the shaping of environmental impacts from danish production and consumption of clothing
TRANSCRIPT
Ecological Economics 83 (2012) 164–173
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Ecological Economics
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The shaping of environmental impacts from Danish production andconsumption of clothing
Michael Søgaard Jørgensen ⁎, Charlotte Louise Jensen 1
Department of Management Engineering, Technical University of Denmark, Building 424, 2800 Kgs Lyngby, Denmark
⁎ Corresponding author. Tel.: +45 45 25 60 24; fax:E-mail addresses:[email protected] (M.S. Jørgensen), cjen
1 Present address: Department of Development andA.C. Meyers Vænge 15, 2450 Copenhagen SV, Denmark.
0921-8009/$ – see front matter © 2012 Elsevier B.V. Alldoi:10.1016/j.ecolecon.2012.04.002
a b s t r a c t
a r t i c l e i n f oArticle history:Received 18 December 2010Received in revised form 15 March 2012Accepted 1 April 2012Available online 1 August 2012
Keywords:Environmental managementTransnationalSupply chainProduct chainConsumer practiceClothing consumption
The article analyses environmental impacts from production and consumption of clothing in Denmark based on10 business case studies, an ethnographic study of clothing practices among a group of youngwomen, and a sta-tistical analysis of clothing consumption. The environmental strategies and impacts are shaped by the businesses'on-going interpretation of external pressures and opportunities, transnational outsourcing of production tonewly industrialised countries, changes towards ‘fast fashion’ and lower retail prices. Differences are identifiedwith respect to whether and when companies take and embed environmental initiatives. The companiesmake environmental demands to suppliers in newly industrialised countries to different degrees. Some compa-nies cancelled eco-labelling, because it was too demanding to manage, while some fashion companies recentlylaunched eco-labelling, because they see a need to show environmental commitment publicly. The fast changingfashions and low price strategies encourage increased clothing consumption among young women, unusedclothing in their wardrobes and frequent changes of clothing during the week. Concerns about environmentalimpacts are limited. The dominating business strategy of only few eco-labelled products seems to have hadlimited impact on these women's practices, and thereby on the environmental impacts from Danish consumerchoices in general.
© 2012 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.
1. Introduction
‘Sustainable consumption and production’ is one of the more recentenvironmental concepts (see e.g. EU, 2008). This concept calls for thedevelopment of links between the research in production dynamicsand environmental management dynamics, and the research in con-sumption dynamics. Not least the high resource consumption per capitain so-called developed or industrialised countries and the simultaneousoutsourcing of production from these countries to Eastern Europe andnewly industrialised countries like China, India, Pakistan etc. call forknowledge about the shaping of the globalised systems of productionand consumption and the related environmental impacts.
Clothing is one of the sectors where substantial parts of the produc-tion in the industrialised countries have been outsourced. Cleaner tech-nology and eco-labelling initiatives in the industrialised countries havebeen launched more or less parallel to this outsourcing of production.Furthermore, the frequency with which new products are introducedhas increased (so-called ‘fast fashion’) (Bhardwaj and Fairhurst,2010), and the consumption of clothing in the industrialised countrieshas grown (see e.g. Hille, 1995 and Behrendt et al., 2003). This articlecontributes to the development of links between production and
+45 45 93 34 [email protected] (C.L. Jensen).Planning, Aalborg University,Tel.: +45 26 81 50 10.
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consumption research by combining case studies from several yearsof research on the shaping of environmental management in compa-nies and product chains in the Danish clothing sector (Forman andJørgensen, 2004; Jørgensen, 2006; Jørgensen et al., 2010; Kawanssonand Roy, 2002; Stranddorf et al., 2002; Thomsen, 2007) with a recentstudy of clothing practices among young Danish women (Jensen,2010). Denmark is interesting to analyse in this respect, since Denmarkis one of the countries in the European Union with the highest numberof EU flower eco-labelled textile and clothing products, both in absoluteand relative terms.
The article discusses the following question:How have the interactions since the 1990s among business strate-
gies, product chain dynamics, market dynamics and public regulationshaped the environmental management practices in the Danish cloth-ing sector and Danish consumers' clothing practices and the relatedenvironmental impacts?
Other articles about environmental management in product chainshave analysed cases within the textile and clothing sector, includingGoldbach (2002), Kogg (2002), Roberts (2003), and Seuring (2004);but no studies have analysed environmental management in severalclothing companies over a longer time period, and included the influ-ence of business strategies on consumer practices.
The article is structured as follows: After a presentation of themethodological and theoretical framework, an overview of publicregulation and public discourses within the clothing sector is pre-sented. Then, the results from the case studies and the ethnographic
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study are presented and patterns in the shaping of environmentalmanagement practices and clothing practices discussed.
2. Methodology
The article is based on the following analyses: A) an analysis of cor-porate environmental management practices in the Danish clothingsector combined with other data about market dynamics and environ-mental management in the clothing sector; B) an ethnographic studyof a group of young Danish women's clothing practices, combinedwith a national statistical analysis of consumption of clothing and cloth-ing prices in Denmark; C) a literature review about public regulationand public discourses in relation to clothing and environment. Thethree analyses are combined by discussing the influence of the dynam-ics identified in analysis A on the dynamics identified in analysis B.Analysis C provides a framework for discussing the issues that areaddressed by companies and consumers and the issues that are notaddressed. Analyses A and B are explained in detail in the following.
