of leading brands. Concerning the first criteria, to gain
1 The content of this section is primarily based on (Machek 2018), unless otherwise mentioned.