Textile Science and Clothing Technology

Subramanian Senthilkannan Muthu

Editor

Roadmap to
Sustainable
Textiles and
Clothing
Regulatory Aspects and Sustainability
Standards of Textiles and the Clothing
Supply Chain
Textile Science and Clothing Technology

Series editor
Subramanian Senthilkannan Muthu, Hong Kong, Hong Kong SAR
More information about this series at http://www.springer.com/series/13111
Subramanian Senthilkannan Muthu
Editor

Roadmap to Sustainable
Textiles and Clothing
Regulatory Aspects and Sustainability
Standards of Textiles and the Clothing
Supply Chain

123
Editor
Subramanian Senthilkannan Muthu
Sustainability Consultant
Global Sustainability Services
SGS Hong Kong Limited
Hong Kong
Hong Kong SAR

ISSN 2197-9863 ISSN 2197-9871 (electronic)

ISBN 978-981-287-163-3 ISBN 978-981-287-164-0 (eBook)
DOI 10.1007/978-981-287-164-0

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Preface

Sustainability is no longer a new concept in any industrial sector, including the

clothing industry. Each face and facet of sustainability—namely the economic,
environmental, and social aspects—are becoming familiar to and widely practiced
by different industrial sectors. Every industry has its own agenda in addressing the
different segments of sustainability. Products from various industrial sectors are
unique in terms of their life cycle impacts at the raw material, manufacturing, and
distribution phases, and very importantly at the use and disposal phases. Hence,
every industry should have its metrics to measure and address sustainability. This is
true for the textiles industry as well, which is why this roadmap series details the
important aspects of sustainability as it relates to the textiles and clothing sector.
This is the third volume of roadmap series on sustainable textiles and clothing.
As emphasized in Volumes 1 and 2, the environmental impacts created by the
lengthy textile and clothing supply chain are huge. Every industrial sector has its
own regulatory and compliance aspects, along with its specific sustainability
measurement methods and standards. Similarly, there are well-defined regulatory
aspects, sustainability measurements and standards, environmental labels, and laws
earmarked for the textiles and clothing sectors. This volume covers the aspects
pertaining to the textiles and clothing sector.
Corporate social responsibility (CSR) is one of the important aspects of today’s
industry, and every factory/industry should be implementing this measure. CSR has
become a part of doing business, and it is needed by everyone involved, including
stakeholders, customers, and buyers. However, CSR practices align with different
industrial sectors along the practices specific to each industry. In light of this
discussion, “Perspectives, Drivers and a Roadmap for Corporate Social
Responsibility in the Textile and Clothing Industry” is devoted to discussions on
the drivers that shape CSR, approaches of CSR in the global context, and a roadmap
to implement CSR practices.
One of the important developments in the field of sustainability in the textiles
and apparel sector is the formation of a sustainable apparel coalition, where all the
brands and major players in the market join hands together to achieve sustainability
in this sector. One of the important indices being used by apparel industry is the

v
vi Preface

Higg Index, which was developed by the Sustainable Apparel Coalition (SAC).
This volume has two dedicated chapters to discuss this topic. “Sustainable Apparel
Coalition and Higg Index” outlines the detailed developments and the history of the
SAC, the development of Higg Index, and other details pertaining to environmental
impact and assessment tools for products.
“Making the Connection Between UNGC Code of Conduct for the Textile and
Fashion Sector and the Sustainable Apparel Coalition Higg Index (2.0)” discusses
in-depth aspects of the Higg Index of the SAC by establishing the connection
between the United Nations Global Compact (UNGC) Code of Conduct for the
Textile and Fashion Sector and the SAC Higg Index (2.0 version). In addition, it
presents very important details of analyses pertaining to the differences between
both initiatives. Because there is a dearth of detailed information on the SAC Higg
index, this volume has two chapters to disseminate the information pertaining to
one of the important sustainability initiatives of apparel sector.
“Environmental Adaptation by Small and Medium Sized Textile and Garment
Companies in Vietnam—Is Governance an Issue?” deals with another important
issue—environmental adaptation. Having considered Institutional theory as a crux
and tool, this chapter highlights the influence of current institutional mechanisms on
the adaptive capacity of textiles and garment small- and medium-sized enterprises
in Vietnam in response to national and international environmental requirements.
“Sustainable Measures Taken by Brands, Retailers and Manufacturers” high-
lights the measures and attempts taken by various apparel brands, retailers, and
manufacturers involved in the clothing supply chain as an appreciation of the
measures taken to achieve sustainability in the clothing sector. This chapter presents
detailed discussions related to sustainability measures considered by various
brands, such as Adidas, Burberry, Patagonia, Levi’s, and Nike; retailers, such as
Walmart and Target; and manufacturers, such as Novozymes. This chapter deals
with sustainability aspects such as measuring and mitigating the various environ-
mental impacts, development of tools and standards, and the practice of energy-
efficient measures.
The frequently used term of “eco-labels” plays a major role in sustainability
efforts. There are various eco-labels produced and used every day for textiles and
clothing products. Two chapters are earmarked for this important topic. “Develop-
ment of Eco-labels for Sustainable Textiles” introduces the reader to the basics of
textiles and ecology, the use of restricted substances and the importance of mea-
suring them, the availability of different organic products and their significance for
the clothing sector, and the basics of eco-labeling, including characteristics
and benefits. “Ecolabels and Organic Certification for Textile Products” follows
with a discussion of the important eco-labels and organic certifications being used
in the apparel industry. This chapter presents detailed information pertaining to
various sustainability standards and certification schemes applicable to the textiles
and clothing sector.
I wish to take this opportunity to thank all the contributors to this third volume of
the Roadmap to Sustainable Textiles and Clothing for their timely efforts to bring
forth this book, which is enriched by the technical content in their chapters. I have
Preface vii

no doubt that the readers will benefit from their contributions, which highlight the
important details associated with the regulatory aspects and sustainability standards
of the textiles and clothing sectors. Along with the previous two volumes in the
roadmap series, this book will certainly become as an important reference for the
researchers, students, industrialists, and sustainability professionals working in this
field.
Contents

Perspectives, Drivers, and a Roadmap for Corporate Social

Responsibility in the Textile and Clothing Industry . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1
Mônica Cavalcanti Sá de Abreu

The Sustainable Apparel Coalition and the Higg Index . . . . . . . . . . . . 23

Shanthi Radhakrishnan

Making the Connection Between the United Nations Global Compact

Code of Conduct for the Textile and Fashion Sector
and the Sustainable Apparel Coalition Higg Index (2.0). . . . . . . . . . . . 59
Miguel Ángel Gardetti

Environmental Adaptation by Small and Medium Sized Textile

and Garment Companies in Vietnam—Is Governance an Issue? . . . . . 87
Nga H. Nguyen, Robert J.S. Beeton, Anthony Halog and An T. Duong

Sustainable Measures Taken by Brands, Retailers,

and Manufacturers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 109
Thilak Vadicherla and D. Saravanan

Development of Eco-labels for Sustainable Textiles . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 137

A.K. Roy Choudhury

Ecolabels and Organic Certification for Textile Products . . . . . . . . . . . 175

Luis Almeida

ix
Perspectives, Drivers, and a Roadmap
for Corporate Social Responsibility
in the Textile and Clothing Industry

Mônica Cavalcanti Sá de Abreu

Abstract This chapter presents an overview of concepts, drivers, outcomes, and

practices related to corporate social responsibility (CSR). It provides a roadmap that
can guide managers in introducing CSR to their companies. In recent years, the
textile and clothing industry has become more globally competitive, yet enormous
gaps remain in the quest to promote and attain economic and social development
that is more equitable and more environmentally grounded. Social, economic,
political, and legal factors affect countries differently and result in different insti-
tutional dynamics and organizational behaviors. This has led to different CSR
approaches among countries. Getting textile and clothing firms even better engaged
in CSR requires ongoing efforts in conjunction with governments and society. CSR
progress will be limited until the overall regulatory system is updated to provide
stronger institutions and improved governance mechanisms. However, CSR
establishes a new way of doing business that combines success and the creation of
value through a respectful and proactive attitude towards stakeholders.

Keywords Corporate social responsibility Corporate governance Environmental


management Stakeholders

1 Introduction

The key question that must guide corporate social responsibility (CSR) is the con-
tribution that a business should make to society. Steiner and Steiner (2009) answered
this question by defining CSR as the duty of a firm to create wealth in ways that
avoid harm to or enhance societal assets and the environment. The fundamental idea

M.C.S. de Abreu (&)

Business Department, Federal University of Ceará, Av. da Universidade,
2470, Fortaleza, Ceará 60020-180, Brazil
e-mail: [email protected]

© Springer Science+Business Media Singapore 2015 1

S.S. Muthu (ed.), Roadmap to Sustainable Textiles and Clothing,
Textile Science and Clothing Technology, DOI 10.1007/978-981-287-164-0_1
2 M.C.S. de Abreu

is that firms have responsibilities that go beyond lawful execution of their economic
functions. The overall performance of a firm must benefit society.
According to Carroll (1979), CSR encompasses economic, legal, ethical, and
discretionary expectations that society has about the organizations. The economic
responsibility of a company is based on the production of goods or services and
profit-making. Without this, a firm cannot exist. Legal responsibility recognizes that
a company is part of a broader society that has established laws governing its
operations. Ethical responsibility reflects cultural norms and expectations about
what is the “right thing to do.” Finally, discretionary responsibility relates to vol-
untary actions benefiting the public without expectations of returns to the firms. Lee
(2008) pointed out that society expects organizations not only to earn profits but
also to invest and benefit the environment, employees, consumers, and the com-
munity in general.
Husted and Salazar (2006) proposed three different CSR approaches practiced by
companies. One of these is altruistic CSR, which is characterized by philanthropic
actions. Companies take actions without expectations of competitive advantages.
However, companies may benefit indirectly through enhancing employee com-
mitment and overall image. In a coercive CSR approach, companies fulfill the
minimum legal requirements, which benefits the company by eliminating risks of
financial penalties, prosecution, or consumer boycotts. The strategic CSR approach
involves social investment, which enhances competitive advantages to the firm and
may be expected by shareholders. This approach is aimed at targeting returns to the
company based on product differentiation and improved performance.
Minimizing environmental and social impacts cannot be achieved through
political means alone but requires learning processes in companies and other
organizations (Schaltegger et al. 2013). Textile and clothing industries cause several
environmental and social impacts that can be addressed by CSR policies. Pedersen
and Andersen (2013) explained that the desire for fast fashion has created demand
for 80 billion new garments per year, which represent a consumption hysteria that
far exceeds human needs and planetary boundaries. Downward price pressure
means that consumers are getting increasingly accustomed to cheap fashion and, by
the same process, pressure companies to reduce cost. Another barrier is the need for
constant change in the fashion industry—a tendency that promotes overproduction,
overconsumption, and waste. Colors, shapes, and materials keep changing at a fast
rate, which goes against the idea of longevity of clothes.
On the other hand, Karaalp and Yilmaz (2012) reinforced that textile and
clothing industries play an important role in the economic progress of developing
countries, which have a lack of capital but have an abundance of cheap labour. Lack
of knowledge makes it difficult for companies to break with the status quo and
develop new business models that have sustainability as a core value. It is argued
that the textile industry is especially short on technical knowledge. An increasing
number of companies are experimenting with new products and processes to cope
with the social and environmental challenges. For instance, companies are
increasingly exploring alternatives to conventional cotton as well as new technol-
ogy to lower the environmental impact of textile manufacturing.
Perspectives, Drivers, and a Roadmap for Corporate … 3

The purpose of this chapter is to provide a general view of the key aspects of the
research on CSR in the textile and clothing industry. It is organized as follows:
First, I will explain some important drivers that shape CSR. Then, I will present
CSR approaches in textile and clothing firms, taking China and Brazil as examples.
Finally, I will propose a roadmap to increase CSR practices and present conclusions
to this chapter.

2 Drivers that Shape Corporate Social Responsibility

As already described, CSR can manifest through different strategies and respond to
different objectives. There are drivers that play important roles in shaping the way
in which companies address CSR. Drivers are characteristics and issues related to
the company and its stakeholders, which shape the organizational strategy and the
CSR responses. CSR is likely to be more important for some companies than for
others, depending on the nature of these drivers.
Stakeholder pressures, regulatory demands, cost factors, and competitive require-
ments drive corporations to adopt CSR strategies. Gonzalez-Benito and Gonzalez-
Benito (2006) stated that drivers also include company features (e.g. size, position on the
value chain, internationalization), external factors related to the industrial sector (e.g.
position on the value chain, environmental risk, concentration, cohesion), and mana-
gerial perceptions and motivations. In addition, the country in which companies operate
determine the particular institutional dynamics influencing the CSR response (Delmas
and Toffel 2004).
In the case of the textile industry, there are particular drivers that exert significant
influence on CSR. They include stakeholder pressure, size of the company, position
in the value chain, and institution dynamics. These issues are discussed in more
detail in the following sections.

2.1 The Role of Stakeholder Pressure on Corporate Social

Responsibility

CSR is characterized by identifying, anticipating, and managing stakeholder

expectations (Clarkson 1995). Stakeholders can be defined as groups or individuals
that can affect or is affected by the accomplishment of the organizational purpose
(Freeman 1984; Fassin 2009). Defining stakeholders is complex because of the
broad range of individuals and organizations that are actively or passively involved
in the company and its business. Clarkson (1995) defined stakeholders as people or
groups that hold or require participation, rights, or interests in the corporation and in
its activities. Such claims for rights or interest derive from transactions or actions
taken by the organizations and can be legal or moral, individual or collective.
4 M.C.S. de Abreu

Carroll and Näsi (1997) suggested that a stakeholder can be defined by their
position relative to a boundary between the company and its external environment.
Internal stakeholders are part of the organizational structure and include owners,
managers, and employees. External stakeholders are all actors who are not part of
the organization but interact with it, including competitors, government, consumers,
community, media, and the natural environment.
Buysse and Verbeke (2003) presented four categories of stakeholders: internal
primary (employees, shareholders, and financial institutions), external primary
(domestic and international consumers and suppliers), secondary (national and
foreign competitors, international institutions, nongovernmental organizations
[NGOs], and the media), and regulatory (governments and regulatory agencies).
Stakeholders provide resources, generate demands, and assess their actions, creat-
ing a context of crucial interrelationships.
CSR actions depend on the type and degree of stakeholder salience, which
means the degree to which managers give priority to requests from stakeholders,
based on the attributes of power, legitimacy, and urgency (Mitchell et al. 1997).
Coercive power is exercised by regulatory agencies using fines and license sus-
pension to force businesses to conform to their standards. The exercise of utilitarian
power is exemplified by the banks, which may make funding decisions based on
risk criteria. Finally, normative power is exercised by the media and NGOs, which
play a critical role in informing society and influencing government policies and
company strategies.
According to Mitchell et al. (1997), legitimacy figures heavily in helping
companies to identify stakeholders that merit managerial attention. However,
emphasizing legitimacy and ignoring power leave major gaps in a stakeholder
identification scheme because some legitimate stakeholder have no influence. A
final attribute that profoundly influences managerial perception and attention is
urgency. Urgency means the degree of attention paid to the stakeholder claims by
managers. Stakeholder—manager relationships need to be evaluated in terms of the
absence or presence of all or some of these attributes.
Husted and Allen (2011) differentiated stakeholders as market or nonmarket
stakeholders. Based on this clear division, market stakeholders provide the com-
pany with resources and can threaten to remove these resources or impose condi-
tions on the continued supply of resources. On the other hand, non-market
stakeholders, who do not participate directly in the companies’ supply chain, can
only indirectly influence the flow of resources and supply chain management by the
firm. As nonmarket stakeholders gain familiarity with company environmental
impacts, they manage to achieve a level of awareness and effective action (Abreu
et al. 2013).
Ferraz and Mota (2002) tested a model in which the stakeholder pressures are
divided along two lines: formal and informal. Formal pressures flow from regula-
tion and surveillance entities through warnings, fines, and loss of environmental
licensing. Informal pressure is exerted by others stakeholders (in particular com-
munity-based groups), through market actions or complaints, which may lead to
reduced consumption of a company’s product or services.
Perspectives, Drivers, and a Roadmap for Corporate … 5

The theory of resource dependence can explain stakeholders’ influence on

organizational strategies (Frooman 1999). It describes how firms deal with the
external resource environment. In fact, there are two components of this environ-
ment. One is the social dimension of corporate activity, which has been described as
nonmarket activities. The other is the economic dimension, which has been termed
market activities (Baron 1995).
Besides their interest related to the flow of resources, firms also need to con-
sidered stakeholders in terms of their social identities, and their different interests,
ideologies, values, and expectations (Crane and Ruebottom 2011). In this way,
companies address stakeholder’s demands through their CSR strategies (Maignan
and Ferrel 2003). CSR covers all aspects of a firm’s activities, including those
related to ethics and/or societal benefit (Husted and Allen 2011).
CSR activities undertaken by a firm vis-a-vis stakeholders can be motivated by
profits and/or ethics orientation. It is essential to define actions to create both social
and economic value. Carroll (1999) argued that CSR should be seen as a process,
not as a set of results. Jamali and Mirshak (2007) pointed out that the concept of
CSR has been progressively rationalized, becoming associated with the broader
goals of the organization related to its reputation and attainment of stakeholder
demands.

2.2 Influence of Position in the Value Chain and Firm Size

on CSR Practices

González-Benito and González-Benito (2006) defined position in the value chain as

the proximity to the final consumer within the supply chain. They also pointed out
that extractors of raw materials and manufacturers of intermediate products can
often camouflage their environmental and social impacts behind the final producers’
trademarks. Distributors, consumers, and other external stakeholders identify more
readily with the final product (González-Benito and González-Benito 2010).
According to Crandall (2006), consumers are increasingly aware of the need for
environmental and ethical business practices. Demands of consumers have now
become the most important external pressure affecting the environmental and social
performance of companies (Daub and Ergenzinger 2005). Castelo Branco and
Rodrigues (2008) pointed out that, the nearer a company is to the final consumer,
the more probable that it will be known by the general public.
Arora and Cason (1996) found that customer contact, measured by the level of
advertising expenditures, is a significant predictor of participation in pollution
preventions programs. In a sense, clothing firms seem to have adopted more
comprehensive CSR practices than textile manufactures. However, Abreu et al.
(2012) found that textile manufacturing firms in Brazil and China tend to have more
complete CSR practices in place than clothing firms. This seems to be because in
these countries, manufacturers face greater pressure from regulatory agencies while
consumers are not active stakeholders. In the same study, firms of larger size (as
6 M.C.S. de Abreu

measured by the number of employees) were found to have more complete CSR
practices than smaller ones.
Henriques and Sardoky (1996) confirmed that size can influence a firm’s visi-
bility and hence general expectations of corporate social performance. Aragón-
Correa et al. (2008) also concluded that environmental risks and stakeholder
pressures increase in relation to size. The larger the firm, the more susceptible it
may be to public scrutiny. Castelo Branco and Rodrigues (2008) argued that larger
companies disclose more information related to CSR than smaller ones. Large
companies need to consider social responsibility activities and disclosure as a way
of enhancing corporate reputation.
González-Benito and González-Benito (2010) added that large firms are more
inclined to adopt CSR practices, mainly related to environmental issues. Engaging
in voluntary environmental programs and social behavior has a positive relationship
with size. Firm size is an indicator of the resources available to the firm (Arora and
Cason 1995; Christmann and Taylor 2001). From a CSR perspective, firm size can
be viewed as a double-edged sword: It increases social and environmental demands
from stakeholders, but it is also indicative of the availability of resources to respond
to those demands.

2.3 Country Influence and Institutional Dynamics on CSR

Practices

Abreu et al. (2012) found that firms having the same size and position in the value
chain can have different approaches in terms of CSR, depending on the country in
which they operate. A variety of institutional conditions of the country influence
corporate decisions to act in socially responsible ways. Such behavior is more likely
to occur to the extent that firms are monitored by strong regulatory agencies, the
existence of collective industrial self-regulation, and the institutional capacity of
NGOs, media, and the general public. These actors can be engaged in dialogue and
create pressure on firms (Campbell 2007).
Institutional dynamics and organizations are interrelated. Organizations neither
react directly to all pressures dictated by the organizational field, nor do they act
completely autonomously without the influence of external pressure (Hoffman
2001). Baughn et al. (2007) pointed out that economic, political and social factors
influence the regulatory context, normative expectations, attitudes, and shared
know-how underpinning CSR. These factors have an important impact on the
diffusion of organizational practices. At the same time, they can limit the available
set of alternative CSR approaches (Delmas 2002).
Matten and Moon (2008) indicated that regulative, normative, and cognitive
forces lead to increasingly standardized and rationalized practices in organizations,
running across industries and national boundaries. In this way, the institutional
framework provides a theoretical perspective that is helpful in understanding
Perspectives, Drivers, and a Roadmap for Corporate … 7

organizational strategy and what types of pressure mechanisms are employed to

deal with sustainability concerns.
Regulative forces tend to feature the roles of government agencies, as well as
formal laws and policies and their enforcement, emphasizing how rule-based sys-
tems aim to coerce actors into certain behavior. Normative forces introduce pre-
scriptive, evaluative, and obligatory dimensions into business-society relationship.
They define goals and objectives but also designate ways (rules) to pursue them.
The third category of forces, cultural-cognitive, emphasizes the role of cultural
beliefs in enabling actions that tend to remain unquestioned by society (Scott 2008).
Delmas (2002) demonstrated how coercive, normative, and cognitive forces of
the institutional environment within a specific country affect the cost and potential
benefits of ISO 14001 adoption, and how this would lead to different adoption rates
in Europe and in the United States. In her framework, the lack of specific legal
mechanisms in the United States and cooperation between industry and regulatory
agencies most likely account for the slow pace of adoption of ISO 14001. Multi-
nationals may also initiate the diffusion of ISO 14001 through mimetic mechanisms.
CSR reflects how the firm is influenced by the institutional environment and
government policies that build on the business–society relationship (Siltaoja and
Onkila 2013). Matten and Moon (2008) have argued that CSR practices are
influenced by the historical evolution of the institutional framework in which
business, government, legal, and social actors operate. National differences in CSR
can be explained by political, financial, educational, labor, and cultural systems.
These are the key components that have shaped the historical development of the
national business system. In this way, strong institutions are necessary to encourage
corporations to be responsive to the social concerns beyond their own economic
interests (Campbell 2007).