2.1. Methodology for Analysing Environmental Management Practices
One part of this analysis is 10 case studies of the shaping ofenvironmental management practices in clothing companies withindesign, manufacturing and retail sales in Denmark, and with sourcingactivities in Eastern Europe or newly industrialised countries. Thematerial for the case studies was collected through a research projectfinanced by the Danish Environmental Protection Agency (Stranddorfet al., 2002), a study of the textile and clothing sector within an EU-funded project about impact of governmental regulation on wastemanagement (Jørgensen, 2006), a study of the role of environmentalmanagement systems in transnational product chains (Jørgensen etal., 2010), and two master thesis projects at Technical University ofDenmark (Kawansson and Roy, 2002; Thomsen, 2007). The fundingagencies have had no influence on the analyses in the projects or onthis article. The 10 cases cover a variety of companies with regard tosize (small, medium-size and large), product chain coverage (design,manufacturing and/or retailing) and market segment (children, men,women). The companies include both companies known to havetaken environmental initiatives and companies about which it wasnot known beforehand whether or not they had taken environmentalinitiatives. Interviews with corporate representatives, and in somecases also with suppliers (only in Stranddorf et al., 2002) were impor-tant sources of data for the case studies The case studies were updatedthrough the ongoing collection of data about the case companies fromcorporate websites and reports, in order to follow the emergence, em-bedding or terminating of environmental management initiatives. Thecompanies are made anonymous and characterised by the type andsize of the company. The results from the 10 updated case studies arecumulated through a meta-analysis inspired by Jensen and Rodgers(2001), in order to analyse the environmental management practiceswithin the sector during a time span of 15–20 years. The meta-analysis is a combination of patchwork case studies, since the individualcase companies were analysed at different points in time in order toobtain a within-unit longitudinal study of each company and a compar-ative study with cross-unit comparison of the different companiesduring the same time period (Jensen and Rodgers, 2001). A templatefor cumulating the case study findings was developed that includesthe following aspects (applied in the later Table 2):
• Type of company: size and market segment and main activities, suchas production, retailing etc.
• Changes in sense-making in environmental management practice:driving forces behind emergence, embedding or terminating envi-ronmental management initiatives.
• Product chain relations: types of relations with suppliers: short-termor long-term, degree of cooperation with suppliers etc.
• Tools and organisational structures in environmental management:how the environmental initiatives were organised, and what tools(e.g. eco-labelling) were used.
Seuring (2008) stresses that research based on case studies aboutsupply chain management – including environmental management –is often based on positive stories from companies that have madeenvironmental efforts. This article solves this problem by including in-terviews not only with pro-active companies but also with more re-active companies, and also informal interviews with persons from theDanish Environmental Protection Agency and consultants within thesector about difficulties in interesting companies in eco-labelling.
2.2. Methodology for Analysing Clothing Practices
A statistical analysis of the changes in average annual private pur-chase of clothing and footwear among Danish consumers from 2000 to2007 was carried out in order to assess the recent trends in clothingpractices. (Since it was not possible to obtain data for only clothing,the combination of clothing and footwear purchases had to be chosen).In order to obtain knowledge about individual clothing practices andtheir shaping, an ethnographic study of six young women's clothingpractices was carried out. The women were either students or aca-demics. They are analytically seen as critical cases in the sense that aswell-educatedwomen, they should bemore likely than the average con-sumer to consider environmental concerns in their clothing practices.This implies that if these women only show limited environmental con-cerns in their clothing practices, it is likely that Danish consumers ingeneral would show limited environmental concerns in their clothingpractices.
The ethnographic study was based on analyses of the women's indi-vidual diaries, which they wrote for a period of 5 days about theirthoughts and routines when dressing. The analyses were followed by apersonal, semi-structured research interview with each of the women,including an assessment of the background for buying and using, ornot using, each piece of clothing in the their wardrobes. Finally, a focusgroup interview was carried out about the possible roles of differentenvironmental strategies, such as eco-labelling (Jensen, 2010).
3. Theoretical Focus
This section presents the article's theoretical approaches. Supplychain management theory is used for characterising customer-supplierrelations, and is combined with a framework for analysing the relationsbetween public regulation, market forces, product chain structures andcorporate practices in transnational product chains. The ethnographicstudy of clothing practices is based on practice theory, which focuseson both fluidity and inertia of daily activities, e.g. the purchase and useof clothing.
3.1. Supply Chain Management
The relations between customers and suppliers within productchains can be very different. In the analyses of the product chain relationsand their interaction with environmental management practice, Scharyand Skjøtt-Larsen (2002) and Cox (2004) provide the backgroundfor the characterisation of customer–supplier relations. According toSchary and Skjøtt-Larsen (2002), these relations can be found on a con-tinuum between market conditions and hierarchies. The term ‘marketconditions’ implies that suppliers of materials, services etc. mightchange from time to time on the basis of the best price, while theterm ‘hierarchies’ implies that a company integrates a certain compe-tence into its own organisation. Between these extremes are a numberof hybrid forms in which some competence is held by the customer andsome offered by the supplier. Table 1 gives an overview of the different
Table 1Typology of relationships to suppliers. The strategic importance of the relationshipincreases from top to bottom in the table (based on Schary and Skjøtt-Larsen, 2002,pp. 183–193 and Cox, 2004).
Type of relationshipto supplier
Characteristics of the relations to the supplier
On-going supplierselection
Frequent “shopping” among potential suppliers basedon price comparison between the suppliers. Demandsmultiple potential suppliers and stable market conditions.
Preferred suppliers More long-term contract periods with a limited numberof suppliers and some exchange of planning information.
Single or parallelsourcing
Supply by a single supplier for a period for a certain goodor service. Relevant with goods and services linked directlyto the core competencies of the company. If there is morethan one supplier within an area, the practice is called“parallel sourcing”.
Strategic alliances Focus on voluntary arrangements with exchange of staff,sharing of information, and/or co-development of goodsand services. Relevant with high specificity of demandsfor goods and services or when suppliers complement thecustomer's capabilities.
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types of customer-supplier relationships. The strategic importance ofthe relationships increases from top to bottom in the table.
3.2. Environmental Management in Transnational Product Chains
The analyses of corporate environmental management practices inthe Danish clothing sector are based on a network approach, inspiredby Hansen (1999), where environmental management in transnationalproduct chains is seen as being shaped in the interactions among differ-ent forces:
• Regulatory forces: international regulation, national public regula-tion, and business initiatives regulating companies in transnationalproduct chains
• Market forces: the role of price, quality, environmental orientationetc. within different parts of the market
• Sector-specific forces: the product chain structures in the sector andthe strategies for influence, control, competition and collaborationamong the companies in product chains
• Company-specific forces: the sourcing company's corporate strategy.
