Femnet e.V.

Due to environmental and social problems with suppliers, companies have included sustainability criteria in their supplier evaluation. However, there is little research on the application of environmental and social criteria and related purchasing practices. Therefore, the objective of this study was to examine how companies apply environmental and social criteria in supplier evaluation. Interviews with purchasing experts from the fashion and apparel industry were conducted. The results indicate that no child labour, working hours, no forced labour, no discrimination, employment compensation, freedom of association, and health and safety practices are commonly used as social criteria, whereas end-of-pipe control (wastewater treatment systems) and environmentally friendly materials are used as environmental criteria. New criteria, for example, housing conditions and home worker conditions, were identified as not having been suggested in the literature on supplier evaluation. The discussion herein examines the application and the importance of sustainability criteria in the supplier evaluation process. Environmental and social criteria are applied in pre-qualification as well as verification of the compliance of the purchasing requirements in supplier controlling. However, these criteria are not important in the final selection of a supplier for an order as is often recommended in the literature. Consequently, sustainability criteria are indeed important for supplier evaluation but do not carry the same importance that many papers assign them. The research findings contribute to the literature on sustainable supply chain management with empirical insights about the application and importance of environmental and social criteria in supplier evaluation. Furthermore, the identified sustainability criteria can be used by practitioners to improve supplier evaluation efforts.

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The Fashion market is characterized by the rapidity with which a product becomes outmoded.
Enterprises producing clothes, shoes, bags and other accessories generate wastes at a fast rhythm, due to the continuous change of collections. They must store notable quantities of textiles and components no longer used for production. Furthermore, the percentage of scraps of fabrics, leather and other materials, is often significant. Recycling can be applied to the Fashion sector in order to recuperate wastes and create original items, which can be particularly successful in a market where customers are increasing their sensitivity towards sustainability.
We describe the case of a prestigious Italian brand, manufacturing high luxury leather and fabric accessories where Eco Design and Recycling have been applied. A Life Cycle Assessment of a traditional product of the company is also presented to enhance the significant aspects of sustainability in Fashion. 

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Sustainability is an issue that increasingly concerns all those involved in the apparel industry, including textile manufacturers, apparel designers, retailers and consumers. This important book covers recent advances and novel technologies in the key areas of production, processing and recycling of apparel.

Part One addresses sustainable finishing and dyeing processes for textiles. The first two chapters concentrate on the environmental impact of fabric finishing, including water consumption, emissions and waste management. Further chapters focus on plasma and enzymatic treatments for sustainable textile processing, and the potential for improving the sustainability of dyeing technologies. Part Two covers issues of design, retail and recycling, and includes discussions of public attitudes towards sustainability in fashion, methods of measuring apparel sustainability and social trends in the re-use of apparel.

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This book covers the elements involved in achieving sustainability in textiles and Clothing sector. The chapters to be covered in three volumes of this series title cover all the distinctive arethe as earmarked for achieving sustainable development in textiles and the clothing industry. This second volume deals with the measurement of environmental and societal impacts across the textiles and clothing supply chain. It addresses this important aspect in a comprehensive way including the overall picture of environmental and societal impacts of textiles and clothing supply chain, environmentally sustainable clothing consumption, emerging green technologies and eco-friendly products for sustainable textiles, etc. This volume has a dedicated place to deal with the consumer phase impacts in the life cycle of clothing products, biodegradation of textile products, sustainable business development and its implications in textile sector. 

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Pressure over sustainability is constantly growing. Luxury goods companies are thus required to prioritize their corporate goals and to integrate sustainability into upstream supply chains (SCs). Nevertheless, it is getting difficult to find sustainable partners as a consequence of globally dispersed fashion SCs (FSCs). In order to commit to business sustainability, a luxury goods company must address and appraise not only its own but also its suppliers’ social and environmental performance. While there have been efforts in assessing environmental sustainability, to date, there are still gaps in the current literature in terms of social sustainability assessment and to what extent social sustainability could be integrated into contemporary decision-making processes. Prior research stress that having an integrated approach to investigate interactions among social, economic, and environmental dimensions is more practical than applying deep yet disconnected investigation in only one dimension. Nonetheless, it is important to underline that sustainability indicators do not ensure the same impact on all industries; henceforth sector-specific assessment frameworks need a further investigation. This study therefore attempts to synthesise both current and novel components in a comprehensive framework to appraise sustainability performance. The main contribution of this study is the proposition of a 360 Degrees Performance Appraisal model to evaluate the impact of SC operations on sustainability. Hence, this chapter provides an understanding of (i) how SC of a luxury goods company must be configured toward sustainability, (ii) how sustainability performance must be assessed through incorporation of a wide range of stakeholders, and (iii) how sustainability could be further advanced in luxury FSCs. Not only could this tool provide an integrated approach to value sustainability by encompassing all related stakeholders associated, but it could also help luxury fashion companies monitor, interpret and further improve their suppliers’ and sub-contractors’ sustainability performance. 

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