3 Approaches to Corporate Social Responsibility

in a Global Context

The globalization of the business environment in recent years has made it imper-
ative for firms to look for foreign market opportunities in order to gain and sustain
competitive advantages. Globalization can be defined as the process of intensifi-
cation of cross-area and cross-border social relations. Companies from different
locations increase transnational interdependence of economic and social activities.
The increase of globalization gave rise to what has been called the “Washington
Consensus”: a set of policies that countries around the world had to adopt if they
were to receive assistance from the major international financial institutions
(Blowfield and Murray 2008).
The impact of the Washington Consensus on the course of globalization has
been enormous, creating an environment for foreign investment, global trade, and
removal of tariff barriers. Companies operating in this environment need to have
more sophisticated strategies than domestically oriented firms. As a consequence of
8 M.C.S. de Abreu

globalization, market characteristics and industry structure have changed substan-

tially in recent decades. Stakeholder pressure varies by country depending on the
strategy chosen and the institutional context faced by the firm.
Globalization has also heightened concerns about the ability of national gov-
ernments to protect the natural environmental and provide social welfare. New
actors have emerged in the international arena, voicing concerns about the impact of
unfettered globalization on the natural environment. They have influenced firms to
introduce environmental and social issues as key considerations in the core business
(Christmann and Taylor 2001, 2002). Scherer and Palazzo (2008) pointed out that,
in a globalized world, the traditional set of government and business responsibilities
may not be appropriate to guarantee the efficient and peaceful integration of society.
Firms become political actors that need to take on social responsibilities beyond
their economic role, and mere compliance with the law and the rules of common
decency are not enough.
Emerging countries have opened their markets to international trade and
investment. They have also taken steps to stabilize their economies by curbing
inflation substantially, controlling budget deficits, privatising many state enter-
prises, and revaluing their currencies (Dominguez and Brenes 1997). Based on the
common thesis of globalization, the Western-style form of CSR is being introduced
in emerging countries. In this way, a cosmetic level of convergence in explicit CSR
may be materialized in light of isomorphic pressures (Jamali and Neville 2011).
Peinado-Vara (2006) argued that there is a need to improve the institutional
capacity of governments and civil society together with the investment climate.
There is a need to go beyond ‘one size fits all’ approaches and instead develop an
understanding of what CSR can and does mean in specific countries and societies.
The institutional framework of each country reflects its distinct history and the
peculiarities of its sociopolitical configuration (Jamali and Mirshak 2007).

3.1 Removal of Tariff Protection to Textile and Clothing

Companies and the Impacts on CSR in China and Brazil

Globalization in the textile and clothing industry occurred under the special
arrangement resulting from the Uruguay Round of the General Agreement on
Tariffs and Trade, which established an agreement on special transitional measures.
Towards the end of the Multi-Fibre Arrangement (MFA) and the demise of apparel
quotas, Frost and Ho (2006) argued that one of the favorite games played in the
media was guessing industry winners and losers. The consensus was that the
ramifications would be catastrophic for most countries but a big advantage to
China, which gained access to US and European markets.
China and Brazil are emerging markets that were differently effected by the
MFA process. In fact, Chinese exports rose a whopping 44.95 %, but it was hard to
conclude that China was going to gobble up the entire textile and clothing market
(Miller 2004). On the other hand, textile companies in Brazil were severely affected
Perspectives, Drivers, and a Roadmap for Corporate … 9

by increased competition as a result of the entrance of low-cost products into the

Brazilian market. A substantial percentage of textile companies could not withstand
these external competitive pressures and failed. It is interesting to review how
textile firms in these two countries dealt with CSR in this context.

3.1.1 The Case of China

China is still listed as a developing country but is rapidly changing. Beginning in

1979, the GDP grew by nearly 10 % per year on average (Braendle et al. 2005),
until very recently. It is now the second largest economy and the largest trading
nation in the world. China highlights the transition from a state planned to a market-
oriented economy (Bo et al. 2009). The country is fully integrated with the world
economy through global supply chains and exports of finish products. The Chinese
Government has a strategy to attract foreign investments, keeping its exchange rate
artificially low and taking advantage of multilateralism to encourage rapid market
penetration (Athukorala 2009).
Impressive legal reforms have been as part of China’s obligations as a member
of the World Trade Organization (Buhmann 2005). China´s relationships with other
countries has become more intense due to both trade policy and security issues.
Social welfare still remains a distinguishing element of Chinese political ideology
(Moon and Shen 2010). However, structural reforms and accelerated development
have not resulted in increased funding to promote social welfare (Fang et al. 2007).
Privatization did not significantly change the role of industry related to social and
environmental responsibilities.
Ip (2009) pointed out that the CSR activity in China started in the mid-1990s. At
that time, a few large multinationals and some major Chinese companies were
interested in implementing codes of conduct. By the late 1990s, a greater number of
multinational companies began to apply such codes. However, this activity was
limited to monitoring audits of the factories themselves. Consumers, government,
and the media were not aware of the concept of corporate social responsibility.
Even workers, who took part in audit processes had limited knowledge of CSR.
Utting (2003) pointed out that the 2002 Conference on Labor Relations and CSR
under Globalization in Beijing provided a useful agenda for China to introduce
socially responsible production and marketing practices. CSR was seen as a way to
raise awareness of the need for national ratification and compliance with international
conventions and agreements related to labor, environmental issues, and human rights.
According to Moon and Shen (2010), China has adopted aspects of Anglo-
American corporate governance style, but there have been few government or
nongovernment institutions to constrain antisocial behavior by the companies.
However, national and provincial governments and, in some cases, businesses
themselves have started to look to CSR as a way to rebuild their social legitimacy.
Chapple and Moon (2007) noted that the traditional form of company involvement
in CSR in Asia was based on community involvement. However, new relationships
are being introduced, including socially responsible employee relations.
10 M.C.S. de Abreu

Kolk et al. (2010) conducted a survey of retailers in China, involving both

Chinese and non-Chinese international companies. Communications about CSR/
sustainability by these large Chinese retailers were found to be substantial different
from those by international companies. Chinese company communications focused
on economic issues and philanthropic actions, whereas international companies’
reports dealt mainly with product reliability. Contentious labor and environment
issues received limited attention in communications from both groups.
Using data on 68 of the largest multinational companies in China and India,
Lattemann et al. (2009) suggested that the pattern of CSR development may be
different among the emerging countries due to differences in governance systems.
Even though India has a lower level of economic development than China, Indian
firms reported more frequently on CSR due to a more rule-based, as opposed to
relation-based, governance environment. The authors suggest that CSR improve-
ment will not be immediate in China because the governance environment changes
relatively slowly.
Nevertheless, global concerns about pollution are creating pressures for change
in China. Baughn et al. (2007) stated that CSR policies and practices in Asia often
compare unfavorably with those in the United States, Europe, and Australia. The
rapid development of industrial parks has caused land degradation, water resource
depletion, greenhouse gas emissions, and loss of biodiversity (Geng and Hengxin
2009). Companies favor opportunities involving large industrial parks, where
timely and less bureaucratic approval processes are appreciated by investors.
Christmann and Taylor (2001) stated that the Chinese government has failed to
protect the environment and social rights, but this can be ameliorated through self-
regulated performance of multinational companies. Similarly, Tsoi (2010) observed
that CSR is fairly significant to large export-oriented businesses. However, most
local/regional companies only become involved in CSR when it is a customer
requirement. These companies normally meet local legislative requirements but see
going beyond these requirements as unnecessary.
Liu et al. (2010) pointed out that pressure from investors, business partners, and
creditors to improve environment performance is only superficial, and the influence
of communities, neighboring industries, and NGOs is weak. In the People’s
Republic of China, the parastatal character of many firms will probably increase
their adherence to state-fostered norms, but it will restrict their autonomy to
independently affect norm-building on sustainability.

3.1.2 The Case of Brazil

In the same year that the MFA came into effect, the Brazilian textile and clothing
industry was seriously influenced by structural reform to the Brazilian economy
(Plano Real). Under this plan, Brazil accelerated the privatization of state-owned
industries and intensified its inclusion in the world economy through neoliberal
policies (Green 2003). Plano Real was based on an economic strategy that linked
the local currency (Real) to the dollar at a relatively fixed rate. The Brazilian textile
Perspectives, Drivers, and a Roadmap for Corporate … 11

and clothing industry was faced with the need for restructuring within the Brazilian
economy as result of the Plano Real and at the same time responding to global
restructuring under the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade.
Plano Real provided a basis for stopping the inflationary spiral. Trade liberali-
sation followed, contributing to an increase in the internal supply of goods by
reducing the demand pressure on prices (Tigre and Botellho 2001). Furthermore,
the privatisation process seemed to be the solution to both the fiscal crisis and the
lack of resources to finance investments (Baer and Bang 2002). Brazil has changed
fundamentally and, in the recent period, it has experienced a more stable process of
democratisation in its social and political institutions.
The impact of the commercial opening was more intense on the textile industry
than in other sectors, leading to an intense concentration of movement, and con-
sequent implications on labour productivity. Textile companies demanded financial
support from the Brazilian governments, mainly through reduced taxes or subsidies,
and most of them cut their costs stringently. Many companies moved to north-
eastern Brazil, an economically depressed area, encouraged by state-level fiscal
incentives and cheap labor costs. Only a few companies invested in improved
product quality or implemented a differentiation strategy to increase their domestic
and international market share.
Economic pressures continue to be the dominant factor influencing the behavior
of textile firms. The Brazilian economic environment is jeopardized by high taxes
and interest rates, which reduce investment possibilities. Textile companies
demanded financial support from governments and received assistance through
subsidies and support from the Brazilian Development Bank. The main purpose of
the investments was to increase the production capacity, build new plants, acquire
new equipment, and protect the environment (Kon and Coan 2005).
These firms cannot afford to invest a large amount of money over a number of
years in order to improve environmental performance of their products and process.
However, textile firms attempt to meet the legal requirements of enforcement
agencies within a limited range of organizational capabilities. Brazilian textile
companies merely fulfill the minimum legal requirements of enforcement agencies
(Abreu 2009). These companies are predominantly small and medium sized, and
they operate mainly domestically.
Company customers are mainly concerned with price, delivery time, and quality.
Many retailers are sending conflicting signals back up the textile supply chain as
they try to manage and balance “green” and business interests. Nonetheless,
international customers exert a higher pressure on large textile companies to
improve their environmental performance.
Most textile companies have not implemented environmental policies. In gen-
eral, they have not appointed an environmental manager. The percentage of
investments related to the environment is not significant in textile companies.
However, some textile companies are in the process of implementing environmental
training programs, ISO 14001 certified environmental management systems, and
purchasing and contract requirements.
12 M.C.S. de Abreu

The reasons for implementing an environmental management system (EMS)

were discussed by Abreu (2009). Brazilian textile companies tend to base their
EMS on meeting legal requirements. Operational controls involve wastewater and
electric energy, which represent the most significant production costs. Few textile
companies use communication practices to cultivate links with stakeholders or
report environmental performance. Brazilian textile companies are affected by weak
stakeholder pressure because their environmental impact is low and enforcement is
not a high priority. They represent an important source of employment for people in
areas where they have their production facilities. Social pressures are low and there
are fewer motives to develop environmental strategies.
Abreu (2009) also pointed out that textile companies have predominantly
“sleeper” approaches. Environmental issues do not influence the firm’s strategy.
This situation typically occurs when environmental issues mean cost without any
competitive advantages. Few Brazilian textile companies are innovators. They are
more concerned about Asia’s influence on the market, and they are establishing
strategies involving differentiation and increased participation in international and
domestic markets. These firms are market leaders and enjoy first-mover advantages.
In short, good environmental practices are viewed as an important way to capture
premium profits and increase sales.
Large textile companies, having international markets, appear to have more
sophisticated environmental strategies than domestically oriented firms. These
innovator companies develop green-label products to supply markets that are more
sensitive to environmental issues, such as Europe, and have reviewed their pro-
cesses to reduce costs, improve their images, and become more competitive. They
invest in environmental technologies and efforts at production reformulation,
reduction of waste, recycling, and energy and water conservation.
Brazilian textile companies invest minimal resources on social issues, both
internal (e.g. improved working conditions) and external (e.g. investments in
education, health, or sports within local communities) (Abreu et al. 2008). The lack
of investment on social issues reflects the fact that textile industry is based on tax
incentives and low labor costs (Kon and Coan 2005). Extra benefits, such as salary
bonus or profit incentives, when they exist are limited to large- and medium-sized
enterprises. Many of the textile companies have not developed codes of ethics.
Compared to China, the Brazilian textile and clothing industries are more sup-
portive of the comprehensive adoption of CSR practices (Abreu et al. 2012). Alon
et al. (2010) also found that Brazil scored higher than China in an investigation of
CSR motives, processes, and stakeholder pressures. Stakeholders were more fre-
quently mentioned by Brazilian firms. CSR activities in China emphasized both
company performance and stakeholder demands. In terms of processes, in Brazil,
volunteerism, health, and the environment were emphasized in corporate commu-
nications. In contrast, Chinese firms emphasized sponsorships of arts and culture.
The democratic political system in Brazil, which has been in place for almost
30 years, allows for a more transparent and rule-based governance environment. It
also supports a more vocal society demanding responsible actions on environ-
mental, social, and labor issues by government and business. The regulatory side of
Perspectives, Drivers, and a Roadmap for Corporate … 13

the institutional environment is the main influence on the CSR practices of textile
firms. Coercive pressures also occur through industrial metastandards, such as ISO
14001, which are imposed as supply chain requirements of international markets
(Christmann and Taylor 2001; Zeng et al. 2005; Abreu et al. 2008). In this sense,
coercive isomorphism is the dominant process in textile firms.
Mimetic processes and normative pressure play a limited role in relation to
textile firms. These firms operate in a business climate of uncertainty and extreme
competition with low margins. Managers tend not to consider environmental and
social issues as a priority, even in the long term. The potential benefits of adopting
CSR practices are not clear to textile firms in Brazil or China. Thus, CSR is not
embedded as a voluntary and legitimate organizational practice.

4 Roadmap to Implement Corporate Social Responsibility

Practices

A CSR roadmap is presented in Fig. 1. It identifies drivers, mechanisms to

implement CSR practices, and outcomes. A company initiating a CSR should
identify the various driving forces directing sustainable behavior and the desired
outcomes. This provides the basis for identifying the most appropriate practices that
should be adopted by the company. The types of practices that may be required are
divided into the following four categories: internal, natural environment, relational,
and discretionary.
Internal practices focus on providing a healthy and safe environment and
appropriate career plans for employees, and they guarantee the production of a
quality product. Natural environment practices encompass an EMS, which can be
considered a moral and legal necessity to reduce and control environmental
impacts. Discretionary practices include the development of social programs
focused on local communities. Finally, relational practices involve the development
and maintenance of relationship with stakeholders.
Welford (2004, 2005) defined a similar set of four categories of CSR practices
based on stakeholder relationship and orientation. These practices are classified as
internal and accountability (which are more focused on market stakeholder satis-
faction), and relational and citizenship (which are more related to building a good
image in the eyes of nonmarket stakeholders). Kim and Choi (2013) suggested
another breakdown of four CSR practices: internal environment, moral, discre-
tionary, and relational. Although these studies contribute to developing and
expanding CSR practices, it is important to address the underlying rationale for
stakeholder demands.
Figure 1 includes a broad range of drivers, desired outcomes, and various practices
that could be encompassed in a company’s CSR. However, in proceeding with CSR, a
company has to address priorities among the various possibilities and develop an
implementation plan with the most appropriate allocation of resources over time.
14 M.C.S. de Abreu

Fig. 1 Corporate social responsibility roadmap in the textile and clothing sector

The highly competitive nature of the textile and clothing industry will make
decisions by a company to implement CSR problematic. Many companies will find
it difficult to use scarce resources on what will be perceived as esoteric investments.
However, the opportunities presented by ‘ethical,’ ‘green,’ or ‘eco’ marketing
provide an argument against such a view. The opportunity may exist to offer
competitive products in a marketplace where others are having difficulty or are
being threatening by moral or social concerns.
Companies can achieve success in capturing market share through CSR-based
promotions. Such promotion may be through ethics-based campaigns directed by
non-governmental organizations showing that the company is free of practices
against human rights, labor, and environmental standards that are considered
endemic to the textile industry (Lobel 2006). A sense of moral obligation and the
potential to realize cost reductions—particularly related to production materials,
waste handling, and/or liability—can be considered another argument for the
introduction of CSR in the textile industry.
Perspectives, Drivers, and a Roadmap for Corporate … 15

It is increasingly acknowledged that CSR works best in concert with stable and
well-functioning regulatory systems. Therefore, initiatives to promote sustainability
need to be coordinated with policy making at all levels to speed up the transfor-
mation of the textile and clothing industry. In general, policymakers can use a
variety of tools to influence corporate sustainability policies and practices, such as
awareness raising, tax incentives, or public procurement.
Pedersen and Andersen (2013) suggested that policy makers should set mini-
mum requirements for fashion products. Regulatory standards would ensure that
fashion companies include more sustainable products in their offerings to con-
sumers. The minimum standards could include, for instance, durability, washability,
and the ability of garments to maintain their shape after washing. Moreover, mixed
materials could be abandoned for certain types of environmentally friendly prod-
ucts. These minimum requirements would increase the quality of the products,
protect the environment, and ensure the health of workers as well as consumers.
Jamali and Mirshak (2007) suggested that, in developing countries seen to have
a weak regulatory capacity, managers can take direct responsibility as moral actors
by guiding the principles of CSR in their respective organizations. In general,
companies should aim to be as transparent as legally possible without creating
situations that will result in unforeseen consequences. Having their management
systems certified by international standards, such as ISO 9001, ISO 14001, OHSAS
18001, or SA8000, are almost mandatory to operate in international markets. The
CSR approach could evolve to include reporting using Global Reporting Initiative
(GRI) models, signature of Global Compact agreement, and use of indicators to
monitor sustainable performance.
Klassen and McLaughlin (1996) suggested that improved environmental per-
formance could enhance profitability by improving cost efficiency and sales.
Lo et al. (2012) pointed out that an EMS can optimize production procedures and
reduce packaging, raw materials, energy and water consumption, and toxins
released to the environment. Pollution levels should be monitored and corrective
actions should be taken when needed.
When applied to the textile and clothing industry, the effective implementation
of an EMS should enhance the utilization of fabrics, materials, water, and energy. In
some cases, textile firms could acquire new environmental technologies, such as
flocculation technology for the treatment of dyeing mill effluent (Vandevivere et al.
1998). In addition, an EMS is particularly important for firms that export to markets
with tight environmental regulatory requirements (Delmas 2002).
The mainstream textile and clothing sector depends on a change in dominant
consumer values, attitudes, and behavior. While consumers often have a positive
view of socially and environmental friendly products, these attitudes are rarely
transformed into concrete buying and consumption behavior. Moreover, due to
nontransparent supply chains, consumers often are unaware of the consequences of
their buying behavior and, thus, are unwilling to pay a premium for sustainable
product. Communication to consumers has to take into consideration national and
cultural differences because knowledge about sustainability varies significantly
(Pedersen and Andersen 2013).
16 M.C.S. de Abreu

According to Delmas (2001), improved environmental performance can enable a

firm to improve its corporate image and expand its markets, because consumers are
increasingly willing to pay higher prices for green products and services. Meyer
(2001), however, stated that the majority of fashion customers are in favor of
environmentally friendly clothes when they are sold at the same prices as the
conventional ones. It is crucial for consumers to be introduced to a pricing scheme
in line with the actual costs of production.
Pedersen and Andersen (2013) pointed out that a large number of brands have
recently introduced various take-back systems, repair services, and recycling
schemes. Moreover, several companies have built a business on transforming used
materials into new products. One example, the Finnish fashion brand Globe Hope
has developed competence in turning existing materials (military laundry bags and
seat belts) into new fashion products. These innovations are not only good for
society but can also be a source of profit, growth, and competitive advantages for
companies. Therefore, policymakers play an important role by providing tax breaks
for sustainable manufacturing, subsidies for recycling, and lower value-added taxes
on sustainable products.
There is also a need to increase the transparency of the textile and clothing
supply chain. Therefore, it is suggested that companies should be required to have
bar codes on labels that enable consumers to see where and how products are made.
Mandatory trustworthy labels (e.g. about the product’s carbon footprint) are a
potential solution to increase the transparency of the industry and make it easier for
consumers to make sustainable buying decisions (Pedersen and Andersen 2013).
Life-cycle assessment (LCA) is an evaluative tool that considers the environ-
mental impacts of a product or process from cradle to grave. It takes into account
the production and acquisition of raw materials, fabrication and assembly, trans-
portation, use, and disposal. Through LCA, it is possible to assess the absolute and
relative performance of production processes, to support decision-making, and
provide the basis for the ‘greening’ of business practice. Piekarski et al. (2013)
pointed out that when LCA is involved and engaged with business management,
green innovation and internal entrepreneurship are made easier.
Kozlowski et al. (2012) pointed out that design standards present a key
opportunity to integrate sustainability objectives—and do so at a lower cost. It is at
this phase that the bulk of environmental and social impacts are fixed (locked in)
through decisions such as the choice of raw materials, textiles, dye colours, finishes,
and processing. It is also through design that there is the greatest opportunity to
effect change.
For example, once jeans are designed, decisions regarding raw materials can be
addressed. The choice of raw material can have a major influence in reducing
environmental and social impacts. The designer has many organic options for
natural fibers, recycled options for synthetics, and many new eco-textiles such as
lyocell, which has a closed-loop production system. Choosing alternative fibers
other than cotton and polyester promotes biodiversity and reduces the impacts on
the ecological systems tied to their production (Kozlowski et al. 2012).
Perspectives, Drivers, and a Roadmap for Corporate … 17

For instance, new tools for transparency and traceability are proposed for the
textile and clothing supply chain, including live cams, metric tools, LCA software,
and smart tags (Pedersen and Andersen 2013). Consequently, it is also difficult for
one company to make a real change toward sustainability, as it requires the active
commitment of everyone in the supply chain. Sustainable cotton is given as an
example that requires the involvement of all stakeholders, from local farmers to
brand owners and retailers.
Companies can implement green supply-chain management (GSCM) to enhance
their core competitive advantage and support CSR. GSCM involves of all product
processes—raw material production, product manufacturing, recycling, reusing,
and remanufacturing. These processes must comply with environmental protection
regulations (Kainuma and Tawara 2006). The GSCM strives to achieve what any
individual organization on its own could not possibly achieve: minimized waste and
minimized environmental impact, while assuring maximized consumer satisfaction
and healthy profits.
Zhu et al. (2005) proposed four ways to implement GSCM: (1) EMS imple-
mentation; (2) asking suppliers to enhance environmental performance and col-
laborate with their customers; (3) eco-design, in which companies reduce raw
material/energy usage and design products able to be recycled and remanufactured;
and (4) investment recovery, in which companies sell excess inventory/material,
scrap, and used materials.
During the financial crisis of 2008, Wu et al. (2012) explained that the global
apparel market contracted tremendously. Global apparel orders of brand companies
were canceled or postponed. In addition, many developed countries formulated
environmental regulations. Environmental protection groups and apparel brand
companies proposed new environmental protective standards and restrictions, such
as the Oeko-Tex standard, blue signs, global organic textile standard, restricted
substances list, ethical trading initiative, and clean clothes campaign. These stan-
dards and restrictions require textile and apparel manufacturers to refrain from the
use of toxic materials or harmful processes. They are a few examples of the many
areas in which CSR can contribute to resolving problems.
Diverse concepts exist of what CSR issues are considered to be relevant and the
sort of solutions ultimately thought to be desirable. The global dimension makes it
the duty of corporations to voluntarily compensate for regulatory deficiencies
(Christmann and Taylor 2001). CSR can be used to limit the risks of inappropriate
behavior by firms, their subsidiaries, and suppliers, which could affect their repu-
tations and operational performance.