Hansen (1999) refers to two types of transnational productchains: management of controlled affiliates and management of non-controlled foreign entities (organised through franchising, licencing,subcontracting or strategic alliances). According to Hansen (1999),this kind of environmental management practice falls within therange from adaptation to weak, local regulation practice in supplyingcountries to global integration, where a sourcing company practisesthe same responsibility in its relations to foreign suppliers or affiliatesas it does in its home country.
3.3. Practice Theory
The dynamics behind clothing consumption have been analysedthrough a practice theory perspective, which focuses on the shapingof everyday life activities. According to Røpke (2009), “individualsface practices-as-entities as these are formed historically as a collectiveachievement; and through their own practices-as-performance, indi-viduals reproduce and transform the entities over time. Individualsthus act as ‘carriers of practices’” (Røpke, 2009). Getting dressed, as aneveryday activity, is seen as a practice with certain norms and routines,which is acted out when choosing what to buy and what to wear.However, performing a certain practice in daily activities does not nec-essarily make people aware of the fact that when they perform thepractice, they are consuming resources (Røpke, 2009). This implies
that activities like buying and wearing clothes are not necessarily seenas consumption of resources that are materialised in clothes, and there-fore people do not necessarily see their clothing practice as havingenvironmental impacts.
4. Overall Dynamics of Production and Consumption of Clothing
As a background for the analyses of the Danish clothing sector, thissection describes some overall dynamics of production and consump-tion of clothing. The clothing sector (and the textile sector) is a very dis-tributed and heterogeneous sector with a globalised structure in largeparts of the sector, where production and consumption take place indifferent countries and sometimes different continents. The clothingproduct chains are composed of a wide number of sub-sectors coveringthe entire production cycle from the production of rawmaterials (fibres)to semi-processed products (yarn and fabrics with their finishingprocesses) and final products. Around 55% of the world productionof fibres for clothing and textiles are synthetic fibres, and around 45%are different types of natural fibres (mainly cotton) (Allwood et al.,2006).
An increasing share of the clothes sold in Denmark is manufacturedin Eastern Europe and in newly industrialised countries. Furthermore,while design takes place in Denmark, an increasing share of theproducts exported from Denmark has been manufactured elsewhere(Stranddorf et al., 2002). Employment in the Danish textile and clothingindustry decreased by around 40% during the 1990s (DTB, 2001), and asimilar decrease was seen for the European industry as a whole(Walters et al., 2005). Around two-thirds of the Danish export fromthe sector is clothes and the remaining one-third textiles. The latter in-cludes different product groups like medical textiles, interior textilesand fabrics, more of which are manufactured in Denmark.
Until 2005, textile and clothing was the only major manufacturingsector still subject to the use of quotas, which limited the export fromcertain countries, including China, to the US and EU. The cancellationof quotas in 2005 was part of the ATC-agreement (Agreement onTextile and Clothing) negotiated withinWTO and caused a fast increasein imports fromChina to the US (200%) and the EU (90%) and a decreasein manufacturing in the US and EU and in a number of South East Asiancountries. These changes were followed by a special transition agree-ment between the EU and China, which limits increases in Chineseexports (ILO, 2005).
Clothing consumption in theWestern countries has been increasingsince the 1960s. Behrendt et al. (2003) report increasing clothing salesin Germany during the 1990s. Røpke (2000) mentions increasingsales of garments and footwear in Norway. Norwegian consumptionof clothes and footwear grew by 21% from 1997 to 1999, while itsshare of household consumption expenses remained stable (Hille,2000), which indicates relatively decreasing prices, probably due to in-creased outsourcing and stronger global competition. According toAllwood et al. (2006), the average purchased volume of clothing perUK capita increased by 37% from 2001 to 2005. Spending for women'sclothing grew by 21% and for men's clothing by 14%, while prices de-creased by 14% in real terms.
This increasing consumption has occurred parallel with changes inthe innovation strategies in the clothing sector towards what is called‘fast fashion’ (Bhardwaj and Fairhurst, 2010). Until the mid-1980s, suc-cess in the fashion industry was based on low-cost mass production ofstandardised styles that did not change frequently. However, towardsthe beginning of the 1990s, retailers started focusing on expandingtheir product range with updated products and faster responsivenessto new fashions from the fashion shows. Bhardwaj and Fairhurst(2010) describe an addition of three to five mid-seasons, which putpressure on suppliers to deliver fashion apparel in smaller batcheswith reduced lead time. Retailers like Zara and Hennes & Mauritzchanged their strategies towards faster adoption of the latest fashionsfrom fashion shows, and introduced interpretations of the new designs
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to the stores within 3 to 5 weeks in order to attract consumers.Bhardwaj and Fairhurst (2010) argue that this change towards moreseasons was in contradiction to the practice of outsourcing productionto low-cost countries, because outsourcing led to longer lead timesand complicated supply chains due to geographic distances, inconsis-tency and variability in processes at both ends of the chain, and compleximport–export procedures.
According to Bhardwaj and Fairhurst (2010), little is known aboutthe factors shaping different consumer groups' purchases, such as theroles of exclusivity, price-consciousness, purchase for future use, riskof trade-off between quality and price, consumer satisfaction afterprevious purchase, and consumers' cost–benefit analysis.
5. Environmental Regulation of the Clothing Sector
This section gives a short overview of recent international publicregulation and joint business initiatives focusing on environmentalimpacts of the clothing sector.
5.1. Regulation of Cotton Growing
Since the major share of the cotton used in European textiles andclothing is harvested outside of Europe, the international regulation ofchemicals affects most of the cotton used in clothing production that in-volves Danish production and consumption of clothing. The RotterdamConvention on Prior InformedConsent (PIC) covers pesticides and indus-trial chemicals that have been banned or severely restricted for health orenvironmental reasons and includes mechanisms for the decisions ofimporting countries as towhether theywish to receive future shipmentsof themost hazardous chemicals and for ensuring compliancewith thesedecisions by exporting countries (Rotterdam Convention, 2012).
Organic growing of cotton prevents the use and emission of pesti-cides. Projects have developed national certification capacity in someEastern European countries (e.g. the Baltic countries and Ukraine) andsome newly industrialised countries (e.g. Vietnam and India), wherebyadvice and certification of farmers can be conducted at lower cost(Helvetas, 2006).
