The Circular Economy in the Tuscan Fashion Industry: A Value Chain Approach

Abstract

The purpose of this chapter is to discuss the Circular Economy (CE) model as applied to the case study of the Fashion industry in Tuscany. More specifically, we try to find out to what extent the potentials for environmental upgrading are channelled through the supply chain and we suggest that the CE perspective is intrinsically connected to the global manufacturing production and consumption.To achieve this purpose, we perform a multiple correspondence analysis (MCA) using data stemming from a survey on Tuscan manufacturing firms about their initiatives of sustainability upgrading. Although in terms of fixed investments the fashion industry lags slightly behind, our analysis shows that firms are getting more conscious about the need for preserving resources and saving inputs. However, the paradigmatic shift towards CE requires more profound changes in their business model. Indeed, it confirms that the value chain is a relevant channel for environmental upgrading, albeit the activation of such a channel requires to have adopted specific environmental innovations.This chapter is organised as follows: Section “Circular Economy, Firms Behaviour and Value Chains” introduces a review of the literature. Section “Fashion Industry in Tuscany: Specialisations, Value Chain Structure and Carbon Footprint” presents the main characteristics of the Tuscan Fashion. Section “Descriptive Analysis” sketches some descriptive results from the MCA. Section “Concluding Remarks” concludes.