Labels in the Textile and Fashion Industry: Communicating Sustainability to Effect Sustainable Consumption

Abstract

The textile and fashion industry is associated with numerous ethical problems such as poor labour conditions, low wages, long hours and unsafe working conditions, as well as a range of negative environmental impacts. A key challenge is to reconcile the behavioural impacts across the value chain, from producers and manufacturers to consumers. Achieving real change requires organizational shifts across multiple levels of the textile and fashion value chain, away from focusing on the focal firm but across the entire value chain, as well as overcoming the information and knowledge deficits held by consumers and professionals alike. Awareness and information strategies such as sustainability labelling are a crucial step in promoting sustainable consumption through improved information provision which may facilitate an institutionalized shift towards embedding sustainability criteria into consumer decision-making processes.