5.2. Public and Private Regulation of Clothing Industry
Activities in large European clothing manufacturing companies areregulated by the EU IPPC Directive (EU, 1996). According to the IPPCReference Document on the best available technologies for the textileand clothing industry, “the main environmental concern in the textileindustry is about the amount of water discharged and the chemicalload it carries. Other important issues are energy consumption, airemissions, solid wastes and odours, which can be a significant nuisancein certain treatments” (IPPC, 2003).
Partly prior to and partly parallel with the implementation of theIPPC Directive, cleaner production programmes were launched inseveral European countries, including programmes focusing on theclothing industry. The Dutch and Danish governments have bothalso developed frameworks for transfer of cleaner technology experi-ences to Eastern European countries (BECO Group Project Profile,2006; Wenzel et al., 1999). The business-to-business partnerships be-tween Danish companies and companies in developing countries re-ceiving Danish development aid have also included the clothingindustry (Folke, 2009).
The outsourcing of manufacturing to developing and newly indus-trialised countries implies that the national governments of the sourcingcompanies have no influence on the protection of the environment (andworking conditions), which the sourcing and supplying companies prac-tice. Criticism of bad working conditions, not least in the textile andclothing industry, has led to development of several private governanceinitiatives. However, such initiatives as the US-based FLA (Fair LaborAssociation) and the UK-based Ethical Trading Initiative (ETI), which
are alliances of companies, trade unions and voluntary organisations,have their focus on working conditions and do not directly focus on en-vironmental protection (Ethical Trading Initiative, 2012; FLA Fair LaborAssociation, 2012).
Themore recently developed global business initiative, BSCI (BusinessSocial Compliance Initiative), indicates that auditing suppliers hasbecome more time-consuming for both the sourcing companies andtheir suppliers. BSCI is a business-driven platform for social and envi-ronmental compliance in supplier countries in relation to consumergoods. Through pooling efforts and resources, BSCI has developed acommon monitoring and factory development system (Business SocialCompliance Initiative, 2007, 2009). BSCI covers both working condi-tions and environmental issues and aims to reduce the resources forauditing in both the sourcing and supplying companies through sim-ilar auditing criteria and exchange of audit reports (Business SocialCompliance Initiative, 2007, 2009). Several sourcing clothing compa-nies are BSCI members.
5.3. Product-Related Regulation
During the 1990s, European governments developed restrictionsregarding residues of chemicals in clothing due to health concerns.Especially the German government's ban on azo-dyes had impactthroughout the sector, and was later the basis for an EU ban on 22azo-dyes (Policy Research Center for Environment and Economy,1999). Another type of product-related regulation is eco-labelling.The present EU directive on Eco-labelling was launched in 2009(EU, 2009a) as an adjustment of the original scheme from 1992.Eco-labelling is a market-based instrument meant to stimulate bothsupply and demand of products with reduced environmental impactson different parts of the life cycles. The eco-label criteria for clothingcontain demands for limits on toxic residues in fibres and air andwater pollution from processing. Furthermore, the criteria limit theuse of substances harmful to the environment during production,use and waste handling of the products (EU, 2009b).
A recent public regulation initiative that influences production,import and retail sale of clothing is the EU regulation of chemicalsthrough the REACH directive (Registration, Evaluation, Authorisationand Restriction of Chemicals), which came into force in 2007 to bephased in over a period of 11 years. The directive aims to ensurethat manufacturers and importers identify so-called ‘substancesvery high concern’ (SVHC) in products entering the EU, in order tocontrol and limit the risks these chemicals pose to human healthand environment. Companies manufacturing, importing and/or sell-ing clothing in the EU should ensure that the chemicals they ortheir suppliers use are registered for this kind of use and covered byan exposure scenario. Otherwise, the company must ask the supplierto include this use in an exposure scenario or perform its own safetyanalysis (EU, 2011, 2012a, 2012b). The challenge for importers is tohave procedures that can keep them updated about substances thatwill be regulated in the future.
6. Results: Environmental Management Practices in DanishClothing Companies
This section presents the analyses of the shaping of environmentalmanagement practices in 10 Danish clothing companies that are tar-geting the consumer market and are part of transnational productchains. The characteristics and environmental management practicesof the companies are summarised in Table 2.
The companies shown in Table 2 present a picture of environmen-tal management and public regulation within the clothing sector inDenmark from around 1990 towards the end of 2000s. In the follow-ing, the case studies are presented in detail, together with changesin public regulation of the clothing sector, in order to identify the
Table 2Development in the case companies' environmental management initiatives and their product chains from the beginning of 1990s towards the end of 2000s (based on updated casestudies in Stranddorf et al. (2002), Kawansson and Roy (2002), Forman and Jørgensen (2004), Jørgensen (2006), Thomsen (2007) and Jørgensen et al. (2010)). The text about eachcompany is written chronologically from the top and downwards in the sense-making column, if the sense-making has changed during the period analysed.