5 Conclusions

The complex environments in which countries operate with heterogeneous legal

and social demands often makes it unclear which activities can be considered
legitimate and which are not unacceptable. Social, economic, political, and legal
18 M.C.S. de Abreu

factors affect countries differently and result in different institutional dynamics and
organizational behavior. Through globalization, the legal framework is weakened,
while the (national) moral context of managerial decision-making is fragmentized
(Scherer and Palazzo 2011).
CSR establishes a new way of doing business that combines success and the
creation of value with a respectful and proactive attitude towards stakeholders. The
CSR movement has been a global phenomenon, although there are important in-
traregional variations in practice. Some initiatives are more voluntary than others,
as companies may or may not be under legal and ethical pressure to adopt them.
Vogel (2005) is very much of the mind that CSR will not become fully imple-
mented until mainstream companies begin reporting that CSR is critical to their
performance. CSR will be successful only to the extent that it adds to the bottom line
and can be specifically delineated as having made such an impact. However, Balmer
et al. (2011) argued that business scandals, catastrophes, and malpractices have
generated heightened interest in ethical standards and corporate social responsibility.
In order to support CSR, governments and society should strengthen enforcement
of regulations, improve institutions, and generally enhance the governance environ-
ment. Stakeholders—mainly customers—could help focus attention on key issues,
particularly labor conditions, consumer rights, environment impacts, transparency,
and accountability. Managers can play a key role in introducing CSR by identifying
drivers, desired outcomes, and the sort of practices that will lead to the best results. The
engagement of stakeholders in a dialogue is essential to advance the CSR agenda.

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The Sustainable Apparel Coalition
and the Higg Index

Shanthi Radhakrishnan

Abstract The Sustainable Apparel Coalition (SAC) seeks to lead the apparel
industry toward a shared vision of sustainability built upon a common approach for
evaluating sustainability performance. By developing a common tool—the Sus-
tainable Apparel Index—the SAC enables apparel industry companies to measure
the environmental and social impact of apparel production throughout the product
lifecycle, from design to end of use or recycling of the product. The potential
impact of the Sustainable Apparel Coalition is enormous. SAC member companies
(including brands, retailers and manufacturers) are estimated to be responsible for
more than one third of the apparel and footwear produced globally. The SAC has
built a strong foundation and made significant progress since its launch in 2010. As
the coalition looks forward, there are a few key challenges that members must be
prepared to overcome in order to reach shared sustainability goals. The Higg Index,
announced by the SAC, is primarily an indicator-based assessment tool for appa-
rel and footwear products that was launched in 2012. The Higg Index has a suite of
self-assessment tools dealing with facility, brand, and product and asks practice-
based, qualitative questions to gauge environmental sustainability performance and
drive behavior for improvement. It is a learning tool for both small and large
companies to identify challenges and capture ongoing improvement. It targets a
spectrum of performance that allows beginners and leaders in environmental sus-
tainability, regardless of company size, to identify opportunities. The SAC has
established a strong foundation of organizational culture and progress, faces both
opportunities and challenges, opens membership to any interested company in the
apparel sector and drives the Index tool through further iterations and industry
adoption. As the organization grows and evolves, it must retain its unique culture
and speed at the same time that it balances membership growth, which may bring
evolving expectations around sustainability aspirations and engagement to the
coalition. The SAC must look forward in order to achieve its long-term vision of
transforming apparel industry such that it produces no unnecessary environmental
harm and has a positive impact on the people and communities associated with its

S. Radhakrishnan (&)
Department of Fashion Technology, Kumaraguru College of Technology, Coimbatore, India
e-mail: [email protected]

© Springer Science+Business Media Singapore 2015 23

S.S. Muthu (ed.), Roadmap to Sustainable Textiles and Clothing,
Textile Science and Clothing Technology, DOI 10.1007/978-981-287-164-0_2
24 S. Radhakrishnan

activities. The organization is poised to build on its success with strong momentum
and member commitment. Translating the coalition’s accomplishments and lessons
learned across the apparel industry (and to other industries) will be the true measure
of SAC’s success.

1 Environmental Impact of Products

1.1 Introduction

Every product used by the consumer has an impact on the environment. Many
consumers today do not know the extent to which these products impact the
environment—low or high. A product is considered to be eco-friendly when it is
made, used and disposed of in a manner that would reduce the harm to the envi-
ronment when compared to a product that was manufactured and used without any
environmental concern. However, consumers have become more conscious of these
impacts and are spelling out their preferences for eco-friendliness, thereby forcing
the manufacturer to adopt clean technologies all along the supply chain to produce
environmentally friendly products (Challa 2014).
All products that are manufactured cause environmental degradation, either
during manufacture, use, or disposal. This can be evaluated by looking at the dif-
ferent phases of the product’s lifecycle and taking action at the phases where it will
be most effective to reduce the environmental impact. However, the lifecycle of a
product is long and complicated, covering many areas with many people involved in
each phase. A remedial measure or policy may not be possible to address this aspect
but a variety of voluntary and mandatory tools will help to achieve this objective.
These include economic instruments, bans on certain substances, environmental
labelling, voluntary agreements and product design guidelines (IPP 2014).

1.2 Principles for the Assessment of the Environmental

Impact of Products

To facilitate the assessment of environmental impact, the final consumption of an

environment/place has been categorized by the European Commission Communi-
cation on Integrated Product Policy into product categories. The classification may
divide the total consumption of products into categories based on any of the said
methods. The major divisions may be based on the functional areas of consumption,
such as transportation, clothing, health care and recreation. The second method may
be based on consumption domains, where one category forms a contributing factor
to the other category (e.g. transportation being a contributing factor to health care or
The Sustainable Apparel Coalition and the Higg Index 25

recreation). The third method may be on the basis of product groupings that are
subclasses of the consumption domains (e.g. transportation may be further divided
into subclasses such as rail, road, ship and air). The other classification can be as a
homogenous product group or individual product groups, such as medium-range
diesel cars (homogenous) and a specific diesel car (individual).
Further two approaches have been identified by the organization to undertake
studies on environmental assessment. The bottom-up approach starts with the
selection of a product, followed by the completion of a lifecycle assessment (LCA).
The top-down approach begins with input and output data compiled by statistical
agencies, followed by the production and consumption analysis of an economy. The
most important environmental impact categories used in most of the studies were
global warming, acidification, photochemical ozone formation and eutrophication.
Apart from these categories, ozone layer depletion, human toxicity, eco-toxicity,
land use and depletion of nonrenewable resources were taken into account (Tukker
et al. 2006).
It is difficult to measure and express a product’s overall environmental impact,
so the LCA is a useful tool for such use. The first step is to select a functional unit
(e.g. a product) and the next process is to set boundaries for the analysis. The classic
LCA is carried out on a cradle-to-grave basis, which assesses the environmental
impact of extracting and gathering raw materials, assembling the product, trans-
porting it to the user and disposing or recycling at the end of the product’s useful
life. The next step is to conduct a lifecycle inventory, which involves the tracking of
every single part of the product back to its raw material origins. The lifecycle
inventory generates large amounts of data, which have to be grouped into different
categories (11 or 12 categories) representing the particular impacts on humans, eco-
systems or resources. Finally, the LCA report quantifies the total impact of the
product on each category. The International Organization for Standardization (ISO)
has a set of processes that govern a LCA. According to the ISO, the analysis must
be done from cradle to grave and the resources, processes and calculations per-
formed in the analysis must go through a peer-review process conducted by third
parties (Palmer 2012).

1.3 Assessment and Promotion of Green Products

To promote a market for greener products and to strengthen the product-focused

green policies, many instruments can be used. The policy of differentiated taxation
such as reduced value-added tax for eco-labelled products,extends producer
responsibility to new areas and the use of governmental laws provides new guide-
lines forenvironmental protection. These measures could capture the attention of the
consumer, who is more likely to use greener products once the price is lowered.
When the consumer demand for green products increases, markets are likely to
provide them. However, the consumer needs information about the products in order
to choose from the wide variety of products available in the market. This requires a
26 S. Radhakrishnan

wider labelling policy and relevant, credible information about the product. Envi-
ronmental impacts cannot be addressed once the product is introduced into the
market and attention should be focused on environmentally friendly product design.
Improvements in product design can be made by improving the flow of lifecycle
information and eco-design guidelines, integrating environmental considerations
into the manufacturing processes and involving relevant stakeholders to review the
approach. Education on the need for greener and eco-friendly products and the use of
case studies and examples would help to strengthen the design and manufacture of
green products. LCA is a very useful tool for the evaluation of products in the areas
of materials, energy, transportation and end of life.
Another measure adopted by the German government was the formation of a
national environment help desk, which serves as a platform for obtaining a good
flow of information between the environmental experts and stakeholders. This
database will be used for the standardization processes. It has been reported that
80 % of the standardization is European and international standardization. There is
a need for a high degree of expertise, which can be found in industry and academia
from all parts of the globe, as environmental issues differ from country to country.
In Germany, the national environment help desk consists of the secretariat and a
steering board. The standardization activities with regard to the environment are
communicated regularly to the stakeholders by means of newsletters. Experts from
nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) and universities are invited to take part in
the standardization process and to report back to the help desk. The European
Environmental Citizens Organization for Standardization was founded jointly by
the WWF European Policy Office, Friends of the Earth Europe, Birdlife Interna-
tional and French and Danish NGOs. The European Environmental Citizens
Organization is working toward a standardization process, with priority for the
environment (European Commission 2001a).
The European Commission conducted a series of conferences on environmental
policy, with discussions highlighting the importance of LCA and eco-design
guidelines. A collaboration between the design centers and the industry needs to be
promoted. In this context, a study was conducted to identify and analyze the state-
of-the-art activities in the field of eco-design and the methods by which this
information can be transferred to small- and medium-sized enterprises by means of
workshops and dissemination activities. The lifecycle inventory and LCA were
considered as tools to form the database for standardizing and optimizing with due
concern for the environment (European Commission 2001b).
One of the economic instruments for evaluating the environmental impact of
products is externality valuation. Usually, the measurement of externalities is
minimal when compared to the internal costs. In most cases, the impacts are due to
consumer use; also, because, the supply comes from global sources, the impacts
occur abroad. The problematic areas include the external cost of landfills, the
attribution of transport cost, the method of costing resource use and the impact of
carbon. Furthermore, only a small part of the overall lifecycle impact is associated
with a small company; the majority is distributed along the product supply chain as
well as the other phases of the lifecycle of products. The impacts should be
The Sustainable Apparel Coalition and the Higg Index 27

measured in production, consumption and waste management. A high degree of

variation exists between different products and the transportation and landfill issues
could even vary within the same product. The evaluation criteria for economic
instruments should include environmental and economic efficiency, the effects on
innovation, their administrability and political acceptability; the incentives provided
by the economic instruments should be applied based on the desired behavior and
impact. Environmental taxation is based on environmental impacts; therefore, it is
essential to measure the environmental impacts and quantify them in terms of
monetary value.
Εconomic instruments have been extensively used in Sweden and more than 50
billion safekeeping receipts were raised in terms of general energy taxes, taxes for
issues such as use of solvents and chlorofluorocarbons and others concerning the
use of batteries, chemical fertilizers, pesticides, sulfur, CO2 and differentiated
taxation on fuel. Other schemes introduced were the implementation of the EU
Landfill Directive, the UK Greenhouse Gas Emissions Trading Scheme, the UK
Packaging recovery note, the Norwegian system of weight-based waste taxes and
used furniture recycling projects. Producer responsibility should be considered on a
more individual basis and incentives for environmental investments should be
promoted (European Commission 2001c).

1.4 Measures for Reducing the Environmental Impact

of Products

The Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs and the Department of
Energy and Climate Change and Environment Agency in the United Kingdom have
made sincere efforts to assess the environmental impact of consumer products.
Many of the products are imported from all around the world; hence, the envi-
ronmental impacts are distributed across the world (Encouraging businesses to
manage their impact on the environment. https://www.gov.uk/government/policies/.
Accessed 30 Apr 2014). The Product Sustainability Forum is a collaborative agency
with retailers, suppliers, academics, NGOs and government representatives who
joined together to measure, communicate and improve the environmental perfor-
mance of products, with WRAP as the secretary for the forum (Product Sustain-
ability Forum 2014). PAS 2050:2011 is a freely available specification that
provides a methodology for assessing the lifecycle of greenhouse gas emissions for
goods and services. This was the world’s first structure for calculating the carbon
footprint of products, published in 2008. Currently, PAS 2050 has many specifi-
cations in individual sectors for the effective assessment of the carbon footprint of
products, identification of problems and reduction of carbon emissions in the supply
chain (BSI 2014).
Product Environmental Footprint and Organization Environmental Footprint are
organizations who are involved in the selection of proposals for tool development to
calculate the environmental footprint of products. This selection will be a sample of
28 S. Radhakrishnan

the market and is based on the diversity of product groups, availability of lifecycle
data and product category rules. The selection of proposals was carried out by a
committee of policy officers from different sectors of the General of the European
Commission. The Directorate General, Environment and the European Commission
Joint Research Centre have worked in tandem for the development of a technical
guide for the calculation of the environmental footprint of organizations, which also
includes the carbon footprint. The methodology has been developed based on the
Lifecycle Data System Handbook, the Global Reporting Initiative, WRI GHG
Protocol, CDP Water Footprint, ISO 140064 among others (EC 2014a, b).
Currently, the concern is not only for the manufacture and distribution of the
products to the consumer but also the effects of each action involved in the
sourcing, manufacturing and supply chain of the product on the environment,
society and the welfare of living beings worldwide. Many organizations are
working to make people aware of the effects of product development and the
responsibility of both the industry and the consumer in actively making wise
decisions to adopt eco-friendly attitudes and actions. Since the textile and fashion
industries occupy vital positions in the world economy and contribute to a large
extent to environmental pollution, concerns for reducing these impacts compelled
leaders in the apparel and footwear industries to form an organization called the
Sustainable Apparel Coalition, which worked toward eco-friendliness and sus-
tainability to make the future better.

2 Introduction to the Sustainable Apparel Coalition

The world’s textile and apparel industry is a 3 trillion industry that includes the
manufacturing, marketing and retailing of textiles and garments. This industry has
been considered as an approach for industrialization, economic progress and
national development. According to the World Trade Organization, China has been
leading the world with regard to exports in the field of textiles and apparel, followed
by the European Union and India. The Association of Southeast Asian Nations
(ASEAN) region is considered to be the biggest competitor to China in terms of
being a low-cost manufacturing center and export hub. The ASEAN region, which
includes Korea, India, Vietnam and Cambodia, has become one of the fastest
growing trade associations. The predictions are that China will remain the leader in
textile and apparel sourcing in the Asian region, because no other country can
match China in scale, infrastructure, efficiency and stability. Other countries would
have to invest significantly to increase productivity and meet the stringent quality
demands (Speer 2014; Wikipedia 2014).
Despite the recent recession, strategic moves taken in this sector have saved the
industry from various problems. Every industry should concentrate on keeping
stock levels low, as well as on being flexible and in tune with the consumer’s needs
and wants, emphasizing lean management and strong supply chain networks.
Ecological friendliness was the main motto and consumers have been very much
The Sustainable Apparel Coalition and the Higg Index 29

aware of its impact, seeking out products that complied with ecological standards.
Consumers paid more attention to water conservation, particularly when there was
low usage of water for production with zero discharge into the environment.
The governments of various countries have safeguarded their industries by
implementing globally focused strategies and policies. Intellectual property rights
and free-trade pacts have contributed to the industry’s well-being. Profit margins
have also increased for industries that have entered into specialized fields of
manufacturing and for niche products with an emphasis on stringent quality.
Another development worth mentioning is the formation of the Sustainable
Apparel Coalition, which helps industries to rate their products with a numerical
sustainability score in order to provide data to customers with regard to the extent
the manufacturer has contributed to the conservation of the environment. The Higg
Index is one such tool for the assessment of a product’s sustainability, which raises
a manufacturer’s consciousness of the design, choice of raw materials, manufac-
turing processes, finishing, packaging and distribution through the use and recy-
cling of the product (Martin 2013; Reichard 2013).
Flexibility, sustainability and change are the key words for growth and progress.
Industries that simply maintain production in terms of the routine scheduling and
orders will soon vanish from the competitive global market. In the near future, the
big winners will be manufacturers who are willing to move swiftly and definitively
when faced with innovative opportunities. This trend will be centered on the
mindset of the consumer and the consumer’s awareness, thus leading to solid
demand and increasing profits in the coming decades.

2.1 Background

The fashion industry is a popular industry among consumers, but it has a huge effect
on many environmental, social and governance concerns. The textile industry pre-
pares the base materials and the fashion and apparel industry converts these materials
to suit the desires and needs of consumers; both industries are responsible for high
utilization of energy, water, chemicals and resources from cotton to petroleum. The
poor onsite conditions of the textile factories and working environment have caused
many problems for the workers and operators, forming the basis for social reforms.
In addition, the precarious supply chain upon which many manufacturers rely to
develop apparels can cause many problems for merchandisers and retailers. The
challenges faced by apparel manufacturers and retailers, along with incidents such as
the Rana Plaza in Bangladesh and the crisis in Cambodia, led the clothing industry
giants and nonprofit organizations to launch an association called the Sustainable
Apparel Coalition (SAC), which aims to reduce the environmental and social
impacts of the apparel industry around the world (Kayne 2011).
The SAC is a trade organization with brands, retailers, manufacturers, govern-
ment and nongovernment organizations and academics as members, who together
represent more than one third of the global apparel and footwear market. The SAC
30 S. Radhakrishnan

Fig. 1 Logo of the sustainable apparel coalition (19)

was founded by a team of sustainability leaders from the global apparel and
footwear industries, with the aim of addressing the current social and environmental
challenges in the industry (Fig. 1). This organization seeks to highlight sustain-
ability through a multistakeholder arrangement by evaluating and measuring the
sustainability of apparel and footwear products, thereby giving rise to technological
innovations and actions. This organization has more than doubled its membership
and revenue in the 2 years since its inception. (SAC 2012a).

2.2 Mainframe of Sustainable Apparel Coalition

The organizational structure of SAC consists of a board of directors, consisting of

eminent industrialists and professionals from various organizations around the
globe, headed by a board chair. The members of the board of directors have a rich
background in industry and sustainability issues and they form the mainframe of the
coalition (SAC 2012b). The board is supported by a team who works toward the
goal of SAC. The team members include an executive director, vice president,
collaboration projects manager, environmental sustainability manager, implemen-
tation lead, product manager, membership development lead and an environmental
sustainability analyst. The team members have vast experience in industry, product
management, project management, development of assessment tools and sustain-
ability issues (SAC 2012c, d). These members are responsible for the planning,
execution and evaluation of the different activities of the coalition and contribute to
the sustenance and development of the organization.

2.3 Vision and Mission of the Sustainable Apparel Coalition

The vision of the SAC is to promote an apparel and footwear industry that does not
produce unnecessary environmental detriment and supports a positive impact on the
people and communities involved with its activities. The coalition was founded by
global sustainable leaders in the apparel and footwear arena who recognize the
The Sustainable Apparel Coalition and the Higg Index 31

importance of addressing the current social and environmental challenges facing the
industry. The mission of the coalition is to lead the industry towards sustainability
based on tools for measuring and evaluating apparel and footwear product sus-
tainability performance, thereby providing opportunities for technological innova-
tion. With the vision and mission established, this organization is working currently
towards the development and adoption of the Higg Index, a suite of tools for
measuring and assessing the environmental and social performance of apparel and
footwear products (SAC 2012e).
The purpose of the SAC is twofold. The member organizations will formulate
plans to reduce the impact of the apparel industry with regard to the consumption of
water, chemicals and waste generation. This can be achieved by the coordinated
efforts of coalition members, industry and supply chain partners by lifecycle
transparency for clothing, coupled with an assurance that fair employment practices
and safe working environments are provided to the workers in the apparel industry.
Secondly, the SAC will develop an assessment tool for the measurement of
environmental and social impacts. Based on the indices developed by Nike and the
Outdoor Industry Association, namely Apparel Environment Design Tool and Eco
Index, version 1.0 of the Higg Index was developed. This tool assesses energy,
water and chemical utilization by the industry and product lifecycle. A firm can then
compare their results with those of their peers to create an awareness and improve
performance by way of resources and guidelines. These efforts will reduce costs and
will eventually develop customized assessment tools for specializations such as
footwear (Kayne 2011).
As a collection of assessment tools, the Higg Index was launched on December
11, 2013. Its focus is on the standardization of the measurement of environmental
and social impacts of apparel and footwear products across the product lifecycle
throughout the value chain.

2.4 Outcomes of the Sustainable Apparel Coalition

Outcomes envisaged by the SAC include five important areas of apparel or product
manufacturing, as shown in Fig. 2. The first aspect, water use and quality, targets
the improved efficiency of water usage and reuse in the cultivation or production of
raw materials and manufacturing of products. Its main feature is to minimize the
effluent load and quantity of water discharges associated with apparel manufac-
turing and eliminate the impact on the neighboring environment and local com-
munities. The development of alternatives to conventional washing practices are
also considered to reduce the need for water use in garment care.
The second outcome, energy and emissions, aims to minimize the use of direct
and embedded energy and carbon in apparel products, with the intention of
reducing the use of resources and greenhouse gases. It also aims to promote design
and technology in the creation of apparel products that lessens carbon impacts, such
as reducing the need to use heating and air conditioning systems.
32 S. Radhakrishnan

Water use and Quality

Energy and Emissions
Waste
Chemicals and Toxicity
Social and Labour

Fig. 2 Outcomes of sustainable apparel coalition

Minimizing waste in all operations, the supply chain and the end stage of apparel
products, as well as the effective use of textile waste as raw materials or recycling of
waste for further use, is the third outcome. Generally, the use of chemicals in the
apparel supply chain—namely in the cultivation and production of raw materials
and manufacturing of apparel products—results in environmental and health haz-
ards if these materials are not handled efficiently.
The fourth outcome is the reduction and effective management of chemicals and
toxicity to safeguard the environment. The final outcome deals with the human
concern for fair, safe and nondiscriminatory workplaces, as well as to network with
industry and supply chain partners to attain lifecycle transparency about the social
and ethical performance of all companies and products (SAC 2012f).

