Determination of barriers in embedding environmental sustainability practices in the apparel sector of Sri Lanka

Abstract

After oil, apparel is the second most polluting industry in the globe. Therefore, the implementation of environmentally sustainable practices in the apparel industry is a hotly debated topic around the globe. Sri Lanka's principal export revenue generator is the apparel industry, which accounts for more than forty percent of its export revenue. This research was conducted to identify the barriers that challenge in embedding environmental sustainability practices in Sri Lanka's apparel industry. Using a mixed method approach, quantitative data were collected via an online questionnaire survey (205 respondents) and qualitative data were collected via semi-structured interviews (30 interviews). Using universally accepted scientific methodologies, sample size, and data analysis methods were determined. The researcher was unable to locate any similar scholarly work on Sri Lanka's apparel industry, despite finding numerous studies on the same topic for other important apparel-producing nations in Asia and Africa. Consequently, five barriers, namely lack of environmental awareness, lack of financial resources, lack of management commitment and leadership, poor organizational culture, and lack of technology were extracted from the extensive literature review conducted using previous scholarly work from other countries and evaluated for the Sri Lankan context using the quantitative and qualitative data mentioned above. All these barriers were found to be pertinent to Sri Lanka's apparel industry, with lack of financial resources being the most challenging and lack of environmental awareness being the least challenging barrier. None of the respondents mentioned any other barriers apart from those listed above.