Type of company Changes in sense-making in environmentalmanagement
Product chain relations to suppliers Tools and organisational structuresin environmental management
1. Danish international supermarketchain
Phasing out PVC because governmentalregulation makes it too complicatedto sellSupporting public-private sector initiativeby including eco-labelled products inassortment
Supplier selection based on adversarialleverage
Integration of demands in procurementagreementsSearching for suppliers where similardemands have been raisedEco-labellingMember of international CSR initiative
2. Danish supermarket chain Green profile part of business strategyOwn eco-label licencesLater support to public–private sectorinitiative by procuring eco-labelledproducts and cancelling own licences
Parallel sourcing — in Asia through jointinternational procurement company
Eco-labellingCode of conduct in joint procurementcompanyJoint procurement company member ofinternational CSR initiative
3. Danish fashion garment company —
partly selling through own shopsMinimizing environmental impact toreduce risks of bad reputationLater positioning on growing sustainableclothing market
Parallel sourcing Chemical restrictionsCode-of-conductEco-labelling licences
4. Danish fashion garment company Positioning one of the women's brandsassociated with natural colours asenvironmental friendly
Parallel sourcing Mediating company certifies some existingsuppliers and mediates to already certifiedsuppliersSelling conversion cotton“Track and trace” to increasetransparency in product chainsthrough facilitating agentMembership of international CSR initiative
5. Women fashion company Experiment with eco-labelling inspiredby public-private sector initiative anddaughter companyInitiative skipped soon after
Adversarial leverageProblems in developing co-operationwith supplier
Eco-labellingCode-of-conduct with overallenvironmental objectives
6. Danish men's garment retail chain Do not experience environmentaldemands from customers
Parallel sourcing from a number ofbrand companies
Considering to substitute the plasticpackaging of the products with paper
7. Small green mail-order company Lack of eco-clothing without health risksfor own child initiates start of company
Supplier selection based onenvironmental criteria
Collecting supplier information asbasis for choices among suppliersFinding out where similar companies buy
8. Manufacturer of green clothing (SME) Offer of greener process option fromsupplierInspiration from public debateGerman market opportunitiesLater supplementing own eco-trademarkwith public eco-label licences
Initiating direct co-operation withsuppliers of organic cottonStrategic alliances with importantsuppliersAcquisition of preferred supplier
Own private eco-trademarkSCM-system based on ISO 9001 and 14001Annual dialogue with suppliersTransfer of Danish technology whenoutsourcing
9. Manufacturer of green clothing (SME) Market opportunities on Germanmail-order market for environmentallyfriendly clothing
Parallel sourcing from preferred suppliersStrategic alliance with organic cottonsupplier and German customer
Organising dialogue with customer andsuppliers based on customer demandsLabelling within international naturaltextile scheme
10. Manufacturer of clothing (SME) Market opportunities for privateeco-labelSkipped eco-labelled part of assortmentwhen problems created in relation tocustomersPublic funding of joint project withsupplier in Asian developing country
Single sourcing from different suppliersfor different quality levels
Building trust in foreign suppliers throughpersonal visitsDevelopment project with Asian supplier
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interpretations made by the case companies as part of their shapingof their environmental management practice.
Traditionally, the clothingmanufacturing companies usingwet treat-mentwere the only companies in the sector targeted by Danish environ-mental regulation. The regulation focused on waste water emissions ofhazardous chemicals, and later, also air emissions of formaldehydebecause of its carcinogenic effect. These companies are regulated bythe municipal environmental authorities. The preventive activities thatfocused on the sector were initiated by the National EnvironmentalProtection Agency, and they have followed a path similar to severalother industrial sectors in Denmark (Remmen and Ramussen, 1999):
• 1980s: environmental survey of the industry• Beginning of 1990s: development and demonstration of cleanertechnologies
• Mid-1990s: sector-based projects on environmental managementand attempts to create a product-oriented approach
• From the end of the 1990s: product oriented initiatives
6.1. Early Preventive Initiatives
Case company 8, primarily a T-shirt manufacturer, was a front-runner in terms of cleaner technology activities, and later again in rela-tion to environmental management systems, when a sector-basedprogramme was introduced in the mid-1990s. At that time, this was arather young company based on the idea of ‘green textiles’ with itsmainmarket in Germany, where the demand for less polluting productswas stronger at that time than in Denmark. The company introduced itsown private eco-label before the EU eco-label was introduced. Aftersome years, price competition forced the company to outsource thelabour intensive parts of its production, and some years later, most ofits production. More recently, the company bought the most strategicforeign supplier. The company decided from the beginning to try toensure the same level of protection of the environment and workenvironment in the outsourced activities as in Denmark. The companyhas a partnership approach to their suppliers, based on an integratedquality, environmental and work environmental management system
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and annual meetings with the strategic suppliers about targets andplans for the coming years (Stranddorf et al., 2002).
Case 10 shows how an eco-label initiative can inspire other compa-nies within the same product area. The company was offered the use ofthe private eco-label developed by case 8, and started selling an eco-labelled product line. However, the company skipped this product lineafter a short period, because it was too complicated to explain to retailshops why only some products were eco-labelled and why non-labelled products were still produced. The eco-labelled products werealso more expensive without offering substantial environmental bene-fits (Stranddorf et al., 2002).
In case 9, a symmetric partnership between the company and itscustomer and suppliers was developed as part of the environmentalmanagement, because the case company did not have environmentaland technical competence itself. When the main German customerraised new demands, the Danish company organised dialogue withthe customer and the relevant supplier(s) in order to find out howto implement these demands. The company chose to concentrateits sourcing on fewer suppliers in order to become a more strategiccustomer, and thereby make the suppliers more willing to fulfil spe-cial demands (Stranddorf et al., 2002).
During the 1990s, some small green entrepreneurs developedwith-in the textile and clothing sector, such as case 7, which developed as agreen mail order company. After attempts to cooperate on productdevelopment with a bigger company as supplier, the case companyrealised that it had to develop a more reactive strategy towards sup-pliers, because it would have to buy much bigger quantities of newproducts than possible, given its annual sales. Instead, it developed astrategy that involves collecting information about potential suppliersat fairs and choosing suppliers on the basis of this information andwhere similar companies are sourcing (Stranddorf et al., 2002).
6.2. Institutionalisation of Product-oriented Regulation
Towards the end of the 1990s in Denmark, product-oriented regu-lation was institutionalised within the textile and clothing sector withthe formation of a co-operative sector policy network, a so-calledproduct panel, funded by the National Environmental ProtectionAgency as part of the national product-oriented environmentalpolicy. Members came from the textile and clothing industry (includingcase 8), retail chains selling textiles and clothing (including cases 1 and2), a consumer NGO, and a NGO focusing on allergy (Forman andJørgensen, 2004; Remmen and Ramussen, 1999; Stranddorf et al.,2002). The product panel had a strong focus on eco-labelling as amarket-oriented environmental strategy, and developed throughagreements among suppliers and customers in the panel an eco-labelling campaign. In this campaign, the industry should start produc-ing eco-labelled products, while retailers (e.g. cases 1 and 2) wouldstrengthen their focus on eco-labelled textiles and clothing. Thereby,the panel initiated an integrated development of supply and demand.
