Evidences on sustainability issues in the Fashion Supply Chain: An empirical study in Italy

Abstract

The fashion industry is among the most polluting in the world, consuming large quantities of resources, hydric above all, and is responsible for massive harmful emissions and wastewaters. Moreover, demand for new products is currently extremely high, thus determining more sources to be managed, waste, a greater impact of production systems. Several studies have been proposed in literature addressing sustainability issues, but companies' perspective is rarely included and empirical research was highly recommended from researchers. In response, the will to collect evidences of some selected aspects related to drivers encouraging sustainable actions, practices, and performances reached. To this end, a survey was developed and sent to some Northern Italian companies operating in the fashion field. Descriptive, factor, cluster and discriminant analyses were performed on the sample using Statistical Package for Social Science software package. The companies surveyed show awareness and information about the issues related to sustainability and they are also willing to support actions for greening their supply chain. However, they are also hesitant towards the concrete adoption of green practices (both at present and in the future). Among the main findings, unexpectedly, the topic of Reverse Logistics turned out to be of scarce interest, while the quality of garments is perceived not to be affected by the usage of recycled or alternative raw materials. The same survey was also sent to 253 academics for comparing the two perspectives; overall, they turned out to be aligned regarding the issues investigated. This work contributes to enrich research about sustainability on the Italian fashion context, in which a similar investigation actually lacks.