2.5 Membership Benefits

The benefits of joining the SAC are many, as the apparel brands and products are
evaluated by consumers using quality and benchmarking systems. These benefits
fall under three heads—business value, leverage and leadership. When manufac-
turers and business partners become aware of the measurement of sustainability
performance, they will look out for ways to promote operational efficiencies in
energy, material and water use, thus resulting in benefits in these areas of pro-
duction and management of resources. The process of benchmarking performance
with industry peers or against a set of standards will bring about a positive change
in practices and technology. Rating performance using indexes will help to evaluate
the supplier management practices and the risk areas for improvement and capacity
building. The process of duplication and assessment fatigue can be avoided by
collaborating on a single index and the resources spent in measuring and reporting
can be reduced. Networking and sharing of best practices with other industry
leaders and promotion of industry-wide projects will hasten innovation in tech-
nology and practices. This collaboration will serve to reduce costs for individual
companies involved in developing the index and related tools. On the whole,
networking and collaboration can unite many apparel and footwear industries under
a common forum to work for sustainable and developmental activities.
The Sustainable Apparel Coalition and the Higg Index 33

The SAC is an organization with the power and ability to influence people,
events and decisions because it has a wide network of industries and multistake-
holders under its wing. It is equipped with a databank of resources and information,
which can serve the industry as a whole. This leverage can help to unite the highly
fragmented textile and apparel industry for improvements that will promote change.
It could also address systemic issues that cannot be addressed by any individual
industry, ensure credibility and broad acceptance of the framework and help the
industry to come to the forefront using measurement methods and regulations for
reporting on product impacts.
The SAC will help in capacity building by taking part in the development and
use of sustainability measurement tools, strengthening brand value and consumer
recognition. The methodology of sustainability assessment will bring the industry to
the forefront as a role model for other sectors. The quality of leadership and
recognition will build a foundation for the overall development of the industry in a
sustainable manner (SAC 2012g).
The global textile and apparel industry has moved from the agrarian age to the
technological era, passing through many phases of change as new ideas and
technologies emerged. These ideologies have been incorporated in the industrial
system to serve the fundamental needs of the society and customer demand.
Challenges that have arisen during these eras have transformed the industry into a
competitive one, equipping itself to surpass these tests and emerge as one of the
global leaders among industries. The greatest challenge facing the industry is
the green transformation of the global economy, which calls for transparency in the
supply chain of products and their life cycles. All the stalwarts of industry have
started scrutinizing their production processes and side effects and are looking out
for new solutions to help to save the environment from pollution. These green
concerns have led to the development of many organizations that have devoted their
energies toward sustainability. The Sustainable Apparel Coalition is one such
organization, calling for the networking of many stakeholders and providing ways
and means of assessing the results of industrial actions to reduce carbon footprints
and save the natural resources and environment for future generations.

3 Higg Index

3.1 Overview

The Higg Index is a set of assessment tools that are used to evaluate the envi-
ronmental impact of apparel and footwear products. The index was initially released
on June 26, 2012 as the Higg Index 1.0, and it has been used by many organizations
—both SAC members and nonmembers. The Higg Index 1.0 used a Microsoft
Excel interface and worked on qualitative indicators for assessment. The sustain-
ability topics were related to the environment, and the product category was
apparel. The Higg Index tools used were the environment-based brand module,
34 S. Radhakrishnan

facility module, and product module. Approximately 44 materials were included in

the Material Assessment Data and the Material Sustainability Index used basic
indicator questions on the environment. The weightages for the environment
modules were equal, but an option was given to choose from custom settings or
SAC-recommended weightages.
The Higg Index 2.0 was released on December 11, 2013. It is based on tools such
as the Eco Index, Nike’s Apparel Environmental Design Tool, Global Social Com-
pliance Program reference tools and social/labor practice tools, such as the SAI Social
Fingerprint and FLA Sustainable Compliance Initiative. After a pilot testing period
and use of the second version by many organizations for over 14 months, the Higg
Index 2.0 was introduced. This tool helps to standardize the methodology for mea-
surement and evaluation of the environmental performance of the apparel products all
along the supply chain in three levels—namely the brand, product and facility levels.
The scope of the Higg Index 2.0 is to assess the environmental and social/labor
performance of apparel and footwear products. It is based on lifecycle analysis
spanning the entire lifecycle of apparel products, encompassing raw materials,
manufacturing, packaging, transportation, use and end of life. Retailing has not been
included in this phase but is being considered for future use (SAC 2012h).
The Higg Index 2.0 is a tool that educates small and large companies to recognize
challenges and sustain improvement. The self-assessment tool helps scientific
learning by means of identifying the vital aspects of environmental sustainability and
opportunities that will provide improvement. This index is the basis for future
operations and efforts to ensure sustainability and is the starting point for the
commitment, learning, and collaboration among stakeholders. Regardless of the
company size, it allows beginners and leaders in environmental sustainability to
detect opportunities by means of a spectrum of performance tools. The organizations
who use this index can start from any module that is most comfortable to them, after
which they can branch out whenever suitable to other Higg Index tools. There is no
hard-and-fast rule to use all the modules (SAC 2012h).

3.2 Suite of Tools: The Higg Index 2.0

The Higg Index 2.0 tools fall under three heads: facility tools, brand tools and
product tools, as shown in Fig. 3. The facility tools include Facility Module:
Environment—Apparel/Footwear and Facility Module for Social/Labor—Apparel/
Footwear beta. The facility module for the environment helps to assess the per-
formance of materials, packaging and manufacturing facilities, whereas the second
module is used for the social and labor performance of materials, packaging and
manufacturing facilities.
There are three brand tools. Environment: Apparel is used to assess apparel
products with special reference to the specific environmental practices at the brand
level. The brand module Environment: Footwear functions the same as the previous
module but the product is footwear. The brand module Social/Labor: Apparel/
The Sustainable Apparel Coalition and the Higg Index 35

Fig. 3 Higg Index 2.0—suite

of tools (SAC 2012h)

Footwear Beta is used to assess the specific social and labor practices for both
apparel and footwear at the brand level.
The Rapid Design Module (RDM)–Beta and the Material Sustainability Index
(MSI) Data Explorer are the two assessment tools for measuring the impact of
products. The most important feature required is a product design that leads to
sustainability. The RDM helps to guide designers toward sustainable product design
by providing vital data and the support framework to enable them to make the right
decision. The MSI Data Explorer is an online interface that helps the users to
understand the method and strategy behind the MSI Base Material Scores used in the
RDM–Beta. It also serves as a platform for the submission of data to improve the
quality of the material scores or help in the addition of new materials (SAC 2012h).
The MSI is based on the data derived from the lifecycle assessment, which deals
with cradle-to-gate information on apparel and footwear products. This module was
originally developed by Nike and then incorporated into the SAC Higg Index,
thereby measuring the environmental and social performance of apparel and foot-
wear products. The lifecycle assessment takes into account the raw material origin
and processing involved, premanufacturing, actual material/product manufacturing
and the postmanufacturing processes. The assessment is usually taken in two stages
—namely from raw material to the intermediate stage as phase I and the interme-
diate stage to the final product as phase II (SAC 2012i). A 50-point scale with 13
individual indicators is used to score the impact of base materials.
The key improvements between the Higg Index 1.0 and Higg Index 2.0 are
summarized in Table 1.
The environment impact areas under consideration for the evaluation of product
sustainability across the entire lifecycle of a material are chemistry, energy,
greenhouse gas intensity, water and land use intensity and physical waste. The land
use intensity concentrates on the origin of the raw material in phase I and is not
considered elsewhere in the material lifecycle. Table 2 gives the contribution and
scores for each factor under an evaluation of base materials (SAC 2012j).
36 S. Radhakrishnan

Table 1 Comparison of Higg Index 1.0 and Higg Index 2.0 (SAC 2012h)
Higg Index 1.0 Higg Index 2.0
User interface Microsoft excel Web tool and microsoft excel
Assessment Qualitative Indicators Qualitative indicators + facility
type quantitative data (data values are
not scored)
Sustainability topics
Environment Yes Yes
Social/labor No Yes
Product categories
Apparel Yes Yes
Footwear No Yes
Value chain area
Higg Index Brand module (environmental) Brand module (environmen-
tools Facility module (environmental) tal + social/labor)
Product module Facility module (environmen-
tal + social/labor)
Rapid design module—beta
Validation None Pilot of validation protocol for
environmental facility module
Material assess- 44 materials 46 materials, with 2 new and 2
ment (MSI) updated from public data
submission
Chemistry Basic indicator questions (environ- Incorporate content from chemicals
ment); MSI management module and refer
users to full assessment: social/
labor
Benchmarking None Enabled through web tool
Section weights Equal weighting is default, with SAC-recommended weightings are
(environmental option to choose custom or SAC- default, based on survey of SAC
modules) recommended weightings members

The SAC and stakeholders can review and compare material data and scores
because the MSI dataset is open source. This will help to bring about collaboration
and transparency in data across the apparel and footwear industries (SAC 2013a, b).
The RDM–Beta is an original product to test the efficiency of a tool that aims to
provide education and guidelines to apparel and footwear designers to study the
impact of their design creations on the environment. This is a modified version of
the Higg Index 1.0. It allows the designers to get involved in the process and
methods of lifecycle assessment and the methods by which the materials are
assessed for sustainability through the MSI. The RDM–Beta is a product-focused
tool, which helps to gather information that will be useful for the modification of
the tool. The feedback from members has resulted in the formation of a post-2.0
module task force, which aims to develop a broader strategy for the product module
in the Higg Index (SAC 2012j).
The Sustainable Apparel Coalition and the Higg Index 37

Table 2 Material sustainability index scores (SAC 2013b)

Impact area Indicator Maximum
points
Chemistry Carcinogenicity 2.5
Acute toxicity 2.5
Chronic toxicity 2.5
Reproductive toxicity and endocrine 1.4
disruption
Subtotal 9
Energy and greenhouse gas (GHG) Energy intensity 4.4
intensity GHG intensity 6.6
Subtotal 11
Water and land use intensity Water intensity 9.4
Land use intensity 3.6
Subtotal 13
Physical waste Hazardous 6.8
Municipal solid waste 4.3
Industrial 3.4
Recyclable/compostable 1.7
Mineral 0.9
Subtotal 17
Grand total 50

3.3 Areas for Improvement in the Higg Index

Although the Higg Index 2.0 was introduced after analysis, pilot testing, and
feedback, there is always room for improvement. The index format will tend to
change according to the situation, challenges and real-time situations. Some of the
areas of improvement are discussed below. The needs of the users in the industry
are varied and require tools that would help them to make sustainable choices.
Product assessment tools can be improved by the RDM–Beta, which continues to
test various theories on how to get the necessary sustainability information for
making critical decisions. The index should provide facility for the inclusion of
quantitative data and metrics. Qualitative questions should be substantiated with
numerical data, thereby providing accurate information on environmental perfor-
mance, such as energy use data (SAC 2013c).
The scoring system can be improved by a thorough and systemic review of
scoring principles and their application to the index and support data on point
allocations. The scoring of packaging can be improved by the Material Sustain-
ability Index. The section weighting could be improved by using a panel approach
involving a larger group of stakeholders and a multicriteria-based approach to
allocate weights. Consistent benchmarking could be assured by aligning one set of
weights to enable a product comparison for business decisions and communication
38 S. Radhakrishnan

with customers. Many brands, facilities and suppliers usually invest in key certi-
fications and standards; the index should prescribe equivalents and fit a set of
questions that would address these certifications. The Material Sustainability Index
needs to be continuously refined as the database expands and more data, infor-
mation and methodologies become available when there is an increase in industrial
and stakeholder engagement. The SAC should develop an assurance process to help
organizations build confidence in response to third-party assessments (SAC 2012h).

4 Assessment Tools for Apparel and Footwear Products

The textile and apparel sector is an important and emerging industry that relies
heavily on manufacturers and the labor force, thus making the supply chain very
fragmented and risky and thereby leading to a major sustainability challenge.
Sustainability issues are very stringent and call for transparency throughout the
supply chain. In California, the Supply Chain Act requires all companies with an
annual gross turnover exceeding $100 million to publicly disclose the nature and
scope of the corporate compliance efforts to prevent human trafficking, slavery and
child labor in their global supply chains. Furthermore, the sustainability issues
inside the region or industry face regulations that safeguard the workers’ rights and
preferences, such as the Bangladesh Accord and the Bangladesh Worker Safety
Alliance. The zero discharge of hazardous chemicals initiative (2011) compels the
footwear and apparel industries to work with their suppliers and contract factories to
eliminate all releases of toxic substances and hazardous chemicals into global water
sources. Legislation and reform in the area of sustainability have changed the
outlooks, manufacturing and industry environments and evaluation methods and
tools for assessment are used to quantify the sustainability parameters (Ceres 2011).

4.1 Tools for the Assessment of Environmental Impacts

The SAC quantifies product lifecycle impacts in a standardized way with the help of
the product category rule guidance document. The product category rule guidance
document consists of 80–90 methodological questions, which are common across all
categories of products. A review process was carried out to ensure that the document
is in line with the current best practices and is devoid of duplication and potential
errors. The SAC has created three PCRs based on the review and reports: one for
t-shirts, one for coats and jackets, and one for slacks and shorts (SAC 2013d).
The Outdoor Industry Association Sustainability Working Group is currently
collaborating with SAC to develop sustainability indexes for apparel, footwear, and
equipment. There are three categories of facility tools that are to be used by facilities,
vendors and manufacturers to assess specific facility sites. The facility modules are
for Environment/Social-Labor: Apparel/Footwear/Equipment. The brand modules
The Sustainable Apparel Coalition and the Higg Index 39

are used to assess apparel or footwear product-specific environmental practices at the

brand level. The brand modules are for Environment: Apparel/Footwear and Social-
Labor: Apparel/Footwear–Beta. The product tools are used to understand the impact
of products, which include the MSI and RDM–Beta. All these tools are grouped
under the Higg Index (Outdoor Industry Association 2014).
The Outdoor Industry Association’s Chemicals Management Working Group
has developed the Chemical Management Framework, which is a comprehensive
assessment tool to guide companies along the entire apparel and footwear product
chain towards better management of chemicals for regulatory compliance to sus-
tainable chemistry innovation. The goal of this framework is to eliminate hazardous
chemicals in consumer products and their emissions in the workplace and envi-
ronment. The Eco Index is one such self-assessment tool, which works towards the
same goal jointly developed by the European Outdoor Group and the US Outdoor
Industry Association (ISPO 2014).
Nike Inc’s Environmental Apparel Design tool is designed to reduce the envi-
ronmental footprint of apparel and footwear products. This tool uses a numeric
scoring system based on the data filed by the manufacturer for each specific cate-
gory. The category points are added together and then ranked within a range: good,
better, best or needs improvement. About 60 % of the environment impact of the
garment is related to materials. The evaluation is in terms of issues including
energy, chemistry, carbon dioxide, water, land use and waste. The Material
Assessment Tool gives scores for materials based on 21 metrics in specific impact
areas. The scores for materials range from 0 to 100, with assessment values such as
an additional 5 points for garments that use a single-fiber raw material because they
are totally recyclable; conversely, 5 points may be deducted for coating and lam-
inating fabrics with a dissimilar material (Eco Textile 2014).
The Sustainability Reporting Framework helps in measurement, disclosure, and
accountability to internal and external stakeholders for the organizational perfor-
mance towards sustainable development. Like many other sustainability tools, it
works on economic, environmental and social impacts and can be used for
benchmarking, demonstrating and comparing the performance of the industry. The
Sustainability Reporting Framework (Fig. 4) consists of principles for defining
report content and ensuring the quality of reported information. This includes
standard disclosures made up of performance indicators and other disclosure items,
as well as guidance on specific technical reports. Indicator protocols exist for each
of the performance indicators present in the guidelines and provide definitions,
compilation guidance and information to assist with report writing. The sector
supplements provide information on how to apply the guidelines in the given sector.
The technical protocols provide guidelines on issue of reporting, setting the report
boundaries and working in unison with all other parts of the framework. This
sustainability tool works for issues such as economic, environmental, social, human
rights, society and product responsibility (RG 2011).
RDC Environment specializes in the quantification of the environmental impact
of products through lifecycle assessment, carbon footprinting, inventory for
greenhouse gases, energy audits and waste and water management projects. This
40 S. Radhakrishnan

Fig. 4 Sustainability
reporting framework (RG
2011)

tool is based on transparency, ethics and objectivity and provides advisory services
and consultancy services for environmental studies. This software uses preinte-
grated LCA methodologies and is standard-compliant with ISO 14040-44: 2006
and with the product category rule. This tool identifies the hotspots for assessment
and provides comparisons with other organizations or within the same organization
before and after implementation of steps to promote sustainability (RDC Envi-
ronment, LCA Tools. http://www.rdcenvironment.be/. Accessed 2 May 2014).

4.2 Lifecycle Assessment

LCA is a global analysis of the direct or indirect impact of a material, process or

service from raw material extraction to the end of life of a product. This tool has a
four-step approach:
(1) Definition of methodology and needs
(2) Data collection and LCA modelling
(3) Data classification
(4) Tool interface customization and development
The first step is to define and fix the criteria for the allocation of system
boundaries and the scope of the study, the fixation of LCA methodologies and
specifications to be used in the tool, such as the provision for ecodesign action,
environmental footprint for labelling or work with suppliers. The second step is to
collect the two types of data necessary to build the LCA model—namely, the
activity data (e.g. quantity of tons produced, yields of production) and the emission
factors (quantity of CO2 generated per process). To achieve the required precision
with minimum effort, the data collection and selection of external sources were
performed in an iterative manner, as recommended by the International Reference
Life Cycle Data System Handbook. The first iteration deals with rough data col-
lection, with minimum and maximum values; association of the assumptions based
The Sustainable Apparel Coalition and the Higg Index 41

Table 3 Data classification (Ooms et al. 2012)

Data accessibility (cost of data research)
Easy ! Hard
þ Specific Half-specific
Influence on the results #
 Half-specific Generic

on the textile producer; the use of general or average data for the background and
the presentation of preliminary results to identify the key processes and parameters.
The second iteration would include additional data collection and fine-tuning of the
parameters that have a significant impact. The last iteration will eventually give
reliable conclusions. The activity data included bibliographic reviews of national,
international or European data while the emission factor dealt with a review of main
LCA databases at European or international levels and inventory data, as well as
data based on the experiments and visits performed previously (Ooms et al. 2012;
Wolf et al. 2012; EC-JRC-Institute for Environment and Sustainability 2010; Wolf
et al. 2011; EC-JRC 2008).
The third step is data classification (Table 3) which includes specific data (the
data entered into the tool by users), half-specific data (default values entered due to
lack of knowledge or cost factor) and generic data (the entered default values not
accessible in the interface).
The last step is to develop tool interfaces in response to step 1 and step 3 and to
define data and export results. The results are used to assess ecodesign action,
calculate the environmental footprint, work with suppliers to improve their pro-
cesses and improve specific and half-specific data reliability. A standard version
and an expert version are available for use. The standard version deals with the
initiation of LCA and eco-design, whereas the expert version develops LCA and
eco-design skills through the industrial supply chain (Ooms et al. 2012; Parag-
ahawewa et al. 2009).

