Sixteenth International Conference on Environmental, Cultural, Economic & Social Sustainability

Abstract

There is increasing pressure on textile and garment supply chains to demonstrate social and environmental sustainability, as well as product stewardship. Multinational retailers and non-government organisations, typically headquartered in the Global North, dominate the conversation. However, perspectives on sustainability are needed from right across the garment value chain in order to achieve wide-reaching societal, natural and profitable benefits. These stages include: fibre and other inputs, yarn, textile and garment manufacturing, retail, use, resale, recycling, and end-of-life. This paper argues that while there are various methods and tools available to analyse and assess a product’s environmental and/or social impacts across its lifetime, there are few which identify the value that may be captured from interventions for sustainability for different actors and communities. For example, retailers with take-back recycling schemes are creating environmental value by stopping product going straight to landfill, but what other types of value does this initiative create? Drawing on value chain analysis and value mapping tools, this paper provides a model of a Sustainable Value Chain Analysis tailored to the textile and clothing sector. It involves walking a value chain conducting interviews with value chain members from the beginning starting with inputs through to how the product is destroyed, and identifying what sustainable value is, where it is captured, who it benefits both in and beyond the chain (such as wider society, the environment, communities, etc.) and opportunities to create sustainable value in the future. This approach delivers a more nuanced understanding of sustainability and its ‘value’.