The two supermarket chains (cases 1 and 2) organise such moredemanding environmental initiatives as the development of eco-labelled textiles and clothing together with Danish suppliers, notwith suppliers in developing or newly industrialised countries. Bothcompanies mentioned limited personnel resources and competencenecessary to audit suppliers as barriers to developing managementof environmental issues in transnational product chains (Stranddorfet al., 2002; Thomsen, 2007). This might explain why both companieslater became members of BSCI (Jørgensen et al., 2010).
The product-oriented environmental policy initiative also attractedmore reactive companies in terms of environmental management,such as case 5. Like case 10, case 5 skipped its eco-labelling strategyquite soon, because the development of amore cooperative relationshipwith suppliers was found to be too complicated (Kawansson and Roy,2002).
Later, the product panel initiative terminated when public fundingfrom 2004 was no longer available for the management and supportof the product panel. A more informal network of textile and clothingcompanies with eco-label licences was formed instead (Anon., n.a.).
During the period when the product panel existed, the role of eco-labelling was limited, because the fashion industry did not want touse eco-labels. The fashion industry viewed marketing an eco-labelto be contradictory to marketing their fashion brands (Thomsen,2007). However, more recently, two fashion companies (cases 3 and4) changed their environmental strategy towards a market-orientedstrategy, where eco-labelling is seen as a prerequisite for their brands'survival on the market (Thomsen, 2007). With respect to case 3, thelabelling strategy is second-generation of their environmental man-agement. Increased media attention regarding the environmentalimpacts of textile and clothing production in newly industrialisedcountries motivated the company to make their long-standing envi-ronmental management, which restricted suppliers' use of chemicals,more visible. The chemical strategy is based on guidelines for chemi-cal use and a code of conduct developed by the company, which thesuppliers are required to follow (Thomsen, 2007). The company claimsthat this chemical strategy ensures compliance with the REACH direc-tive. Case 3 has also shown its more public-oriented environmentalstrategy as one of the initiators of The Danish Ethical Trading Initiative,which is a partnership bringing together trade unions, business associ-ations, non-governmental organisations (NGOs) and companies to pro-mote ethical trade and responsible supply chain management amongDanish companies. The initiative is funded by the Danish developmentaid agency and throughmembership fees (DIEH, 2011). The other fash-ion company (case 4) has chosen to introduce organic cotton products,but only within a brand characterised by bright and natural colours andtargeting women aged 30+. Case 4, like cases 1 and 2, is a member ofthe BSCI and also cooperates with the facilitating company MADE-BY,which has developed a concept that makes supply chains more trans-parent. MADE-BY can also help present suppliers of a company becomecertified for organic production and/or facilitate contact between acompany and some already existing certified suppliers (MADE-BY,2005; Thomsen, 2007). Cases 3 and 4 claim that competitor activitiesare not the background for their own initiatives (Thomsen, 2007). How-ever, someof their competitors have, during the sameperiod, also intro-duced more market-oriented environmental strategies based on eco-labelling and organic cotton, like Levi's (CSRwire.com, 2006) andHennes & Mauritz (Thomsen, 2007). It is therefore likely that somekind of market isomorphism has taken place.
One of the case companies, case 6, has not taken any environmen-tal initiatives, apart from considering to change part of the productpackaging from a fossil resource (plastic) to a renewable resource(paper/cardboard). The background for not taking environmentalinitiatives is lack of consumer demands for products integrating envi-ronmental concerns (Thomsen, 2007). This does not imply that thiscompany is the only Danish clothing company not taking environmen-tal initiatives. On the contrary, environmental concerns do not seem toplay a role in a substantial part of the Danish clothing market; manyshops do not sell eco-labelled products and they do not advertise anyenvironmental concern (Jørgensen et al., 2010; Thomsen, 2007).
7. Results: the Shaping of Clothing Practices
Analysis of the average Danish consumption of clothing and foot-wear showed an 11% increase in volume from 2000 to 2007. Spendingincreased by 9% and the relative prices decreased by 2 to 3% (StatisticsDenmark, 2002–2009, 2010).
The study of the six young Danish women's clothing practices iden-tified several similarities in the six practices (Jensen, 2010). Such as-pects as low retail prices, the pleasant feeling of buying and wearingnew clothes, and the wish to change one's personal expression implieda high level of clothing purchases among these women. The women
170 M.S. Jørgensen, C.L. Jensen / Ecological Economics 83 (2012) 164–173
spend less time considering their purchases if the price is low, whichimplies – according to the women – that some purchased clothingitems are used only once or never used at all. The amount of clothesin their wardrobes differs. Most of the women have so large a stock ofclothes that some clothing items are left in the back of the wardrobeand then forgotten. From their stock of clothes, the women use ratherfew items that they regard as ‘safe’ with respect to expressing theirpersonalities. Two women, who do not have a big stock of clothes,often discard clothes or give them to second-hand shops. The studyalso shows that the women feel that colleagues and friends expectthem to make frequent changes of clothes during the week and to pur-chase new clothes. Onewoman expressed this as a dilemma. Shewouldprefer not to have to think toomuch about how she dresses, but is afraidof her social network's judgement. These women's level of educationdoes not imply a high level of environmental concern in relation toclothing. Only one of the women expresses concern about the environ-mental impacts of large amounts of clothes, but this is not reflectedin her practice. The women experience eco-labelled clothes as ratherboring, and do not want environmental concerns to limit the possibili-ties for choosing style, colour etc. (Jensen, 2010).
8. Discussion
This section discusses cross-cutting themes in the shaping of envi-ronmental management practices. Comparisons are made with otherstudies, and the relations between production dynamics and consump-tion dynamics are discussed.
8.1. Emergence and Embedding of Environmental Management Practices
The 10 case studies show how company-specific interpretationsof public regulation, product chain dynamics and market dynamicshave continuously caused different practices in the sector withrespect to whether and when environmental management practicesemerge and become embedded. The different practices identifiedare as follows:
• Preventive environmental initiatives taken early on, and a preventivepractice continues (cases 2, 3, 7, 8 and 9)
• Preventive environmental initiatives taken early on, but these initia-tives were later cancelled (case 10)
• Preventive environmental initiatives taken later, and a practice withthis focus still continues (cases 1 and 4)
• Preventive environmental initiatives taken later, but these initiativeswere cancelled again (case 5)
• No environmental initiatives have been taken (case 6).