4.3 Social Lifecycle Assessment

Today’s consumers are conscious of their choice of products and their impact on the
environment and local economies. The evaluation will include choosing products
that will result in less pollution or greater sustainability. The product choices will
have social and socioeconomic effects on workers and entire communities where
the production takes place. These social and socioeconomic effects are the major
focus of a social or socioeconomic lifecycle assessment (S-LCA). This assessment
also facilitates the social responsibility of the companies by providing information
about the potential social impacts on people caused by the activities in the life cycle
of the products offered to the consumers. The S-LCA, when combined with the
environmental lifecycle assessment (E-LCA), will result in a holistic approach and
will move toward sustainable production and consumption.
42 S. Radhakrishnan

The S-LCA methodology has four major steps: goal definition, scope definition,
inventory analysis, and impact assessment (UNEP 2009; LCI 2013). The nature of
social impacts may be either negative or positive when compared with a specific
human value or standard prescribed by the society or law. The primary concern of
the E-LCA is the protection of environmental qualities in line with the values of
society with regard to environment. The areas of protection by the E-LCA are
human health, natural environment, natural resources and manmade environment.
The S-LCA has another dimension, human dignity and well-being, added on to the
areas of protection to supplement the human health factor. The ultimate goal of the
S-LCA is to improve the social conditions throughout the lifecycle of the product
with the central concept of human well-being.
The goal of S-LCA studies is to compare the extent of negative social impacts
and the greatest social benefits of two similar products manufactured by different
methods, thereby providing information to consumers to help them to make ethical
choices. The second goal is to identify the hotspots in the production process or
manufacturing centers that have negative social impacts, the short-term results and
the long-term impacts, the victims of the impacts and how these can be addressed.
The main stakeholders include workers/employees, the local community, society
(national and global), consumers and value chain actors. Further categories that are
under consideration for inclusion are NGOs, the state and future generations.
The system boundaries are set using the ISO 12044 framework and the social
indicators are assessed at the organizational level rather than the individual level.
The S-LCA indicators are categorized as quantitative, qualitative and semi-quali-
tative. In E-LCA, the impact of indicators is based on the numerical values of
endpoint indicators, whereas the S-LCA uses midpoint and endpoint indicators.
Some endpoint indicators in S-LCA are mortality, morbidity, autonomy, safety,
security, tranquility, equal opportunities, participation and influence. The inventory
analysis collects data on the social impacts to be considered in relation to behavior
of the company towards the stakeholders. The impact of the assessment is based on
the grouping of data based on the social setup to provide substantial conclusions.
This is a difficult task and requires a great deal of correlation of data and classifying
the data to get results. The general steps to achieve the objective of the S-LCA are
the identification of significant social issues, such as infringement to human rights
or labor laws, evaluation of the study in terms of completeness, consistency,
appropriateness of methodology with respect to goal and scope, conclusions and
recommendations based on the goal and scope of the study and finally reporting the
involvement and participation of stakeholders in the particular case under study.
There are many limitations of S-LCA because it is a new process and not many
studies have been undertaken. There is much debate on the appropriateness of the
methodology, inclusion of stakeholders and interpretation of data. Practitioners
should be skilled in LCA as well as in social science, corporate social responsibility
and social impact assessment. In S-LCA, the use phase has not been included
because it is very difficult to assess; hence, this stage of assessment requires further
development. The field is still in the early stage and requires a lot of input from
many social researchers and experienced socialists (Subic et al. 2013).
The Sustainable Apparel Coalition and the Higg Index 43

4.4 The Capability Assessment Tool for Sustainable

Manufacturing

In general, performance apparel and footwear have a heavy carbon footprint due to
pollution, extensive use of nonrenewable resources and waste during manufactur-
ing. An example for the extent of the environmental impact of sports apparel at the
different stages of the lifecycle of the product is shown in Table 4. The art of
reducing or alleviating these impacts is highly dependent on the skill of the faculty
and management to identify and implement these improvements within the par-
ticular environment.
Green manufacturing is a relatively new concept. The industry needs to develop
knowledge, skills and values to incorporate such concepts into the manufacturing
system. This is possible only when sustainability targets are set and monitored by
efficient and capable personnel. Traditionally, environment management systems
and sustainability frameworks encourage environmental awareness and focus on
strategy and decision making. However, an assessment framework is essential to
identify capability gaps in order to achieve the environmental sustainability targets
and to encourage suppliers to take part in environmental initiatives. Due to the
many gaps in the existing systems, it was essential to develop a new framework to
assess the particular capabilities across the supply chain of the manufacturing
industries, which could be applied to a broad range of industries. The new
framework had to be objective-based with a focus on the environmental footprints
and associated capabilities at the manufacturer’s level, thereby enabling provisions
for real value additions to different types of manufacturers.
The Capability Assessment Tool for Sustainable Manufacturing is used to
identify the gaps in capabilities and associated training and development require-
ments all along the supply chain for sustainable manufacturing. The first step for
assessing a supplier’s capability with regard to sustainable manufacturing was to

Table 4 Environmental impacts across the lifecycle of sports apparel

Lifecycle stage Environmental impact
Raw materials (growth, acquisi- Resource consumption, greenhouse gas emissions, air/
tion, and processing) water pollution and toxicity, soil degradation/contamina-
tion, biodiversity/land use, solid and hazardous waste
Fiber production (natural and Greenhouse gas emissions, air/water pollution and toxicity,
synthetic) soil degradation/contamination, biodiversity/land use
Clothing production and garment Greenhouse gas emissions, air/water pollution and toxicity,
assembly soil degradation/contamination, biodiversity/land use
Packaging Solid and hazardous waste
Distribution Greenhouse gas emissions
Retail Solid and hazardous waste
Use Resource consumption, solid and hazardous waste
End-of-life management Greenhouse gas emissions, solid and hazardous waste
44 S. Radhakrishnan

Table 5 Sustainable manufacturing framework

Cluster Applied outcome
Resource management Energy efficiency Reduce energy use
Maximize alternative energy resources
Water efficiency Reduce water use
Increase alternative water supply
Material efficiency Optimize material flow and usage
Manage inventory and usage
Emission management Control and reduce Implement and apply waste management
Environmental Flow hierarchy
Handle, store, treat and dispose
appropriately
Prevent groundwater and land
contamination
Carbon emissions Account for carbon emissions
Reduce carbon emissions
Improved environmental Effective Enhance auditing and environmental
management practices environmental monitoring performance
management system Comply with environmental systems
Environmental Implement industrial clustering and
decision making resource pooling
Undertake risk assessment (environmen-
tal and business)
Identify, develop and implement business
cases for sustainability improvement
Continued Lead environmental management
environmental initiatives
improvement Innovate for environmental improvement
(including process optimization)

develop a Sustainable Manufacturing Framework (SMF), shown in Table 5, in

consultation with the manufacturer and participating suppliers along with a review
of the sustainability targets and documents of the manufacturer and similar global
manufacturers.
Assessment of 170 capabilities can be done for areas of concern, such as
managing of energy, water, resources, carbon emissions and waste as well as
environment management practices for sustainability. Environmental indicators and
initiatives set by the manufacturer are grouped under eight clusters of the frame-
work and environmental capabilities and the associated indicators are classified
under three management categories: resources (energy, water and material), emis-
sions (greenhouse gases and waste) and the environment (ISO 14001 etc.). The
Sustainable Manufacturing Framework formed the basis for the development of
Comprehensive Capability Metrics Assessment Tool, which used a five-point Likert
scale for assessment. Four assessment methods were selected: a walk-through
assessment based on observation of capability in work activities, a questionnaire
based on simulated workplace activities, interviews through responses to verbal
The Sustainable Apparel Coalition and the Higg Index 45

questions and work samples or projects indicating prior demonstration of capability.

The number of methods used for assessment depended on the need and require-
ment. Each assessment method had a set of questions to be answered by a focus
group and the overall score of the cluster was generated using the following
formula:
0     1
P
A P
A
N BX Ca þ Ca C
1 X B
Mn
a1 a1 C
C¼ B method1 method2
C
2NA n1 @ n1 Mn A
n

where C is the overall average score of the cluster (a number between 1 and 5)
calculated by an assessment group i; A is the number of assessors; N is the number
of applied outcomes under the cluster being assessed (1, 2, or 3 as per formula); Mn
is the number of capabilities under the applied outcome of n (n varies from 1 to N),
which is a number between 5 and 16 depending on how many capabilities are listed
under the applied outcome; and Ca is the score given to a capability by an assessor
based on any method used for assessing that capability.
The results of the assessment are compared with the minimum expectations of the
manufacturer in terms of applied outcomes and clusters, and the gaps in the capa-
bilities are identified followed by the formulation of a capacity-building training
program for the suppliers to enable them to attain knowledge and skill for meeting
the environmental targets set by the manufacturers. The sensitivity analysis will
show the cluster-based overall results determined by the different assessors, which
are reviewed as the assessment is conducted by two or more independent repre-
sentative assessors. The difference in the scores was used to calculate the maximum
effect of such a difference in the overall score of the cluster. The results also reveal
the degree of agreement between the different assessors and also helped to identify
the lacunas among the suppliers, showing the need for training and improvement,
which will lead to the achievement of the environmental targets (NAEM 2014).

5 Future Directions

The Sustainable Apparel Coalition has been leading the apparel industry toward a
vision of sustainability built on a common approach for the evaluation of the
performance of the stakeholders with regard to sustainability. This coalition has a
commitment to leadership to steer the apparel and footwear industries in the right
direction of ethical, social and environmental practices. The members of the SAC
are from varying perspectives, interests, and locations; the coalition has nurtured an
open culture of equality, respect, and transparency, thereby promoting unity and
faith in the members to move towards sustainability. This organization has for-
mulated many tools and indexes for assessment with great speed and efficiency and
is making progress with great planning and dedication. However, many important
46 S. Radhakrishnan

factors have contributed to the success of the organization, starting with committed
organizations and members, planning of meetings to collaborate and deliver results,
involving members in index development and highlighting leadership and work
towards opportunities, innovation and action. The future holds promise for sus-
tainable development due to the forecasts and opportunities that are focused, dis-
cussed and developed. Some of the trends and initiatives are discussed here to
demonstrate the future role of sustainability.

5.1 Macro Trends for the Future

The National Association for Environmental Management has been tracking cor-
porate environmental management programs and has documented the emergence of
corporate sustainability. They have identified the trends for the global future in
terms of global sustainability and environmental management. The top leadership
companies have turned their attention toward these trends. They envisage that
environment management has many factors woven together, contributing to com-
plex business problems and the sustainability curve.
• Resource Management: The current major resource issues are energy and water
management. Energy programs for the conservation of energy, alternatives to
fossil fuels and energy efficiency are being formulated; the primary focus of
water is being highlighted by programs focusing on water risk assessments,
water conservation visions and the development of site-specific strategies.
• Product Sustainability and Compliance: Regulations such as REACH and RoHS
have ensured that many industries are pursuing a number of programs to bring
sustainability to their products. These include product labelling, carbon footprint
assessment, green chemistry and reduction of upstream impacts.
• Supply Chain Transparency: Companies are focused on seeking data from their
suppliers to fulfill the compliance standards of creating data sheets for potential
risks in the supply chain, manufacturing methodology and end-of-life recycling.
• External Reporting Requirements: Reporting has become an essential part of
sustainability and materiality has become a rubric for external environment,
social and governance reporting.
• Employee Engagement: This factor has become a top priority in 2014 and
cultural changes at all levels are facilitated by adopting new ways to bring about
the change.
• Climate Change Adaptation: Most companies have started the process of con-
ducting a comprehensive climate risk assessment of their operations and are
involved in developing the results into climate adaptation plans.
• Next-Generation Sustainability Goals: The strategic planning of sustainability
goals has begun and goals have been set by many companies to mature in the
coming years. People have become conscious and this process will continue for
the future.
The Sustainable Apparel Coalition and the Higg Index 47

The concepts that will enable us to fulfil the goals of the future are integration of
sustainability at all levels of the organization, engagement in valuing future pro-
spectives in the environmental and social context. Transparency has become a
business initiative for product stewardship and for suppliers with business-to-business
orientation. Collaborative efforts will lead to shared benefits, problem solving and
realizing the capacity of companies and resilience to enable an industry to become
responsive, interdependent and ultimately flexible and adaptive (Yoemans 2014).
A common idea until recently was that many manufacturers were unable to reach
a majority of the consumers to convey their ideas for sustainability. Hence, sus-
tainability issues were discussed only with stakeholders, NGOs, investors and
specific media. The Social Media Sustainability Index 2013 has helped industries to
convey the concepts of sustainability to far-reaching consumers, who are respon-
sible for spreading the message of sustainability at the product, brand and facility
levels (DEFRA 2010).

5.2 Future Action Plans

The action plans with regard to sustainability and environmental protection activ-
ities are many. The participation of industries and manufacturers in sustainability
actions will surely increase over time. Projects such as increasing the public
understanding of sustainable clothing, unlocking consumer behavior for sustain-
ability benefits, using sustainable fibers and fabrics that move forward, reducing
energy and chemical intensity in clothes cleaning and maximizing end-of-life
clothing reuse and recycling would prove to be useful to industries and provide data
for sustainable solutions. Development of regulations, policies and voluntary
groups would serve to bring awareness to and streamline sustainability issues.
Members of the group and stakeholders can participate by giving suggestions and
consumers could give their views and feedback for a more strategic approach.
Action plans in areas such as improving environmental performance across the
supply chain, consumer trends and behavior, awareness, media, education and
networks, market drivers for sustainable clothing and instruments for improving
traceability along the supply chain would bring about changes in the minds of both
the business community and the consumer to improve the sustainability of clothing.
The prime areas of change for the consumer would be to ease the impacts of buying,
maintaining and disposing of clothes. For the business community, this would
require developing and offering ranges of clothing that have enhanced social and
environment sustainability qualities; informing and helping consumers about areas
where they can impact a change; bringing about better environmental, labor, trade
and animal welfare practices; establishing traceability all along the apparel supply
chain; and working with the government and other stakeholders to identify and
implement best practices. The Department for Environment, Food and Rural
Affairs, UK, suggests that many case studies and policies should be carried out on a
global level, such as the Green Public Procurement and the International SCP
48 S. Radhakrishnan

Policy aimed at improving the supply chain among manufacturers who export to the
UK. This organization also suggests influencing consumers through a direct gov-
ernment environmental website, where web pages could be developed to advise
consumers on how they can reduce the environmental footprint for their clothing
consumption (TFIA 2014).
Many important initiatives are being undertaken around the globe to promote
sustainability and ethical supply. Clean Energy Future is an official website of the
Australian Government that outlines the plan for a sustainable and prosperous
country. This forum links with all the programs administered by various govern-
ment departments under the Clean Energy Legislation and also has a section on
assistance for the industry. The Ethical Clothing Australia website has a section for
manufacturers and brands explaining the accreditation process and an ethical
shopping guide for consumers, which shows a list of accredited brands that dem-
onstrated legal obligations and standards were met throughout the supply chain.
The Banksia Environmental Foundation is a nonprofit organization that promotes
environmental excellence and sustainability through its award programs and other
associated events. Some of the most prestigious awards include the Prime Minis-
ter’s Environmentalist of the Year Award, the Environment Minister’s Young
Environmentalist of the Year Award, the Mercedes-Benz Research Award, and the
Brian Robinson Fellowship. All these activities and initiatives show that the future
looks promising for sustainability plans and accomplishments at all levels—the
individual consumer, the community, society and governments across the globe
(TARGET 2012).
Many organizations are involved in sustainability commitments with the help of
sustainability focus teams. The first effort should be directed to sustainable living
where consumers and members of the group will be empowered by the right
information, tools and incentives to lead more sustainable lifestyles. Consumers
should increase their selection of sustainable products to effectively balance price,
performance and convenience. Smart use of resources, such as the effective use of
space in retail outlets and improving connectivity between the organization and
local communities, is necessary for future development. The responsible use of
resources, eliminating waste and minimizing carbon footprint are some of the
measures for sustainability commitments (Ulibarri 2011).

5.3 Challenges Facing SAC

The SAC planned to create a database to track the environmental impact and fair
labor practices for the apparel and footwear industries. In this regard, the SAC would
create a universal index to set standards for apparel manufacturing in terms of energy
usage, fair labor practices, waste reduction and water quality. Eventually, the data
collected will serve as a base to create a consumer label that would inform the
consumer about the sustainability rating of the product (Kester and Ledyard 2012).
The Sustainable Apparel Coalition and the Higg Index 49

The key challenge facing the organization is to make the Sustainable Apparel
Index workable and usable to ensure adoption of the tool by all industries and
manufacturers in the related field. The standards that support sustainability and the
real-time practices must be coordinated and negotiated to make it workable. This
requires coordination across the globe and untiring effort to make the index part and
parcel of the system. Apart from adoption of the tool, questions remain as to
whether the data obtained is meaningful for benchmarking, how the data could be
shared, and whether it will be useful to encourage the members to innovate and
improve. The organization was environment focused when it launched the index in
2012, but the social and labor indicators have been added into the index and the
progress in that direction is very slow. It has been difficult for the organization to
come to a consensus regarding standards and metrics for the social and labor
aspects and include them into the index.
The credibility of the index will depend on the verification of the data compiled
by the members of the organization. Much time and effort are required for third-
party verification, for which funds have to be allocated. The authentication of the
reported data, the responsibility of additional monitoring to ensure the incorporation
of the results and the associated costs have to be addressed. Some members of the
coalition are keen on conveying their sustainability scores to the consumer to
capture the market, while others are assessing the feasibility of the idea and feel that
this communication would serve to confuse the consumer because many eco-
friendly ideologies already exist in the apparel market. The SAC has to decide on its
overall approach to communication and branding and must send a clear message at
the product, brand and facility levels (Nike Inc 2012a).
The organization should aim for representation from around the globe by way of
membership and members in the organizational setup. Apart from the board of
directors and the working team, there should be an intermediary board/system that
has representatives from all parts of the world. This will enable better understanding
of the data collected, problems interlinked with product development, supply chain
activities and consumer attitudes. The manufacturing environments, government
policies, duties and taxes, infrastructure, equipment and process methodologies
vary from place to place and require immense planning and analysis for imple-
mentation of schemes and systems. This process of sustainability, which is now
under the purview of the industries and organizations, should move to a larger scale
on a governmental and global level, so that essential requirements for tool imple-
mentation and coordination would be enhanced. Data, which is received from all
around the world, must be catalogued and stored for future reference and use.
Provisions should be allocated for sharing of knowledge, research and develop-
ment, and efficient personnel employed for the analysis and interpretation of data to
foresee and forecast the action plan for the futuristic years. Research conventions,
conferences and symposiums should be held to serve as a platform for interactions
between the members and the outside world. Results of the research platforms and
organizations with regard to all features of sustainability should reach the manu-
facturers and consumers. This can succeed only when the research efforts are
converted to industry-viable solutions through organizations devoted to this cause.
50 S. Radhakrishnan

Promotional activities should be undertaken to create awareness among consumers

and they should effectively create a long-lasting image that would encourage
consumers to think in terms of sustainability and green economy. Funding for all of
these activities should be raised from members, organizations, industries and other
international sources. On the whole, the focus should be on sustainability, from the
grassroot level to the highest authority.
The SAC has grown to great levels since its inception in 2010. The feedback
received has highlighted that the Higg Index is being used as a common mea-
surement tool by apparel and footwear industries and members in the supply chain
to undertake sustainable practices to bring about change and improvement. This
organization is unique and the development of a strong unified culture is a foun-
dation for future increases in membership and the evolving expectations around
sustainability. The transference of the lessons learnt across the apparel industry and
its supply chain and communication of the accomplishments of the SAC to con-
sumers, would help in moving the organization forward on the path of success.

6 Nike, Inc.: A Case Study

Nike, Inc. is the world’s largest athletic footwear and apparel company, with a
mission to inspire every athlete in the world to reach his or her fullest potential. The
cofounder Bill Bowerman was a visionary who perceived human achievement
through sport. Innovation is at the heart of the organization to serve athletes, which
will form the basis of growth of the organization and in turn provides inspiration to
achieve. Nike serves sports personnel with five distinct brands that have a powerful
rapport with their customers. Sport-inspired lifestyle products including footwear,
apparel, equipment and accessories are designed, developed and sold under the
high-quality athletic performance gear category. Casual sneakers, apparel and
accessories are designed, licensed and marketed by Converse, Inc. Hurley Inter-
national LLC designs, markets and distributes surf and youth lifestyle footwear,
apparel and accessories. The dynamic legacy, vision and direct involvement of
Michael Jordan serves as an inspiration for the Jordan brand of premium footwear.
Golf equipment, apparel, balls, footwear, bags and accessories are designed and
marketed by Nike Golf.
Nike, Inc. has its headquarters near Beaverton, Oregon, USA. Contract factories
in more than 40 countries manufacture products that are sold in nearly every
country around the world. In 2013, Nike’s global workforce was approximately
48,000 employees located worldwide. The company has more than 750 retail stores,
90 administrative offices and more than 110 sales offices and showrooms. Over the
past 10 years, the revenue has more than doubled. It has been estimated that
revenue will be $30 billion by the end of fiscal year (FY) 2015 and $36 billion by
FY17. Strong growth has been estimated in the field of sports gear for running,
basketball, football, men’s and women’s training sportswear and direct-to-con-
sumer sales. Sustainability is one of the key drivers for innovation and continued
The Sustainable Apparel Coalition and the Higg Index 51

growth. The integration of sustainability into every aspect of the business is the aim
of Nike and the greatest challenge is to explore ways that would enhance perfor-
mance of the wearer in terms of design, materials and manufacturing (www.cmu.
edu/teaching/designteach/teach/instructionalstrategies/casestudies.html. Accessed 1
May 2014).
A case study examines realistic, complex and content-rich events or situations
that center on a problem or conflict. Usually, the facts surrounding the problem are
highlighted as it becomes a source for discussion and debate. The case study is a
link between theory and practice and between academy and industry. Case studies
shed light on the parameters of the problem, the evaluation of courses of action, and
the possible solutions to or the reasons and remedies for the problem (Nike Inc
2012b).
Sustainability, which was a domain for experts and ideologists, has become one
of the key drivers of success for any industry or manufacturing company. In the
future, we will likely find environments where competition for scarce natural
resources will affect the cost and availability of raw materials for manufacturing.
The traditional methods of manufacturing are slowly giving way to new sustainable
models because there is immense pressure due to rising energy costs and green-
house gas emissions. Regulations related to raw materials, labor practices and other
issues are shaping the business environment to face these challenging demands.
Sustainable innovation is a current trend. At Nike, an executive-level committee
for sustainable innovation was formed in 2011 to monitor and capitalize on
opportunities by the adoption of new strategies on a commercial scale.
Sustainable innovations have been implemented based on a four-way approach
using interconnected insights and disruptive innovations (Fig. 5). The first pillar for
sustainability is the choice of materials for the products, which affects the entire
value chain and the creation of a portfolio of sustainable materials (Nike Inc 2012c).
Extensive work has been done on ways to improve the environmental attributes of
materials for over a decade. The material rating tool—the upgraded version of Nike

Fig. 5 Nike’s sustainable innovation pipeline (Nike Inc 2012c)

52 S. Radhakrishnan

Material Sustainability Index—is being used by designers and developers to

identify affordable materials that meet environmental standards because materials
form a substantial part of the product cost. It has been estimated that 60 % of the
lifecycle environmental impacts of a product are due to raw materials and 25 % are
accounted for by the manufacturing process. The remaining 15 % is allocated for
transportation, retail, office facilities, packaging, use and disposal. The assessment
focuses on the choice of materials used (recycled or recyclable), processing
methods (showing reduced usage of energy, water, chemicals and waste), better
choices (index creation, restricted substance list, policies, operating methods, and
sharing of information with vendors and suppliers) and bringing choices to scale
(increasing the scale and availability of new materials, enabling recycling of
materials and sharing of intellectual properties).
The difficulty of making a choice among materials is overcome by the evaluation
system for the environmental impacts of materials evolved at Nike, in which 80,000
materials have been assessed for their environmental impacts. The product design
teams work in synergy with these results when choosing raw materials. Sourcing of
the materials from independent vendors is based on the quality and the environ-
mental impacts. In 2006, Nike introduced a design system (Considered Design)
coupled with evaluation systems (Considered Indexes), which enables the product
design teams to quickly select the proper material based on sustainability during the
design phase. Training is given to the design teams and scoring targets are given for
each season of products they design. The Considered Indexes make up 35 and 60 %
of the score for footwear and apparel, respectively. Nike and affiliated brands have
begun using these tools for the evaluation of their product designs and the tool is
being modified and updated for the current environment.
The Material Sustainability Index (Fig. 6) is also applicable for material vendors
and about 500 material vendors have been trained to use the Index. Material
vendors are also given scores based on the criteria/standard that they have followed,
such as complying with the restricted substance list, Nike water requirement pro-
gram, global recycle standard and ISO 14001 certification. This will encourage the

Fig. 6 Material sustainability index (Nike Inc 2012b, d)

