Behind the Seams: Investigating the Balance of Cost and Sustainability in the Sourcing of Renewable Textile Materials

Abstract: The textile industry is a significant contributor to environmental pollution, with a substantial portion of this impact stemming from the upstream supply chain. Despite the growing recognition of renewable materials as a viable solution for achieving sustainability and circularity goals outlined by European legislators, existing literature has largely overlooked the relationship between buying firms and renewable textile material suppliers. This master's thesis aims to bridge this gap by examining both parties' perspectives on cost and sustainability, focusing on the potential for collaboration to ameliorate the trade-off between these factors. Utilising semi-structured interviews with nine material innovators and twelve employees from a multinational buyer company, alongside a group interview, this study investigates the challenges and opportunities in balancing cost and sustainability in the renewable textile material sourcing process. The findings reveal that collaboration between material innovators and buying firms is critical for achieving a better balance between cost and sustainability, suggesting that working more closely can yield mutually beneficial outcomes. Additionally, both the innovators and the buying firm support the need for a harmonised system of sustainability measurement and assessment tools that can improve the sourcing process from both cost and sustainability perspectives. The findings can serve as a valuable tool for industry stakeholders, policymakers, and as a base for future research in the field of renewable textile materials sourcing. For future research, it is recommended to incorporate the perspectives of tier-one suppliers and other supply chain actors, providing a comprehensive understanding of the dynamics and decision-making processes involved in renewable textile material sourcing. Additionally, further investigation could explore the experiences of a more diversified sample of buying companies to validate and refine the insights.