The public regulation that has influenced the environmental man-agement practices consists of voluntary programmes within cleanertechnology, environmental management, and eco-labelling. The com-panies that could be called ‘early movers’ are different in terms oftheir roles in the product chain and their size. Examples of earlymoversare two very different Danish retailers (a big cooperative retail chainand a small on-line retail entrepreneur), and four clothing companiesinvolved in design and with different mixtures of own production andsourcing of products. Driving forces have been translation of public dis-courses, especially the discourse about pesticides and processing che-micals translated into ‘green’ market development efforts, offers byDanish suppliers involved in cleaner technology activities, or the wishto safeguard an existingmarket position by increasing demands to sup-pliers. The differences in corporate strategieswith respect to emergenceand embedding of environmental initiatives, and also the quite differenttypes of early mover companies, are in accordance with Howard-Grenville et al. (2008), who point out that different practices can beexpected within a sector, because environmental decision-making in
companies is shaped in ‘complex interactions between internal organi-sational factors and external pressures’.
8.2. Transnational Environmental Management Practices
Since substantial parts of both Danish industrial clothing produc-tion and retailers' sourcing of clothing have been moved to countrieswith less strict environmental regulation, the transnational environ-mental management of this international sourcing is important. Thecase studies identify a number of different strategies among the com-panies. Some companies practice more than one of these strategies.The strategies mentioned first in the following list imply a higherlevel of cooperation with foreign suppliers than those strategies men-tioned at the bottom of the list:
• Environmental up-grading projects in cooperation with foreignsuppliers; in some cases financed by development aid (cases 8, 9and 10)
• Environmental upgrading among transnational suppliers in cooper-ation with a facilitating actor (MADE-BY) (case 4)
• Following in the wake of other sourcing companies with a similarlevel of environmental concern, based on sharing audit reportsthrough a facilitating agent (BSCI) or other ways of obtaining infor-mation about potential suppliers (cases 1, 2, 4 and 7)
• Environmental projects organised with Danish suppliers and notwith suppliers in developing or newly industrialised countries, be-cause the latter is too resource demanding (cases 1 and 2)
• Development of tools like chemical restrictions and codes of con-duct, which the suppliers should live up to (cases 3, 4 and 5)
• No environmental demands raised towards the suppliers (case 6)
The differences in the extent of the environmental demands thatDanish clothing companies make to suppliers in developing andnewly industrialised countries, combined with weak enforcement ofpublic environmental regulation in these countries, may explain whythe clothing sector in such countries, according to for example Robinsand Roberts (1997), is divided into three parts: I) a partwith the highestlevel of environmental protection due to environmental demands byWestern customers; II) a part with a medium level of protection,which is not met with environmental demands by their Western cus-tomers; and III) a part primarily serving the domesticmarkets and prac-ticing the lowest level of environmental protection.
Goldbach (2002) describes two extremes in the relations in prod-uct chains that involve German textile and clothing companies. Oneextreme is characterised by co-operation, incentives, trust and win–win solutions, and the other is characterised by confrontation, con-trol, power and win–lose solutions. Compared to Goldbach (2002),the six identified transnational strategies in product chains involvingDanish companies are based more on a cooperative approach than ona confrontation approach. Kogg (2002) identifies two types of envi-ronmental supply chain management approaches from two textileand clothing case studies. One is based on direct interaction witheach of the suppliers upstream in the product chain; in the othertype, the sourcing company approaches the nearest supplier, whichis then supposed to approach its own suppliers if necessary. In com-parison with Kogg (2002), five of the six strategies found in the casestudies are based on interaction with the nearest supplier, while thesixth, the facility carried out by MADE-BY (case 4), might involve in-teraction with more tiers of suppliers than only the nearest one. Theinternational standard for environmental management systems, ISO14001, has played a limited role in environmental management inthe Danish clothing sector. Only case 8 has developed its environ-mental management practice based on ISO 14001. Other companieswith a substantial focus on environmental management (cases 3and 4) have not implemented ISO 14001 — maybe because more tar-geted initiatives, like specific demands to suppliers, are seen to bemore valuable.
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8.3. Eco-labelling Strategies as Interpretations of Market Opportunityand Necessity
The combined case studies also present a complex picture of the cor-porate initiation and embedding or terminating of environmental initia-tives in relation to eco-labelling. The terminating of eco-labelling in casecompany 5 shows how difficult it can be to develop the relationshipwith suppliers into a more dialogue-based relationship. Case studies3, 4 and 10 show how companies continuously assess such an environ-mental strategy as eco-labelling with respect to its opportunity or itsnecessity in relation to the market position of the company. Case com-pany 10 shows how a strategy based on eco-labelling of some productsin an assortment and not others might cause confusion in relation tothe customers andmake a company give up eco-labelling. Case compa-nies 3 and 4 were rather late adopters of eco-labelling in Denmark.They first decided to implement this strategy when they felt that thelack of visibility of their earlier environmental initiatives could harmtheir brands' market position during a period with increased Danishmedia attention on environmental issues and with internationalcompetitors moving into the field of market oriented environmentalstrategies. This shows that not only does public regulation shapeenvironmental management practices but also the regulatory power ofmedia and NGOs, and the strategy of competitors. The company-specific interpretation ofmarket opportunities and necessity also impliesdifferences among the companies with respect to how much of theproduct assortment is eco-labelled or managed through other types ofenvironmental initiative. For several years, one of the fashion brandcompanies (case 3) has had a code-of-conduct strategy that restrictsthe use of chemicals in all products, while other companies focus onselected customer segments (children: cases 1, 2 and 4; women aged30+: case 4).
8.4. Social and Environmental Aspects of Increased Clothing Consumption
Integration of the statistical analysis of Danish clothing consump-tion, the ethnographic study, and the analysis of environmental man-agement practices indicates that the increasing clothing consumptionis influenced by an interaction between business strategies based onlow prices and fast fashion and increasing expectations by colleaguesand friends of frequent shifts in clothing. This conclusion is in linewith Bhardwaj and Fairhurst (2010), who mention the combinationof low-price strategy and fast fashion as an important recent drivingforce in the clothing sector. Increased clothing consumption is thesame trend mentioned earlier in UK, Norway and Germany. Røpke(2000) argues that in addition to fast-changing fashions, productdiversification is also a driver behind increased consumption.