The Sustainable Apparel Coalition and the Higg Index 53

vendors to develop more eco-friendly materials, which will fetch them higher MSI
scores. The evaluation of the footwear and apparel products of the Nike Brand
revealed that in FY 2011, approximately 97 % of the footwear and 40 % of apparel
products met the baseline requirements. Efforts are being directed toward a 100 %
achievement for both footwear and apparel by FY 2015 (Nike Inc 2012d).
The second pillar for sustainable innovation is prototyping and scaling sus-
tainable sourcing and manufacturing models, which will affect the activities vital to
the value chain. The vision of the organization is to create a sustainable supply
chain that is lean, green, equitable and empowered across all the brands produced.
The Manufacturing Index, launched in 2012, gives same weightage to the perfor-
mance of a factory and sustainable manufacturing practices as it does to traditional
measures of quality, delivery, cost and sourcing evaluation. The index measures the
progress of the worker’s health and safety, labor compliance, human resource
management, lean implementation, energy and carbon management and other
sustainability issues. The value chain of Nike is global, with more than 900 contract
factories and 500,000 different products, each with its own environmental and
social impacts. The supply chain is fragmented and complex and beyond the pur-
view and power of this organization, making the building of a positive approach
through contracts a challenge (Nike Inc 2012d).
Thee two indexes developed for sourcing decisions, the Manufacturing Index
(MI) and the Manufacturing Sustainability Index, embed the Risk Index and per-
formance indicators using the MI metrics. The Risk Index will be able to identify
low factory performance based on the MI metrics. Features such as political risk,
social/compliance risk, economic risk, infrastructure and climate risk are given an
equal weightage of 25 % of the total score. These tools will help to identify low-
risk, high-quality factories to manufacture sustainable products. A business system
that works for continuous improvements and high-quality products while elimi-
nating waste (time and material) is known as lean manufacturing. Changes in
production processes, increasing leadership capabilities and the development of an
empowered workforce will enable the production of a quality product in record
time. The factories that manufacture Nike products are expected to meet the code of
conduct and code of leadership standards, as prescribed by Nike. The environ-
mental impacts of the contract factories, such as greenhouse gas emissions, waste
generation, and the use of energy, water, and materials, are measured, monitored
and reported to maintain sustainability.
Achieving an equitable supply chain is an important aspect of sustainability. In
many contract factories, wage concerns, compensations, pay and benefits and skill
development are some of the important features for a highly valued workforce to be
able to produce quality products. Sustainability also encourages incentives and
rewards for high-quality production, which will result in confidence, productivity
and good management practices. Another drive in the contract factories is to bestow
empowerment to the workforce by means of human resource management (HRM),
training and support. A sustainable manufacturing training package for workers
addresses issues such as lean manufacturing, HRM, health and safety, environ-
mental compliance, energy management, environmental sustainability and freedom
54 S. Radhakrishnan

for association. Thus, the manufacturing module works for the development of the
factory as well as the workforce for sustainable production (Nike Inc 2012d).
Systemic analysis and carbon footprinting have revealed six areas of greatest
impact on the environment: energy, labor, chemistry, water, waste and communi-
ties. All of these areas are interconnected and they need to be addressed in a
progressive manner with commitment to reduce them to the lowest possible levels.
The Nike Energy and Carbon program has found that 41 % of the contract factories
have met the minimum requirements leading to improvement. The use of renewable
energy for the retail stores in North America was through the purchase of Green-e-
Certified American wind renewable energy certificates. Nike also has two global
distribution centers for renewable energy in Laakdhal, Belgium and Iaichang,
China. Furthermore, 33 LEED-certified stores were in operation in FY 2013; on
average, these LEED-certified stores use 30 % less energy per square foot than
standard designs. This lower consumption of energy showed a 2.8 % decrease in
greenhouse gas emissions.
It has been assessed that 56 % of the carbon dioxide emissions are found to be in
the raw material stage in the footwear chain. Reduction of process heat loss,
improved energy management systems and proper synchronization of the energy
field team and contract factories have brought about reductions in energy require-
ments. Equitable manufacturing and lean manufacturing are tools for reducing
energy requirements. With regard to chemicals, many companies have joined the
Zero Discharge of Hazardous Chemicals Coalition; this can be achieved by positive
chemistry (use of environmentally preferred chemistries), rejection of toxins,
chemical management and awareness training, material traceability and disclosure
advancements. Commitments have been made for the phase-out of perfluorinated
chemicals and the use of alternatives for these finishes. The assessment of the
geographic impact of water and the use of waterless technologies have helped to
save many industries. Waste reduction at manufacturing, recycling of shoebox
waste, reduction in the weight of packaging materials and the recycling, reuse and
repurposing of waste are some of the methods for addressing the problem of waste.
Physical inactivity has led to many problems in health and the forum 'Designed to
Move' will take care of this problem (Nike Inc 2012e).
Finally, the organization works with the underlying principle of building sus-
tainability into the core of the business model, the operations and culture where
innovation is conceived, shared and commercially applicable. The commitment
requires an eye for sustainability in every field, with constant attention to the
measurement and evaluation of the sustainable measures in order to find the right
direction for growth and progress. This will bring about all-around development,
market transformation and consumerism. Nike has done immense work to enrich our
living space by working on sustainability. The company has partnered with many
projects and legislations in this field and has worked in union with many other
leaders in the industry. The formulation and execution of the tools for Higg Index
has been used by this organization and the basis of all such work has been taken from
Nike Inc. Many of the products manufactured by Nike have proven to be sustainable
and there are many industries who will follow this leader in favor of sustainability.
The Sustainable Apparel Coalition and the Higg Index 55

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Accessed 15 May 2014
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May 2014
The Sustainable Apparel Coalition and the Higg Index 57

Wolf MA, Pant R, Chomkhamsri K (2011) Towards life cycle sustainability management. http://
link.springer.com/. Accessed 15 May 2014
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Yoemans M (2014) Greenwashing? Marketers actually undersell their sustainability work. http://
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Making the Connection Between
the United Nations Global Compact Code
of Conduct for the Textile and Fashion
Sector and the Sustainable Apparel
Coalition Higg Index (2.0)

Miguel Ángel Gardetti

Abstract The Sustainable Apparel Coalition (SAC) is an industry-wide group of

more than 100 leading apparel and footwear brands, retailers, suppliers, nonprofits,
and nongovernmental organizations working to reduce the environmental and social
impacts of apparel and footwear products around the world. The SAC Higg Index
2.0 is primarily an indicator-based tool for apparel that enables companies to
evaluate material types, products, facilities, and processes based on a range of
environmental and product design choices. The United Nations Global Compact
(UNGC) is a strategic policy initiative for businesses that are committed to aligning
their operations and strategies with 10 universally accepted principles in the areas of
human rights, labor, environment, and anti-corruption. The first “sectorial” initia-
tive of the UNGC is the Code of Conduct and Manual for the Fashion and Textile
Industry, which is totally aligned with the Global Compact principles. This chapter
introduces SAC Higg Index 2.0 and the UNGC Code of Conduct, in addition to
describing their principles or constituent tools. The chapter also analyzes the dif-
ferences between both initiatives, putting forward some thoughts based on the
impacts of the fashion and textile sector. However, because every company is
unique, this work is not intended to prescribe the only way to develop sustainable
strategies in the textile and fashion sectors.

Keywords Sustainable Apparel Coalition (SAC) United Nations Global Com-


pact (UNGC) UNGC Code of Conduct and Manual for the Fashion and Textile


Sector SAC Higg Index 2.0

M.Á. Gardetti (&)

The Sustainable Textile Centre, Av. San Isidro 4166, Ground Floor “A”,
C1429ADP Buenos Aires, Republic of Argentina
e-mail: [email protected]
URL: http://www.ctextilsustentable.org.ar

© Springer Science+Business Media Singapore 2015 59

S.S. Muthu (ed.), Roadmap to Sustainable Textiles and Clothing,
Textile Science and Clothing Technology, DOI 10.1007/978-981-287-164-0_3
60 M.Á. Gardetti

1 Introduction

In 2000, consumers spent approximately US$1 trillion worldwide buying clothes.

Around one-third of sales were in Western Europe, one third in North America and
one quarter in Asia (Make Trade Fair and Oxfam International 2004). Seven percent
of total world exports are in clothing and textiles. Significant parts of the sector are
dominated by developing countries, particularly in Asia, and above all by China.
Industrialized countries are still important exporters of clothing and textiles,
especially Germany and Italy for clothing and the United States for textiles.
According to Allwood et al. (2006), developing countries now account for half of
the world’s textile exports and almost three quarters of the world’s clothing exports.
Because of the size of the sector and the historical dependence of clothing
manufacture on cheap labor, the clothing and textile industry is subject to intense
political interest and has been significantly shaped by international trading agree-
ments. Estimating the number of people working in these sectors is extremely dif-
ficult, due to the number of small firms and subcontractors active in the area and the
difficulty of drawing boundaries between sectors (Allwood et al. 2006). According
to statistics from the United Nationals Industrial Development Organization
Industrial Statistics Database, approximately 26.5 million people work within the
clothing and textiles sector worldwide (International Labour Organization (ILO)
2006). Of these 26.5 million employees, 13 million are employed in the clothing
sector and 13.5 million in the textiles sector. These figures are only people employed
in manufacturing—not retail or other supporting sectors (Allwood et al. 2006).
Against this background, there is no doubt that the textile (and fashion) industry
is important in the economy. However, taking into account the concept of sus-
tainability, this industry often operates to the detriment of environmental and social
factors (Gardetti and Torres 2011). Therefore, this chapter presents two initiatives:
the Sustainable Apparel Coalition (SAC)’s Higg Index 2.0 and the United Nations
Global Compact (UNGC)’s Code of Conduct and Manual for the Fashion and
Textile Industry. The main purpose of both organizations and their relevant ini-
tiatives are to have textile and fashion companies and brands reduce their (negative)
social and environmental impact throughout their supply chain. Moreover, this
chapter presents and describes the elements of both initiatives, analyzing their
differences and providing thoughts in the light of the impacts of this sector. Finally,
some recommendations are made.

2 Methodology

The methodology used to prepare this chapter is based on the analysis of the SAC’s
Higg Index 2.0 and the UNGC’s Code of Conduct and Manual for the Fashion and
Textile Industry, in the areas of human rights, labor rights, environment, anticor-
ruption, and fashion specifics (designers, modeling, animals, transparency, etc.).
The analysis includes many of the socioenvironmental impacts caused by the
Making the Connection Between the United Nations Global Compact Code of Conduct … 61

industry today, ending with a comparative table that summarizes the strengths,
opportunities, weaknesses, and threats.
To discuss and reflect on the SAC Higg Index 2.0 and the UNGC Code of
Conduct and Manual for the Fashion and Textile Industry, the former was divided
into three levels, which are described in Appendices I and II. The analysis con-
ducted in this paper, based on the list of the UNGC Code of Conduct principles (see
Table 7), only deals with the first two levels of the Higg Index 2.0.

3 The SAC Higg Index 2.0 and the UNGC Code of Conduct
and Manual for the Fashion and Textile Industry

3.1 An Introduction

In February 2011, large companies in the textile and fashion sectors presented a
multistakeholder alliance in order to establish a set of sustainability indicators to be
used throughout the clothing (or apparel) industry—what Chouinard et al. (2011)
called the “value chain index.”1 The SAC was subsequently created, with the aim of
transforming the industry into one that produces no unnecessary environmental harm
and has a positive impact on the people and communities associated with its activities.
According to Poldner (2013), SAC’s members are convinced that they cannot face the
social and environmental challenges in the textile supply chain on their own, 2 and that
they should strike a balance between their own goals and the SAC’s goals.
Once the SAC’s founding circle reached 30 members, they were divided into work
groups and subgroups based on members’ interest and experience (Poldner 2013). In
2009, 18 months after its creation, SAC’s members had grown to include 40 com-
panies, accounting for over 30 % of the global clothing and footwear market share.
The Higg Index 1.0, which was only focused on environmental aspects, was
released on June 26, 2012 and has been used by hundreds of organizations, both
SAC members and others. The Higg Index 2.0—an evolution based on version 1.0,
which includes social and labor aspects—was released on December 11, 2013.
The UNGC is the result of a world characterized by glaring and unsustainable
imbalances and inequities (Kell 2003). This is a joint initiative of the United
Nations Development Program, the Economic Commission for Latin America and
the Caribbean, and the World Labor Organization, in an effort to enable corporate
social responsibility development and foster human rights, labor standards, envi-
ronmental protection, and anticorruption. The main goal of the UNGC is to help

1
This has also been the focus of other initiatives, such as The Sustainability Consortium, a group
made up of companies, universities, and government agencies.
2
Through multistakeholder engagement, SAC seeks to lead the industry toward a shared vision of
sustainability built upon a common approach for measuring and evaluating apparel and footwear
product sustainability performance, which will spotlight priorities for action and opportunities for
technological innovation.
62 M.Á. Gardetti

align corporate policies and practices to universally concurred and internationally

applicable ethical goals.3 That is, by means of business voluntary commitment, the
Global Compact is an initiative for promoting a new corporate culture on how to
manage businesses. Its real essence is to create an ever-growing labor network
(McIntosh et al. 2004a, b) supporting companies through learning and knowledge
sharing, exercising leadership as a corporate citizen, and hence exerting influence
on others through their behavior (Fuertes and Goyburu 2004).
The UNGC Code of Conduct and Manual for the Fashion and Textile Industry,
the first sector-specific initiative of the UNGC, was developed by the Nordic
Institute Clean and Ethical (NICE), which is a project of the Nordic Fashion
Association with the support of the city of Copenhagen and Denmark’s Ministry of
Business and Growth.
Appendix III shows the members of the Sustainable Apparel Coalition that also
adhered to the Global Compact, as of April 2014.

3.2 The Higg Index 2.0

The Higg Index 2.0 is a self-assessment tool designed to (1) measure the sustainable
impact on the apparel and footwear sector throughout the value chain and (2) provide
for smoother relationships with the stakeholders. This tool includes both quantitative
and qualitative environmental and social/labor indicators (Sustainable Apparel
Coalition). The former are based on lifecycle thinking and span the apparel lifecycle
(material, manufacturing, packaging transportation, use, and end-of-life), based on
the Eco Index and Nike’s Apparel Environmental Design Tool. The latter are based
on the worker lifecycle, using some initiatives in such connection (e.g., the Global
Social Compliance Program, SAI Social Fingerprint-a program of raitings, training
and tool designed to help companies to help measure and improve social perfor-
mance, FLA Sustainable Compliance Initiative which goal is to develop sustainable
compliance tools and training materials for all code requirements to be use in the
internal compliance programs of participating companies.).
This index has three application levels; the objectives and tools are described in
Table 1.
The three levels were described by Chouinard et al. (2011), who stated:
To appreciate how these three views mitigate impacts, imagine the CEO of the casual
apparel maker in a meeting with the head merchant of the company’s largest customer. The
merchant declines to place an order, informing the CEO that the brand’s overall VCI -Value
Chain Index- rating is too low to meet the retailer’s standards. Having lost the sale, the
CEO tells the VP of Design that all products for next season must have cumulative better

3
The principles stem from four key agreements: The Universal Declaration of Human Rights,
The International Labour Organization’s Declaration on Fundamentals Principles and Rights at
Work, The Rio Declaration on Environment and Development, The United Nations Convention
Against Corruption.
Making the Connection Between the United Nations Global Compact Code of Conduct … 63

Table 1 Higg Index 2.0 levels, objectives, and application tools

Level Objective Tools
Brand To assess product-specific environmental/social Environment (apparel)
and labor performance at this level Environment (footwear)
Social/Labor (apparel/foot-
wear)—Beta
Facility To assess specific environmental and social and Environment (apparel/
labor performance materials, packaging, manufac- footwear)
turing suppliers facilities Social/Labor (apparel/foot-
wear)—Beta
Product To assess product-specific impact Rapid Design Module—Beta
Materials Sustainability
Index (MSI) Data Explorer
Source Sustainable Apparel Coalition

VCI ratings. The VP conveys this directive to his team. A designer on the team starts work
on a cotton blouse. She begins by specifying traditionally grown cotton, but her design
software tells her that the VCI rating for that material falls short of the new sustainability
goals. She then selects a vendor offering organically grown cotton, but the score is still low
because she has sourced the cotton in western China, where irrigation is drawing down an
aquifer faster than rainfall can replenish it. Scanning the VCI tables, she lights upon another
option, a vendor in southern India buying from farms that are watered by region’s rainfall.
She completes her selection of materials and reaches the sustainability score she and her
bosses have targeted.

3.2.1 The HIGG Index Tools

Because the UNGC Code of Conduct refers to the textile and fashion sectors, the
following analysis describes the Higg Index 2.0 only as it relates to these sectors
(see Table 2).

Table 2 The Higg Index 2.0 tools analyzed in this chapter

Level Objective Tools analyzed in this
chapter
Brand To assess product-specific environmental/social Environment (apparel)
and labor performance at this level Social/Labor (apparel/foot-
wear)—Beta
Facility To assess specific environmental and social and Environment (apparel/
labor performance materials, packaging, manufac- footwear)
turing suppliers facilities Social/Labor (apparel/foot-
wear)—Beta
Product To assess product-specific impact Rapid Design Module
(RMD)—Beta
Materials Sustainability
Index (MSI) Data Explorer
Source Sustainable Apparel Coalition
64 M.Á. Gardetti

A. Brand level
A.1. Environment (apparel)
This tool, which scores in terms of an ideal, consists of seven areas with the
same relative weight, which are divided into different aspects; in turn, each of them
has a specific relative weight (see Table 3). The scoring system of the Higg Index
was designed to drive behavior change. In the Index (2.0), points were heuristically
assigned to each indicator question to potentially drive actions, decisions, and
practices that lead to better sustainability outcomes.

Table 3 Areas and aspects included in the environment tool on the brand level
General Internal sustainability performance and accountability
Supplier tracking and risk assessment
Product life cycle assessment (LCA)
Chemicals management system
Public reporting and verification
Materials Materials program
Chemical responsibility greater than the restricted substance list
(RSL) content and transparency
Chemical responsibility: restricted substance list (RSL) verification/
certification
Chemical impact reduction management (i.e., “Sustainable Chemistry
Program”)
Materials selection and approval procedures
Packaging Packaging program
Packaging restricted substance list (PRSL)
Manufacturing Manufacturing program
Environmental guidelines for manufacturing suppliers
Water use/conservation
Manufacturing efficiency: seconds/reject rate reporting
Continuous improvement programs with manufacturing suppliers
Sampling program
Transportation Optimizing modal type, distance, and weight/volume
Maximizing utilization of transportation assets
Carrier selection
Product care and Product care and repair service program
repair service Repairability design standards
Design for durability and longevity (quality assurance feedback
mechanism)
“Product Care” communication to consumers
“Repair Service” communication to consumers
End Of Use (EOU) EOU program
Design policies for EOU streams
EOU collection/processing infrastructure
EOU communication to consumers
Source Sustainable Apparel Coalition website
Making the Connection Between the United Nations Global Compact Code of Conduct … 65

Table 4 Areas and aspects included in the social/labor tool on the brand level
Company’s internal social/labor performance Company’s internal workplace standards
management Company’s internal employee orientation
and development
Company’s social/labor performance manage- Social/labor performance management
ment system for partners in the value chain system for value chain partners
Monitoring and continuous improvement in
the value chain
Company’s integration of social/labor
performance requirements to the business
External engagement, community impact, Engagement and collaboration
transparency and public disclosure Community impact
Transparency and public disclosure
Source Sustainable Apparel Coalition website

A.1. Social/Labor4 (apparel/footwear)—Beta

This tool, which scores in terms of an ideal, has three areas with a specific
relative weight, which are, in turn, divided in relevant aspects within each area
(Table 4).
B. Facility level
B.1. Environment (apparel)
This tool consists of a detailed description of the facility profile and its pro-
duction, such as apparel, footwear, home textiles, equipment, or others. Moreover,
it includes the environmental aspects and the three levels defined for each of these
aspects (see Table 5).
B.2. Social/Labor (apparel/footwear)—Beta
This tool, which scores in terms of an ideal, has three areas, each with a specific
relative weight, similar to those described for the brand level. These areas consist of
relevant aspects. Table 6 shows the areas and their relevant aspects within the social
and labor framework.
C. Product Level5
Nike’s Material Sustainability Index (MSI) is the result of more than 8 years of
researching, compiling, and analyzing publicly available information on a wide
variety of materials. The full SAC membership voted to include the Nike MSI in
SAC product indexes in June 2012.
In 2003, we began developing Nike MSI to provide a practical method to help
designers make informed, real-time decisions about the potential and various

4
Bair et al. (2014) provided insight into the potential for the market to protect and improve labor
standards and working conditions in global apparel supply chains. It examines also the possibilities
and limitations of market approaches to securing social compliance in global-manufacturing
industries.
5
This paragraph is based on the paper called Nike Materials Sustainability Index, prepared by
Nike Inc. in 2012.
66 M.Á. Gardetti

Table 5 Areas and aspects included in the environment tool on the facility level
Environmental management system or program Level 1
Level 2
Level 3
Energy use and greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions Level 1
Level 2
Level 3
Water use Level 1
Level 2
Level 3
Wastewater/effluent Level 1
Level 2
Level 3
Emissions to air Level 1
Level 2
Level 3
Waste management Level 1
Level 2
Level 3
Chemicals management Level 1
Level 2
Level 3
Source Sustainable Apparel Coalition website
Note Levels 1, 2, and 3 signify general thresholds of environmental practices. Level 1 awareness,
understanding, and baseline performance; Level 2 planning and managing; Level 3 implementing
sustainability measures/demonstrating performance and progress

environmental impacts of material choices in the product creation process. Nike

MSI calculates relative material scores for each of the more than 80,000 materials
available to Nike product creation teams from 1,400 suppliers. These scores then
feed into the Nike Apparel and Footwear Sustainability Indexes, helping designers
to select materials with lower environmental impacts, as measured by Nike MSI.6
However, the Higg Index 2.0 tool only includes 43 analyzed materials.
Nike MSI uses three categories of points—a base material score, material
environmental attributes, and supplier practices—to achieve a robust scoring
framework that delivers comprehensive materials assessments.
Base Material Score This category consists basically of four environmental
impact areas:
• Chemistry (includes carcinogenicity, acute toxicity, chronic toxicity, reproduc-
tive toxicity, and endocrine disruption)

6
It is important to note that Nike MSI is not intended to be a substitute for full lifecycle
assessment studies, nor does it provide footprint endpoint data (Nike 2012).
Making the Connection Between the United Nations Global Compact Code of Conduct … 67

Table 6 Areas and aspects included in the Social/labor tool on the facility level
Facility’s labor and workplace performance management Recruitment and hiring
Compensation
Hours of work
Worker involvement and
communication
Worker treatment and
development
Health and safety
Termination and retrenchment
Facility’s labor and workplace performance management for
the value chain
External engagement, community impact, transparency and External engagement and
public disclosure collaboration
Community impact
Transparency and public
disclosure
Source Sustainable Apparel Coalition website

• Energy and Greenhouse Gases (includes intensity of energy and greenhouse gas
intensity)
• Water and Land Use Intensity (includes water intensity and land use intensity)
• Physical Waste (includes hazardous, municipal solid waste, industrial, recyclable/
compostable, and mineral)
Material Environmental Attributes, comprising:
• Nike Green Chemistry Program Validation—Material Greening Effort (must
participate in Nike Green Chemistry Program Commitment and achieve a “0”
score before points can be gained)
• Water Conservation Option 1—Dye Method (suppliers are awarded water
conservation points at the supplier or the material level, but not both)
• Recycled Content
• Organic Content
• Blends and Composites
Supplier Practices, basically consisting of:
• Restricted Substance List Program
• Nike Green Chemistry Program Commitment—Self-Evaluation of Chemicals
and Facility (must participate in Nike Green Chemistry Program Commitment
and achieve a “0” score before points can be gained through Nike Green
Chemistry Program Validation)
• Nike Water Program
• Water Conservation Option 2—Supplier Facility Water Recycling (suppliers are
awarded water conservation points at the supplier or the material level, but not
both)
68 M.Á. Gardetti

• Nike Energy and Carbon Program (suppliers are awarded water conservation
points at the supplier or the material level, but not both.)
• Sustainability Certifications and Programs

3.3 The UNGC Code of Conduct and Manual

for the Fashion and Textile Industry

On May 3, 2012, the UNGC presented its first sector-specific initiative, a Code of
Conduct and Manual for the Fashion and Textile Industry jointly developed with
the Nordic Fashion Association, and NICE ( 2012). This presentation took place at
the Copenhagen Fashion Summit of that year. George Kell, Executive Director of
the UN Global Compact, said: “As an industry facing serious and widely publicized
social and environmental challenges, the fashion and textile industry is uniquely
positioned to launch a sectorial initiative under the umbrella of the UN Global
Compact. We are very excited about this effort and look forward to collaborating
with NICE and its partners” (Nordic Fashion Association, 2012).
There was a second launch during the Rio+20 Summit, with the purpose of boosting this
new initiative, in the activity titled “Changing the World through Fashion: Contribution
to Sustainable Development by the Fashion and Textile Industry.” In this new activity,
Mr. Kell emphasized “the importance of changing the fashion and textile sector” and said
that “this new impetus was backed by the Global Compact.”

