Beyond Direct Business Connections An Assessment of Environmental Initiative in Fashion Industry to Reach Out to Second Tier Suppliers

Abstract: Customers and the stakeholders are putting increased pressure on the companies to take responsibility for environmental issues in their supply chain. This may not be very easy for the companies, especially if the suppliers causing pollution are beyond company's direct business connections. This study tries to understand this phenomenon by means of a case study in the fashion industry. A Swedish fashion retailer, H&M has taken a Cleaner Production (CP) initiative to improve environmental performance in its second tier suppliers, which are beyond its direct business connections. The case study is described and analysed based on two different models to understand different aspects of the initiative. Also, valuable opinions from the fashion retailer and its first and second tier suppliers have been compiled to realise the perspectives of different actors in the supply chain. Although there is still scope for improvement in this ongoing CP program, it makes an interesting study due to the presence of a business entity like H&M as a promoter of an environmental initiative. Such an involvement of a big company should encourage other companies to take up similar programs to green their respective supply chains. The study ends by giving recommendations for the immediate improvements of the focussed case study, as well as the long term recommendations for the companies to reach beyond their direct business connects with the issues like environment. The need for integrating environmental issues with other core business issues, recognising the efforts made by suppliers at all the level have been stressed to achieve wider goal of sustainable production.