The clothing practices identified in Jensen (2010) are similar tothe findings in a UK study by Woodward (2008), who analysed 27women's relationships with their clothes. Woodward (2008) alsoconcludes that the amount of clothes in their wardrobes overwhelmthe women when selecting clothes to wear. They tend to fall backon ‘safe’ clothes, which they trust will express their intended style.The women therefore have many clothes they do not use.
The case studies and the overview of national and internationalpublic regulation show that the increasing clothing consumption isnot addressed by public regulation or by any of the 10 Danish casecompanies. Only the environmental impacts per piece of clothingare addressed through cleaner technology and eco-labelling, andonly by some companies. How increasing clothing consumption influ-ences the environmental impacts from clothing production dependson whether and how environmental concerns have been integratedinto the design and production of the clothing. The case studies iden-tify four product-related environmental strategies:
• Non-public environmental criteria with chemical restrictions for allproducts (the early strategy of case 3)
• Market-oriented strategy with eco-labelling of all products (cases 7,8 and 9)
• Market-oriented strategy with eco-labelling of a limited part of theproduct portfolio (cases 1, 2, 3 (as an addition to its early strategy),4, 5, and 10)
• No environmental criteria applied (case 6)
The Danish women's clothing practices indicate that the corporatestrategiesmentioned above that address all products and not just a lim-ited part of the portfolio are more likely to affect even this educatedgroup of consumers, because they do not want their choice of clotheslimited by the small assortment of eco-labelled clothes when they areout shopping. Since several companies on the Danish market (e.g.cases 1, 2, 3 and 4) sell only some products, eco-labelled it is likelythat eco-labelling only has a limited impact on the clothing market inDenmark. This corresponds to Scherlofsk (2006), who concludes thateco-labelled clothes only have a small share of the clothing market, al-though exactfigures are not possible to obtain. The non-public chemicalrestrictions on all products practiced by case 3 may have reduced theenvironmental impacts more than eco-labelling.
Although Danish companies are not addressing the increase inclothing consumption, a review of business strategies in clothingcompanies in other countries identifies three types of business initia-tives that address this tendency:
• Reduction in the number of ‘necessary’ clothes through design ofmulti-purpose clothing
• Extension of product lifetime through product design• Increased use of each product through rental schemes for clothes.
The Icelandic company Emani designs multi-purpose clothing forwomen. One piece of clothing can be used in 30 different ways andthereby ideally reduces the number of clothes a woman needs to buy(Jensen, 2010). The German textile company Hess Natur designs a so-called ‘long- life collection’ of classical clothing without too bright col-ours that the company expects to be unlikely to go out of style andcan be combined with other items over a longer time-span than usualclothes. Furthermore, they have established a lending service for wed-ding outfits, which are otherwise very often used only once (Paulitsch,2001).
9. Conclusion
The environmental strategies and impacts in the Danish clothingsector are shaped by the businesses' on-going strategic interpretationof external pressures and opportunities, increasing transnational out-sourcing of clothing production, changes in fashion strategies towards‘fast fashion’, and low-price retail strategies. This implies big differencesamong the companies with respect to whether and when companiestake, embed or terminate environmental initiatives. Among the sector'searly movers are both retail companies and companies involved in de-sign and production. The extent of companies' practices in relation to en-vironmental demands to and cooperation with their suppliers in newlyindustrialised countries differs greatly, and the role of eco-labelling isalso very different. Some companies cancelled eco-labelling after sometime, because itsmanagement as part of their market and sourcing strat-egy was too demanding. On the other hand, some fashion companieshave recently launched eco-labelling strategies due to increased publicfocus in Denmark on the environmental impacts of clothing production.This has made the fashion companies see it as necessary to show theirenvironmental commitment publicly.
The clothing practices of the group of young women in the studyare influenced by fast changing fashion and low-price strategies ininteraction with the expectations of colleagues and friends about fre-quent clothing changes. The women's practices are characterised byfrequent clothing purchases; in some cases, substantial amounts ofunused clothes in their wardrobes, and in other cases, quick disposal
172 M.S. Jørgensen, C.L. Jensen / Ecological Economics 83 (2012) 164–173
of unused clothes; frequent changes of clothes during the week; andlimited considerations about their clothing practices' environmentalimpacts. The dominating eco-labelling strategy, which applies to onlypart of companies' product assortment, has had almost no impact onthesewomen's practices, since they are not willing to accept limitationsto their clothing options due to a limited supply of eco-labelled prod-ucts. If thesewomen are seen as one of the consumer groupsmost likelyto buy eco-labelled clothes, the total impact from eco-labelling onDanish consumer choices and on the environmental impacts from pro-duction and consumption of clothing has been limited.
In order to make more dynamic assessments of how environmentalimpacts from increasing clothing consumption have changed, both inrelative and absolute terms, more detailed studies are necessary ofhow different social groups' clothing consumption is distributed amongclothes with no environmental concerns, clothes with eco-labelling,and clothes affected by non-public chemical restrictions to suppliers.
The article shows, within the clothing area, a way of linking researchof production dynamics and consumption dynamics, which is also feasi-ble for other consumption areas. The article shows that long-term casestudies, combined in a meta-analysis involving more than just pro-active companies, are important in order to find out whether environ-mental management initiatives are embedded and understand theinterpretations behind embedding or terminating initiatives. Hansen's(1999) model is useful in a network-based approach to analyses oftransnational environmental management practices, combined withmodels for supply chain relations (e.g. Cox, 2004). This combinationenables analyses where national and international regulation, marketdynamics, product chain structures, and individual business strategiesare seen to interact in the shaping of environmental management prac-tices. In combination with analyses of changes in public regulation andpublic discourses, it is possible to identify the environmental concernsthat are addressed, as well concerns that are not addressed. The combi-nation of statistical analyses of a consumption area and ethnographicstudies of user practices based on a practice theory approach, such asthat used by Røpke (2009), enables analyses of how interactions be-tween business strategies and social dynamics, such as workplacedress codes, shape everyday life practices.
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