Why a Code of Conduct? Kaway (2009) stated it should be used “not only due to
the subcontracting chain system used in this industry but also due to the fact that the
Textile and Clothing industry is mainly a labor industry, that is, the use of manual
workers is high if compared to other machinery manufacturers sectors, and there-
fore creating an environment more favorable for abuses to occur in this sense.”
While this UNGC Code includes the ten principles of the United Nations Global
Compact,7 it provides additional specificity from a sector perspective, adding six
principles within a varied range of topics that pertain to the fashion and textile
industry relative to an area called ethical conduct.8 Table 7 shows the 16 principles
of the code, matching them with the compact, sector specificity, and relevant areas.

7
For more information about the Global Compact, please visit www.globalcompact.org. Addi-
tionally, to implement its principles, refer to: Fussler et al. (2004). For more academic papers,
please refer to: McIntosh et al. (2004) and McIntosh et al. (2004a, b). The Journal of Corporate
Citizenship Issue 11 (2003) special issue on Global Compact and McIntosh M, Waddock S and
Kell G (2004) Learing to Talk—Corporative Citizenship and the Development of the UN Global
Compact (2012). Greenleaf Publishing, Sheffield.
8
The textile and fashion industries are subject to a great deal of criticism because they basically
foster the consumption of goods that people do not necessarily need. Therefore, we need a
proactive approach to create ethical relations regarding animal treatment, design process, body
image ideals, mining or precious stone extraction, and supply chain transparency.
Making the Connection Between the United Nations Global Compact Code of Conduct … 69

Table 7 UNGC Code of Conduct: principles and subject areas

Code of Conduct principles
1. Support and observe human rights protection Global Human
2. Not be an accomplice to abuse of rights compact rights
3. Support the principles of freedom of unionization and the Labour
right to collective bargaining rights
4. Eradicate forced and obligatory labor
5. Abolish any form of child labor
6. Eliminate discrimination based on job and occupation
7. Support a preventive approach to environmental challenges Environment
8. Foster greater environmental responsibility
9. Promote development and dissemination of green
technologies
10. Businesses must act against corruption in all its forms, Anti-
including extortion and bribery corruption
11. Animals must be treated with dignity and respect. No animal Sector Ethical
must be deliberately harmed or exposed to pain specificity conduct
12. Businesses and their designers must work actively to
encourage and support sustainable design
13. Businesses must, through their choice and treatment of
models, promote a healthy lifestyle, and healthy body ideals,
and the models’ minimum age must be 16 during fashion weeks
and other occasions where the workload is excessive.
14. Businesses must work towards transparency in their supply
chain
15. Businesses must work towards a stronger commitment
throughout their supply chain to reinforce the development of a
secure mining industry
16. All businesses involved must at all times be open and
accessible for announced, semi-announced, and unannounced
audits for monitoring and evaluation of compliance with the
Code of Conduct

For each of these principles, the Code explains:

• What it means to act in accordance with the Code of Conduct (i.e., the goal of
each principle)
• Why each principle is important
• An explanation for the above, and
• How to do it (recommendations).
Furthermore, your will find important facts and information on where to learn
more about creating a long-term viable and sustainable business. Note that the Code
is applicable not only to the brand (or the company owner of the brand), but also to
every partner, both in the country and abroad.9

9
According to the Code, the brand is responsible for developing an ethical and sustainable supply
chain in the company.
70 M.Á. Gardetti

Likewise, the Code includes some peculiarities, which are described below:
(a) In the labor right area, it delves deeper into working hours, based on ILO
Convention No. 1 on working hours; contracts of employment; sick leave and
holidays with pay, based on ILO Convention No. 152 on paid vacations;
complaint filing systems; occupational safety and health, based on the ILO
Plan of Action 2010–2016: ratification and effective implementation of the
occupational safety and health), and home work.
(b) In the environment area, and in connection with principles 7 and 8, it high-
lights the waste and water topic, while referring (within the framework of
principle 9) to the use of chemicals, energy use, carbon dioxide emissions, and
atmospheric emissions in general.
(c) As to monitoring and evaluation, it provides an analysis of value chain devel-
opment based on three levels of risk—basic, high, and advanced—suggesting
some guidelines for each of them. They are as follows:

Basic Level
• Include corporate social responsibility (CSR) clauses or the UNGC Code
of Conduct in supplier contracts and begin working towards integration.
• Conduct informal (Code-based) audits when visiting suppliers for other
reasons.

High Level
Make a detailed mapping of all suppliers in order to be able to assess them in
accordance with their specific risk level. Operating in the fashion industry
typically means maneuvering in high-risk countries.10

Advanced
• Send out a self-evaluation questionnaire, partly to get an initial knowledge
of the suppliers’ performance level within CSR, and partly to point out to
the requirements in the Code of Conduct.
• Create a good dialogue with suppliers so that they perceive the self-
evaluation process as part of their long-term relationship.
• Conduct formal audits solely concentrating on environmental, social, and
ethical issues. Both announced or unannounced audits are possible, each of
which has various advantages.

10
Here, the UNGC Code of Conduct suggests considering the Danish Institute for Human Rights’
Human Rights and Business country risk analysis.
Making the Connection Between the United Nations Global Compact Code of Conduct … 71

01| BASIC LEVEL 02| HIGH LEVEL 03| ADVANCED

CODE OF CONDUCT OR MAPPING AND RISK PARTNERSHIPS | THIRD

CSR CLAUSE IN CONTRACT I ASSESSMENT | SELF PARTY AUDITS
INFORMAL AUDITS EVALUATION | FORMAL
AUDITS | ACTION PLANS

Chart 1 UNGC Code of Conduct: principles and subject areas. Source NICE Code of Conduct
and manual for the fashion and textile industry (May 2012)

Chart 1 shows the above description, as well as the suggestions for each risk
level.
(d) The code states that risks may be influenced by various factors, including
spending, country, category, and the nature of the transaction, in addition to
how critical the supplier is to your business. Broadly speaking, the more
critical the supplier is, the higher the generated overall risk will be. Therefore,
it is important to divide suppliers into three categories, depending on how
critical replacing them is:
• highly critical (meaning that replacing the supplier would be extremely
costly and disruptive);
• semi-critical (meaning that replacing the supplier is possible but it is time
consuming and partly costly);
• less critical (suppliers can be replaced as necessary).
(e) The code suggests that an audit should begin with a meeting with the sup-
plier’s management (including the person responsible for implementing the
Code, a human resources representative, and even the local union represen-
tative) where the outline for the audits is reviewed and discussed, and which
should deal with the “how’s” explained in each principle within the framework
of the Code.

4 Discussion, Reflection and Conclusions

The Universal Declaration of Human Rights describes human rights as 30 separate

articles that can be organized into four areas (United Nations Global Compact,
2013):
Equality (prohibition of discrimination on the bases of race, color, sex, language,
religion, political beliefs or affiliations, national or social origin, property, or
birth).
Life and Security (rights to life, liberty, and security, and the right to be free
from slavery or torture; a just legal system; and equal protection under the law).
72 M.Á. Gardetti

Personal freedom (rights protecting personal privacy for family, home, thought,
religion, opinion, and property ownership).
Economic, social, and cultural freedoms (right to social security, to work, equal
pay, to form and join unions, to rest and leisure, and to adequate health care and
well-being).
According to Rulli and Justo (2012), some of the most important characteristics
of human rights can be described as follows:
Human rights are founded on respect for the dignity and worth of each person.
Human rights are universal, meaning that they are applied equally and without
discrimination to all people.
Human rights are inalienable, in that no one can relinquish his or her human
rights or have his or her human rights taken away.
Human rights are indivisible, interrelated, and interdependent, for the reason that
it is insufficient to respect some human rights and not others. In practice, the
violation of one right will often affect respect for several other rights. All human
rights should therefore be seen as having equal importance and of being equally
essential to respect for the dignity and worth of every person.
While Dickson et al. (2009) stated that human rights are an essential part of
business social and environmental responsibility, the Higg Index 2.0 does not
explicitly include this area. On the contrary, these rights, in a broad sense, are fully
addressed in the UNGC Code of Conduct and Manual for the Fashion and Textile
Industry. As this Code was prepared in 2011, it fails to include the “Guiding
Principles on Business and Human Rights—Implementing the United Nations
‘Protect, Respect and Remedy’ Framework,” which was also developed in that year
by a team led by John Ruggie for the UN Human Rights Office of the High
Commissioner.11
The cut-make-trim stage12 (in which cloth is cut and sewn into garments or other
textile products) is a largely manual operation with key sustainability impacts being
social rather than environmental. Converting pattern pieces to garments requires
workers at sewing machines—an inexpensive, mechanically simple technology.
This results in a “mobile and itinerant” industry that is relocated to whichever area
of the globe has the cheapest labor costs and standards. Therefore, as stated by
Fletcher (2014), manufacturers compete with each other for a place in the supply
chain of retailers and big brands, which puts downward pressure on labor rights and

11
The Guiding Principles, also known as Ruggie’s model, require that companies have a policy
commitment to respect human rights and proactively take steps to prevent, mitigate, and, where
appropriate, remediate their adverse human rights impacts (United Nations Human Rights Office of
the High Commissioner, 2011).
12
Not only in its preparation do we find serious social impacts, but also in cotton picking we find
migratory workers, undocumented immigration, and child labor. In the last case, see “The Children
Behind our Cotton,” developed by the Environmental Justice Foundation (2007) or, for more
general issues, such as health and the inefficient use of water, see “The White Gold: the True Cost
of Cotton,” also developed by the Environmental Justice Foundation (2005).
Making the Connection Between the United Nations Global Compact Code of Conduct … 73

working conditions. These impacts were studied by both academics and organi-
zations, including Allwood et al. (2006), Draper et al. (2007) for Forum for the
Future; Dickosn et al. (2009), Smestad (2009), Ross (2009), Lieutier (2009), Gwilt
and Rissanen (2011), Siegle (2011), War on Want (2011, 2012, 2013), Labour
Behing the Label (2011), Balatti (2013), Bair et al. (2014). That is why labor rights
are addressed in both initiatives. However, it should be noted that there is well-
documented evidence that, over the past 25 years, the labor rights of few workers in
the apparel industry are respected, as stated in the UN Universal Declaration of
Human Rights (United Nations, 2013) and the ILO Declaration of the Fundamental
Principles and Rights at Work (International Labour Organization, 2013). We are
referring to low wages,13 long working hours, irregular employment and immi-
gration, child labor,14 forced labor, union-busting, sexual harassment, nonpayment
of severance pay, abusive conditions, and gender inequality.15
One of the more detailed studies addressing the environmental impacts of these
industries was, without a doubt, Fashioning Sustainability: A review of the Sus-
tainability Impacts of the Clothing Industry, prepared by Stephanie Draper, Vicky
Murray, and Ilka Weissbrod in 2007 for the World Wildlife Fund. This study
analyses the impacts in different processes of the chain, including the following.
Obtaining fiber as raw material The use of pesticides during this process leads to health
problems for workers and causes soil degradation and the loss of biodiversity. Water is such
a necessary element in the processing of cotton, in particular, that this crop has been called
the “thirsty crop.” While the use of agrochemicals tends to be reduced, the use of genet-
ically modified organisms for such purpose could lead to another type of impact. In turn,
many of the synthetic fibers are derived from a nonrenewable resource, such as oil. In
general, environmental abuse combines with ethical issues when there is an excessive use
of water and when land for food production is usurped.
Considering the whole textile chain, from spinning to consumer use, it cannot be ignored
that the use of chemicals may have carcinogenic and neurological effects, may cause
allergies, and may affect fertility. During both of these processes and consumer care, large
amounts of water and energy are used and, in general, nonbiodegradable wastes are pro-
duced. These stages also involve the generation of carbon dioxide emissions (CO2).

Both the SAC Higg Index 2.0 and the UNGC Code of Conduct and Manual for
the Fashion and Textile Industry cover the mitigation of environmental impacts. In
this regard, it should be noted that the Nike MSI is a tool that helps one to quickly
assess the impact of 43 materials.

13
The report titled “Tailored Wages. Are the big brands paying the people who make our clothes
enough to live on?,” prepared by Anna McMullen et al. for Clean Clothes Campaign, funded by
the European Union and presented in March 2014, states that Inditex, Marks and Spencer,
Switcher, and Tchibo are companies that have been working “a little” in this sense, but not enough
yet.
14
A very interesting case to read about this topic is “When Clothes for Children are made by
Children” (Delalieux 2013).
15
Almost 70 % of workers in the apparel industry are women (Hernandez 2006). In the clothing
industry, women generally sew, finish, and pack clothes. Supervisors, machinery operators, and
technicians are usually men, who earn more.
74 M.Á. Gardetti

Principle 10 of the UNGC Code of Conduct and Manual for the Fashion and
Textile Sector, referring to “anti-corruption” and derived from the United Nations
Conventions Against Corruptions, is not addressed in the Higg Index 2.0.
Corruption has a negative impact on social and economic development, as well on
the environment, and it undermines the positive effects of good business practices
(UN Global Compact 2012), in addition to increasing the legal and reputation risks.

Besides Principle 10, the Higg Index 2.0 fails to include the principles below:
Principle 11 Animals must be treated with dignity and respect. No animal must
be deliberately harmed or exposed to pain.
Principle 12 Businesses and their designers must work actively to encourage
and support sustainable design.
Principle 13 Businesses must, through their choice and treatment of models,
promote a healthy lifestyle and healthy body ideals, and the models’ minimum
age must be 16 during fashion weeks and other occasions where the workload is
excessive.
Principle 14 Businesses must work towards transparency in their supply chain.
Principle 15 Businesses must work towards a stronger commitment throughout
their supply chain to reinforce the development of a secure mining industry.
Issues such as the increasing number of species in danger of extinction and the
current focus on animal rights have fueled the debate among consumers, in some
cases even resulting in high-profile personalities taking a public stand in terms of
these ethical issues (Krüger et al. 2012).
Fletcher (2008) stated that the textile and fashion sector should help “cultivate
new aspirations.” In this, designers play a vital role as key components, capable of
fostering change towards a model that provides for a balanced combination of
processes, people, and the environment. According to Clark (2009), 80 % of the
social, environmental, and cultural impact of fashion is determined during
the design stage, which places a huge amount of responsibility into the hands of the
designer (Earley 2007).
Despite the glamour of fashion shows, the fashion world can be cruel and full of
sacrifices and secrets. Christine Hart, a former model who worked for 10 years on
the runways of Milan, Paris, and New York, described it in her book “The Stories
Models Never Tell” (2011). This book revealed her experiences in a profession that
even considered her to be “too old” because she started out at 25 years old, after
graduating with a degree in law: “Having an education gave me an invaluable
background to navigate these waters, infested with sharks and piranhas,” she
explained. The dictatorship of beauty, as defined by Hart (2011), implies setting
canons of so-called perfection defined by a minority. Setting these canons through
fashion, advertising, and all their supports is a million-dollar business.
For its part, transparency implies going beyond statutory requirements towards a
full and honest disclosure of business activities, strategies, and current impacts,
including both costs and supply chain. However, the long, complex, and fragmented
Making the Connection Between the United Nations Global Compact Code of Conduct … 75

fashion supply chain lowers transparency and control and creates a disconnect
between the few who reap the benefits from fashion and the many who pay the social
and environmental costs (Martin 2013; Gjerdrum Pedersen and Andersen 2014.)
Mining and the production of precious metals and stones entail a high cost for
both nature and native communities. The misuse of mercury in gold mining has
highly harmful consequences, not only for the environment and biodiversity, but for
the health of craft miners and their families as well. As for diamonds, those coming
from conflict areas threaten responsible business, because diamonds are extracted
from war areas and often sold to fund the activities of a military leader or violent
group.
Both initiatives—the UNGC Code of Conduct and the Higg Index 2.0—promote
monitoring, evaluation, and auditing. Table 8 shows a summary of their relation-
ships. While neither of these initiatives includes consumers, the UNGC Code of
Conduct has an indirect allusion to them: it states that Communication on Progress16
is the tool used by businesses and brands to communicate with their stakeholders—
and consumers are among them. This is no minor detail: it is not only Erhenfeld
(1999, 2002), and Suzuki and Dressler (2002) who place sustainability at the indi-
vidual level. Presas (2001) claimed that a real transition to sustainable development
requires a new way of thinking.
However, a sustainable society is not possible without sustainable individuals
(Cavagnaro and Curiel 2012). That is, individual capacities seem to be at the heart
of the issue. These definitions should lead to a more responsible attitude from the
consumer. They refer not only to water and energy consumption and chemicals and
detergent use, but also, according to Fletcher (2008), to how consumers should
handle the pressure to compare themselves to others through the accumulation and
display of possessions, the continuous replacing of things (which, in the fashion
world, means that every new item requires another “matching” item), and the
cultural obligation to experience everything and take consumption as part of a
continuous process of identity formation. That would require the use of a collective
learning mechanism for all types of environments and stakeholders and the creation
of the necessary space for a structure of dialog on what our vision of sustainable
society is. Table 9 briefly illustrates the strengths, opportunities, weaknesses, and
threats of both initiatives. To conclude, the organizations and brands that make up
these sectors—textile and fashion—can lead the change and create the space
mentioned by Fletcher (2008).

16
According to the paper prepared by Fuertes and Goyburu (2004), Communication on Progress
“is a report endorsing the commitment of the entities subscribing the Global Compact, and, more
importantly, it is a tool to maintain the initiative credibility.” However, according to Gardetti
(2006), today more than ever, it is a communication tool whereby the company can gradually build
trust. This “communication” describes a company’s progress in terms of each principle during a
given period of time.
76 M.Á. Gardetti

Table 8 Relationship between the UNGC Code of Conduct and the Higg Index 2.0
Code of Conduct Higg Index 2.0
principles Brand Facility Product
level level level
1. Support and Global Human – – –
observe human right compact rights
protection
2. Not to be an
accomplice to abuse
of rights
3. Support the princi- Labor rights X (see X (see X (some
ples of freedom of Tables 3 Table 6) comments
unionisation and the and 4 about
right to collective health—
bargaining Paragraph
4. Eradicate forced C)
and obligatory labour
5. Abolish any form of
child labour
6. Eliminate discrimi-
nation based on job
and occupation
7. Support a preven- Environment X (see X (see X (see
tive approach to envi- Table 3) Table 5) Paragraph
ronmental challenges C)
8. Foster greater envi-
ronmental
responsibility
9. Promote develop-
ment and dissemina-
tion of green
technologies
10. Businesses must Anti- – – –
act against corruption corruption
in all its forms,
including extortion
and bribery
(continued)
Making the Connection Between the United Nations Global Compact Code of Conduct … 77

Table 8 (continued)
Code of Conduct Higg Index 2.0
principles Brand Facility Product
level level level
11. Animals must be Sector Ethical
treated with dignity specificity conduct
and respect. No ani-
mal must be deliber-
ately harmed or
exposed to pain
12. Businesses and
their designers must
work actively to
encourage and support
sustainable design
13. Businesses must,
through their choice
and treatment of mod-
els, promote a healthy
lifestyle, and healthy
body ideals, and the
models’ minimum age
must be 16 during
fashion weeks and
other occasions where
the workload is
excessive.
14. Businesses must
work towards trans-
parency in their sup-
ply chain
15. Businesses must
work towards a stron-
ger commitment
throughout their sup-
ply chain to reinforce
the development of a
secure mining
industry
16. All businesses X X X
involved must at all
times be open and
accessible for
announced, semi-
announced and unan-
nounced audits for
monitoring and evalu-
ation of compliance
with the Code of
Conduct
Table 9 Strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats between the UNGC Code of Conduct and the Higg Index 2.0
78

Strengths Opportunities
UNGC Code of SAC Higg Index 2.0 UNGC Code of Conduct SAC Higg Index 2.0
Conduct
Initiatives of the UN Initiative of the Sustainable Apparel To change the industry’s status quo at To improve organizations’ perfor-
Global Compact Coalition a global level mance facing society
Sound support of the Initiative proved in many companies Change leaders may be trained based
United Nations members of the Coalition on these initiativesa
Multi-stakeholder Includes labor rights and environmen- Although a few experiences have been
initiative tally-related aspects conducted, this is an opportunity to
lead the change
Includes human rights To improve organizations’ perfor-
with a very broad vision mance facing society
Includes labor rights
and environmentally-
related aspects
Includes the corruption
issue
Weaknesses Threats
UNGC Code of SAC Higg Index 2.0 UNGC Code of Conduct SAC Higg Index 2.0
Conduct
Few experiences Although it has been proven in companies It may be the case of unfavorable No experiences in small organizations
worldwide members of the Coalition, the experience macroeconomic and political contexts,
is limited with respect to the entire poor labor and environmental legisla-
industry (no experiences in small tion, hindering their integration
companies)
(continued)
M.Á. Gardetti
Table 9 (continued)
Strengths Opportunities
UNGC Code of SAC Higg Index 2.0 UNGC Code of Conduct SAC Higg Index 2.0
Conduct
Implementation cost Implementation cost Industry’s status quo It may be the case of unfavorable
Does not include con- macroeconomic and political contexts,
sumer’s issues poor labor and environmental legisla-
tion, hindering their integration
Temporarily, the initiative is restricted to Industry’s status quo
members of the Coalition and their
vendors
It is a multi-stakeholder initiative, but
limited to members
The SAC consists of members whose
reputation can be questioned
It does not include human rights to the
extent they should be included
It does not include the corruption issue
It does not include fashion specific areas
such as: the designer’s role in promoting
sustainability; modeling; transparency
and treatment towards animals
It does not include consumer’s issues
a
For example, in 2013 the Argentinean Chapter of the United Nations Global Compact began to develop the Training Program for Change Leaders in the
Textile and Fashion Sector [Programa de Formación de Líderes para el Cambio en el Sector Textil y de la Moda] based on UNGC Code of Conduct, with plans
to spread it to other Latin American chapters
Making the Connection Between the United Nations Global Compact Code of Conduct …
79
80 M.Á. Gardetti

