Sustainable Decision-Making in the Fashion Industry : How to influence the fashion industry to adopt more sustainable packaging solutions

Abstract: Today, the fashion industry is responsible for 4 per cent of the global greenhouse gas emissions in the atmosphere and 20-35 per cent of the microplastics in the ocean. It is thereby a highly debated industry when it comes to environmental sustainability. Different actors in the sector are stressing how reducing the ecological impact of the business is a matter of staying competitive forward. Many actors in the industry are trying to change towards reducing its effects on the environment. Still, complex global supply chains and business models such as ‘fast fashion’, i.e. fashion produced under short cycles, make it difficult. For an industry that wants to reduce its impacts on the environment, including a worldwide complex supply chain, and customer demand for ecommerce is increasing every day, adopting sustainable decision packaging suctions is essential. Our research shows that the investigated companies have prioritised sustainability aspects for their garments; however, sustainability focus on packaging can sometimes fall behind, and external guidance is sometimes needed. This research will investigate how an incumbent packaging firm can influence its customers in the fashion industry to make more sustainable decisions regarding packaging. It will be done by a digital platform that performs lifecycle assessments (LCA) in the early stage of the development process. Our research will investigate how this platform can create maximum value for its customers in the fashion industry. Hence, this research includes interviews with and reviews of actors in the industry to explore what drives and institutional logics (parameters) affect how different actors in the fashion industry are approaching sustainability today. Findings show that there exist drivers and institutional logics in these company cases. The most extensive drivers are standards and regulations, consumer awareness, competitive advantage and top management. The study further suggests that larger actors seem to be more affected by external factors such as standards and regulations and public pressure. Smaller actors seem to be more affected by internal drivers, such as top management and originality. This research proposes that some influential institutional logics affect how companies are approaching sustainability. The results reveal that companies with prices in the mid-market segment, headquarter location in Europe, product type sportswear, and high revenue are working more than other actors in the industry when it comes to sustainability today. During this research, it was possible to see that some barriers exist to become more sustainable. These include uncertainty and lack of knowledge, lack of transparency, increased costs, complex supply chain, packaging being less prioritised in working with sustainability, the functionality of sustainable packaging being rarely something that could be compromised. After the data collection, conclusions regarding the platform’s ability to influence customers in the fashion industry to make more sustainable decisions regarding their packaging solutions could be made. These include that the platform should be transparent, the magnitude of data, and well incorporated in the upcoming sales- and design process. However, it is shown that using LCA in a platform like this is helpful as a guiding tool and as a first initial conversation when developing a product. Further earlier scholars agree that sustainability aspects should be included in such an early stage as possible in the development process to ensure the most sustainable product during its lifetime possible. Furthermore, those companies without any person responsible for sustainable packaging or key performance indicators (KPIs) focusing on this specific area might be more interested in such a platform. This study will contribute to research by serving as a foundation for other actors looking into the possibilities of implementing a platform to guide and influence their customers to make more sustainable decisions, indicating what functional applications should be included and whatcustomers to target in such platform. Further research should investigate this topic on a broader scale, looking into a more extensive and more diverse sample and a possible application of this study in other industries.