5 Going Forward

The process of transforming the industry into something more sustainable—and

more sensitive to our needs—takes time. It is a long-term commitment towards a
new way of producing and consuming that requires widespread personal, social,
and institutional change.
The two initiatives analyzed in this paper, the UNGC Code of Conduct and
Manual for the Fashion and Textile Sector and the SAC Higg Index 2.0, supplement
each other (the former is qualitative and the latter is a quantitative initiative) and
may help broaden the debate on the textile and fashion industry, which is currently
focused on technical and commercial details regarding dyeing technologies, the
value chain, and the search for alternative fibers. According to Flechter (2008,
2009), to broaden the discussion means to integrate issues such as consumption,
fashion, globalization, and physical and mental health; each of these items reflects
the cultural visions and social standards behind the textile industry. Therefore, it is
necessary to connect with other disciplines, industries, communities, and interna-
tional groups, beyond their own boundaries (Gjerdrum Pedersen and Andersen
2014).
The paradox for the textile and fashion sector is that, for its survival, the
workforce depends on a system that seems to be destroying the world’s capacity to
withstand such a force.
According to Poldner (2013), one of the problems with the Higg Index is that it
is based on the structure of the Eco Index of the Outdoor Industry Association and
the Apparel Environmental Design tool developed by Nike, which focus on a
specific type of industry. Therefore, it might be difficult to adjust to other sectors,
such as high fashion. Another problem is that those indexes were developed using
widely criticized criteria, as they accept chemicals banned by other organizations.
However, according to Dickson et al. (2009), implementing codes of conduct and
monitoring procedures can be seen as a first generation of solutions to eradicate the
poor labor standards in apparel manufacturing companies.
Supply chain sustainability is a key component of corporate responsibility;
therefore, the management of environmental, social, and economic impacts con-
tributes to an improved business decision-making process (Sisco et al. 2010). When
a factory building collapsed in Bangladesh, killing hundred of workers, it was not
the first time the long and complex textile and fashion supply chain shocked the
world and drew the (negative) attention of politicians, the media, human rights
groups, etc. In fact, this incident displayed the textile and fashion industry’s tragic
social and environmental performance climax over decades. Hence, and beyond any
comparison, it becomes important to work on a single initiative to be accepted and
implemented in the short term.
Academia can make a new contribution by “opening” the UNGC Code of
Conduct and Manual with a deeper approach in mind, delving into each principle to
analyze the recommended guidelines and compare them to level 3 of the SAC Higg
Index 2.0.
Making the Connection Between the United Nations Global Compact Code of Conduct … 81

6 Appendix I Environmental Levels (Material)

MATERIALS
LEVEL 1
MAT-B-1 Materials Program
LEVEL 2
Brand has a program to track, measure, and document the environmental impacts from the
MAT-B-1.1.1 production and finishing of Materials (beyond RSL). This must include a portfolio of all major materials
LEVEL 3 used to build products and an evaluation of their environmental impacts.

Program includes the setting of targets and goals to reduce those environmental impacts associated
MAT-B-1.1.2
with product materials.

The program has demonstrated evidence of reducing environmental impacts associated with product
MAT-B-1.1.3
materials.

7 Appendix II Social Levels (Material)

SL-B-2 Company's Social/Labor Performance Management System for Partners in the Value Chain
LEVEL 1

Section SL-B-2 assesses how a Company manages the social/labor performance of its value chain partners (tier 1, tier 2, tier 3
vendors/manufacturers etc)
Social/Labor Performance Management System for Value Chain Partners
LEVEL 2
SL-B-2.1
SL-B-2.1.1 Documenting Social/Labor Performance Requirements (Max 10 Points)
LEVEL 3

What best describes how the Company documents the social/labor performance requirements it has for
partners in the value chain?

The Company does not document social/labor performance requirements it has

for partners in the value chain.

The Company documents the social/labor performance requirements it has for

partners in the value chain.

The Company obtained no external input / oversight when developing the

social/labor performance requirements for value chain partners.

8 Appendix III Members of the Sustainable Apparel Coalition

(SAC) as of April 2014 and Their Relation with the UN Global
Compact (UNGC)

Tables A.1 and A.2.

82 M.Á. Gardetti

Table A.1 Sustainable Apparel Coalition website and UN GlobalComnpact website

SAC Adheres SAC Adheres to SAC Adheres to
to the the UNGC the UNGC
UNGC
Adidas x Ann Inc Huntsman x
Asics C&A Invista x (as DuPont)
Burberry x Gap x Lenzing
Coca x H&M x Li and Fung
Cola
Columbia Inditex x Mas holding x
Brooks JC Penney Novazymes x
Desigual Kohl’s Pinneco
research
Ecco LL Bean Pratibha
Eilen Mountain Ramatex
Fisher Equipment
Esprit Nordstrom Rubia natural
colors
Fénix Otto group x Saitex
outdoor
Hanes Rei TAL apparel
brands
IC x Target Teijin
companys
Kering x Wal-Mart x (Chilean Toray Industrie
Affiliate)
Levis x Artistic Bureau Veritas x (Lithuanian
Milleners Affiliate)
loomstate Arvind Mills Cotton Inc
Madura Avery Malwee
fashion Denissson
Marmot Bayer mate- x Williams-
rial science Sonoma
New Charming 1888 Mills
Balance trim
Nike x Clariant x Archroma
Patagonia Cristal group Birla Cellulose
Pentland x Dupont x Clailar
Brand
Puma x DyStar x CWS-boco x
Pvh Esquel x Hirdaramani
Group
Reckitt Gildan Hong Kong
Non Woven
Fabric Ind.
(continued)
Making the Connection Between the United Nations Global Compact Code of Conduct … 83

Table A.1 (continued)

SAC Adheres SAC Adheres to SAC Adheres to
to the the UNGC the UNGC
UNGC
VF WL Gore KG Denim
Keen Lululemon Lubrizol
Athletica
Makalot TLC Tiong Freudenberg x
Liong Corp Vildona
Wah Bluesign Control Union
Fung Technologies
Group
Green Hellmann x Indicate
Earth Worldwide
Cleaning Logistic
Reseat SGS Vérité
Carbon
Xeros
Cleaning

Table A.2 Sustainable Apparel Coalition website and UN GlobalComnpact website

SAC Adheres to the SAC Adheres to the
UNGC UNGC
European Outdoor American Apparel and
Group Footwear Association
FLO cert Cradle to Cradle Products
Innovation Institute
Outdoor Industry International Wool Textile
Association Organisation
Oeko Tex Aid by Trade Foundation
Better Cotton Initiative Duke Center for Sustainability
and Commerce
Caux Round Table x Environmental Defense Fund
Fairtrade Intl Natural Resources Defense
Council
Danish Fashion x The Sustainable Fashion
Institute Academy
Made by Sustainable Fashion Business
Consortium
Environmental Protec- The Swedish School of
tion Agency Textiles
Solidaridad Network x University of Delaware
Textile Exchange Utrecht University
World Resources
Institute
84 M.Á. Gardetti

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Want, London
Environmental Adaptation by Small
and Medium Sized Textile and Garment
Companies in Vietnam—Is Governance
an Issue?

Nga H. Nguyen, Robert J.S. Beeton, Anthony Halog and An T. Duong

Abstract Institutional theory emphasizes the social context in which firms operate
and explains the role of institutions in shaping organizational responses. Following
this theory, if a firm fails to conform to institutionalized norms, its legitimacy and
survival is threatened. This chapter uses institutional theory as a tool to understand
the influence of current institutional mechanisms on the adaptive capacity of textiles
and garment small- and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) in Vietnam in response
to national and international environmental requirements. Field work undertaken in
Vietnam in 2013 enabled 21 interviews with policymakers, experts, and textiles and
garment enterprises. The interviews revealed a number of problems with the current
environmental legislation as well as the governance system in Vietnam. These
problems are considered as barriers for the environmental adaptation process at
textiles and garment SMEs in Vietnam.

Keywords Environmental adaptation Textiles and garment SME Governance

1 Introduction

To understand a complex and dynamic system such as environmental adaptation,

we need to understand not only the attitudes of key actors and systems of concerns
but also the larger context in which the system operates (Boccara 2004; Moser and

N.H. Nguyen (&)
R.J.S. Beeton
A. Halog

The University of Queensland, St Lucia Campus, Brisbane, QLD 4072, Australia
e-mail: [email protected]
R.J.S. Beeton
e-mail: [email protected]
A. Halog
e-mail: [email protected]
A.T. Duong
Vietnam Environment Administration, 10 Ton that Thuyet, Hanoi, Vietnam
e-mail: [email protected]

© Springer Science+Business Media Singapore 2015 87

S.S. Muthu (ed.), Roadmap to Sustainable Textiles and Clothing,
Textile Science and Clothing Technology, DOI 10.1007/978-981-287-164-0_4
88 N.H. Nguyen et al.

Ekstrom 2010). The larger context of environmental adaptation for small- and
medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) is the organizations and their institutions.
The terms “organizations” and “institutions” are often confused. Organizations
are players or groups of individuals who are bound together by some common
purposes to achieve objectives, whereas institutions refer to the framework that
applies the rules, regulations, and norms governing organizational behavior.
Organizations in this chapter are companies. More specifically, they are textiles and
garment SMEs in Vietnam. Institutions in this chapter are the framework of rules
and mechanisms, which govern the behaviors of these companies and drive them
toward environmental adaptation. Consequently, governance is of interest at both
the public sector and corporate scales.
Public sector governance involves the management of public common resources
and public administration including regulations. In the commercial environment,
good governance is critical to forming and maintaining both external and internal
relationships, and governments are often assessed against indicators of good gov-
ernance by international bodies (Stefano and Adele Del 2005). These indicators
include participation, consensus, accountability, transparency, responsiveness,
efficiency, equitability, and legal compliance (Freeman 1984; Mol 1995).
In parallel and interacting with public sector governance, corporate governance
faces challenging issues. In developing countries, expectations of corporate
behavior are often in conflict with the demands of the “real” local competitive
environment. The resolution of this is becoming as important in the world economy
as is the governance of countries. Corporate governance defines the relationship of
a company with society and is the system by which business corporations are
directed and controlled (van Koppen and Mol 2002). It specifies the distribution of
rights and responsibilities among different individuals and groups in the corpora-
tion. It provides a set of rules and procedures for making decisions through which
the company objectives are set and performance is monitored. Complexity is added
as globalized norms of corporate governance are framed by a “first-world” culture
and promulgated in globalized supply chains to a varying extent.
This chapter aims to (i) understand if institutional mechanisms influence whether
the textile and garment SMEs in Vietnam adapt to national and international
environmental requirements or not; and (ii) explore a set of institutional conditions
under which environmental adaptation at textile and garment SMEs in Vietnam is
likely to occur.
The chapter begins with the cultural and historic context of industry in Vietnam.
It goes on to explore how evolving government policy has driven change, resulting
in the current structure of SMEs. The chapter then presents a narrative and insti-
tutional theory framework to examine the organization of textiles and garment
SMEs and role of governance in their environmental behavior and adaptation. The
chapter closes with a discussion of future directions for the industry in a changing
world.
Environmental Adaptation by Small and Medium Sized Textile … 89

2 Background to the Study

2.1 Cultural and Historical Context

There are distinct periods in the history of Vietnam that have shaped today’s
institutions and society (Adger et al. 2001). These are the period of the Dynasties;
the Colonialism period, which included the American war; and the most recent
period of renovation from 1986.
The years of the Imperial Dynasties were marked by the wars with China, who
heavily influenced Vietnam’s technology and culture. The Vietnamese became
familiar with the Chinese writing systems and the Chinese learning and arts. They
adopted the ancient Chinese political system, which was based on Confucianism.
This ideology stresses the importance of education, supposing that people were
naturally good but needed education and a good example set by their superiors to
keep them that way. It also stresses the moral development of individuals based on
five basic relationships: father/son; subject/ruler; husband/wife; elder brother/
younger brother; and friend/friend. The government in a Confucian society ideally
favors morality rather than coercion.
Nevertheless, the Vietnamese interpreted Confucianism differently in many cir-
cumstances (Cima 1987). For example, in contrary to the Chinese, who emphasize
loyalty to rulers only, the Vietnamese Confucianism stresses both loyalty to rulers
and a sense of patriotism. Also, while the Chinese Confucians were against law and
punishment, Vietnamese practice demonstrated a faith in legalist approaches.
China’s historical cultural influence on Vietnam began to dwindle in the late
nineteenth century (Le 2012). This occurred with the abolition of the test of
Confucian’s knowledge in all civil service examinations. However, after more than
a thousand years of domination, the Chinese’s cultural influences on Vietnam could
not disappear overnight. The country’s history of Confucianism, which has tradi-
tionally emphasized respect for authority, combined with many years of central
planning has meant that citizens often defer to the will and views of the government
(Hostovsky et al. 2010). In other words, public involvement in the operation of the
Vietnamese government is still limited.
The French expanded its colonies into Vietnam starting in the 1850s, which was
accompanied by a big shift in the operation and governance of Vietnam. The French
colonialists brought European-style administration to Vietnam and greatly influ-
enced the Vietnamese culture, including the spread of Catholicism and the adoption
of Latin alphabet. To date, Vietnam is the only nation of Indochina that uses the
Latin alphabet to write the national languages.
In 1930, when Ho Chi Minh established the Indochinese Communist Party,
Vietnam started on the road to communism, and the influence of the Union of
Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR) was considerable. Large numbers of Vietnamese
people went to the USSR to study, and new administrative systems, economic
structures, and planning models based on examples in the USSR were introduced.
The cultural life of the Vietnamese was influenced by government-controlled media
90 N.H. Nguyen et al.

and the cultural influences of socialist programs from communist nations such as
the Soviet Union, China, Cuba, and others (Jamieson 1993).
Following the reunification in 1975, Vietnam entered a new period—a period of
evolution with many challenges. “The aftermath of war, social evils, the mass flow of
refugees, …, the dispute at the northern border, the isolation and embargo from the
United States and Western countries, plus continual natural calamities…put Vietnam
under tremendous tough challenges” (Hieu 2010, p. 6). The country was devastated.
Then, the government started its socialist practice and followed Soviet-style
‘‘development-at-all-costs’’ economic policy, favoring heavy industry and com-
merce. However, this policy only focused on meeting production targets. Environ-
mental considerations were not included in production and development decisions.
Resource inputs, such as water, were considered to be free, resulting in the inefficient
use of natural resources. Factories used old technologies, many of which were pro-
vided by Russia and China from the 1950s and 1960s. Technical assistance was also
provided. Pollution and other environmental impacts of industry were very high,
resulting in serious environmental problems such as deforestation, soil erosion,
contaminated water sources, and reduced wildlife habitat (Sikor and O’Rourke 1996).
In 1986, the government launched a renovation program (known as “Đổi
Mới”),1 transforming into a market-oriented economy and stepping into the process
of globalization. Apart from the aim of generating economic growth, environmental
protection and sustainable development have become important parts of the reform.
In 1993, the government promulgated a Law on Environmental Protection2 for the
first time. Subsequently, a series of decrees, directives, and circulars were issued to
implement the law, such as Decree No. 175-CP dated 18th October, 1994; Decree
No. 26-CP dated 26th April, 1996; and Directive No. 36-CT/TW dated 25th June,
1998. The government also encouraged the development of environmentally
friendly industries as economic substitutes for natural resource exploitation.

2.2 Industrialization and the Challenges of Environmental

Management

Under the post-1986 economic reform, Vietnam has begun to achieve concrete
results, including sustaining an economic growth rate of 8–9 %. Industrial activities
are the main contributor to this. At the 8th Vietnamese Communist Party’s congress

1
“Đổi Mới” is the name given to the economic reforms adopted at the 6th Vietnamese Com-
munist Party’s Congress in 1986, when the country was facing an economic crisis. The reforms
included an agreement on the need for policy reforms aimed to move to a multi-sector, market-
oriented economy, with a role for private sector to compete with the state in nonstrategic sectors.
2
The Law on Environmental Protection was passed on December 27th, 1993 by the National
Assembly, and went into effect on January 10th, 1994. The law provides for the protection of the
environment with a view to protecting the health of the people, serving the cause of sustainable
development of the country, and contributing to the protection of regional and global environments.
Environmental Adaptation by Small and Medium Sized Textile … 91

(1996), industrialization and modernization through the year 2020 was set as a
national goal. Agriculture’s share of economic output has continued to shrink, from
about 25 % in 2000 to less than 22 % in 2012, while industry’s share increased from
36 % to nearly 41 % in the same period (OECD 2013). With its rapid economic
growth, Vietnam is perceived as a tiger cub—a younger cousin of the East Asian
tiger economies.
However, like many other countries, the Vietnamese government faces signifi-
cant conflicts between developmental goals and environmental protection. In
addition to rapid growth, there is also a shift towards more polluting industries.
Many economic projects have been granted with licenses to operate without proper
consideration for environmental protection. Untreated waste water from factories
was discharged directly into the rivers, causing water pollution. Substances and dust
from industries caused air pollution. Other industries, such as food processing and
aquaculture, also made the pollution loads increase. The social cost of this rapid
industrialization has been high (Mol and Buuren 2003).
Although the government is committed to protect the country’s ecosystems and
natural environment, Vietnam continues to experience many challenges in envi-
ronmental management. A lack of funds, trained personnel, political will, and
institutional structures severely constrain the effectiveness of state environmental
agencies (Clausen et al. 2011). Other challenges are substandard levels of tech-
nology, low ratios of sustainable technological development and change, limited
economic incentives toward greening industrial production, limited and unreliable
environmentally relevant information (Pham 2006; Angel and Rock 2000;
Le 2006), and limited public involvement (Hostovsky et al. 2010).

2.3 SMEs in Vietnam

There are different definitions of SMEs. In this study, we use the definition specified
in Decree 56/2009/ND-CP3: “Small and medium-sized enterprises are business
establishments that have registered their business according to law and are divided
into three levels: very small, small and medium according to the sizes of their total
capital (equivalent to the total assets identified in an enterprise’s accounting balance
sheet) or the average annual number of labourers.” Table 1 further explores this
definition for each sector of the economy.
In Vietnam, any enterprise that meets the requirements of either the criteria for
the number of employees or the criteria on the amount of capital is considered to be
an SME. Regardless of the forms of its ownership, SMEs can be private enterprises,
state-owned enterprises, foreign-owned enterprises, and joint stock or joint venture
companies.

3
Decree 56/2009/ND-CP dated 30 June 2009 stipulated supporting measures for SMEs (replacing
Decree 90/2001/CP-ND).
92 N.H. Nguyen et al.

Table 1 Definition of SMEs in Vietnam per sector

Very Small-sized enterprises Medium-sized enterprises
small
enterprises
Number Total Number of Total capital Number of
of laborers capital laborers laborers
Agriculture, 10 persons VND Between Between over Between over
forestry, and or fewer 20 bil- over 10 per- VND 20 billion 200 persons
fishery lion or sons and 200 and VND 100 and 300
less persons billion persons
Industry and 10 persons VND Between Between over Between over
construction or fewer 20 bil- over 10 per- VND 20 billion 200 persons
lion or sons and 200 and VND 100 and 300
less persons billion persons
Trade and 10 persons VND Between Between VND Between over
service or fewer 10 bil- over 10 per- 10 billion and 50 persons
lion or sons and 50 50 billion and 100
less persons persons
Source Decree 56/2009/CP-ND

There are no exact data indicating the number of SMEs in Vietnam. However,
the United Nations University World Institute for Development Economics
Research (UNU-WIDER 2011) showed that more than 95 % of total enterprises in
Vietnam are SMEs. The distribution of enterprises in terms of size varies signifi-
cantly across industries.4 The proportion of SMEs is high in the food processing
sector (93 %), but considerably lower in the leather and footwear sector (50 %) and
textile and garment sector (73 %).
SMEs in Vietnam play a vital role in the economy. They employ more than 50 %
of the labor force in the country and contribute to 31 % of the GDP.5 In recent
years, the number of nonstate enterprises has increased dramatically. The most
important organizational form of private enterprise in Vietnam is household firms.
The next largest group are the industrial cooperatives and quasi-cooperative pro-
duction groups.
Despite SMEs being the engine of growth in Vietnam, these enterprises face
significant difficulties. Access to finance remains the most serious problem for SMEs
in Vietnam (UNU-WIDER 2011). Almost 40 % of SMEs in Vietnam are considered
credit-constrained. Finding sufficient funding is difficult, and many SMEs have had
to turn to investment funds for both money and management assistance (David
Richards et al. 2002). Additionally, unskilled labor, a lack of land for business
premises and weak supporting services in the areas of technology and information are
significant problems for of SMEs in Vietnam (Harvie 2001; UNU-WIDER 2011).

4
General Statistic Office. Statistical Yearbook. Hanoi, 2004.
5
General Statistic Office. Statistical Yearbook. Hanoi, 2004.
Environmental Adaptation by Small and Medium Sized Textile … 93

2.4 Vietnam’s Textile and Garment Industry

The textile and garment industry in Vietnam has developed rapidly in recent years
and has become a vital activity within the country’s economy. In term of total
production, it is the second biggest industry in Vietnam (after the oil and gas
industry), accounting for 31 % of total industrial products. The production capacity
in 2005 increased fivefold compared to the production capacity of 2000 (Nguyen
2011). Exports in 2011 reached $15.8 billion USD, an increase of nearly 38 %
compared to 2010. In 2012 and 2013, despite of many challenges in production and
business, exports still earned a record US$ 17.15 billion and US$ 19 billion,
respectively (Viettrade 2012; VNS 2013)
With a labor force of more than 2 million people working in more than 3,800
companies (TextileWorld 2012), Vietnam’s textile and garment industry has
become one of the strongest players in the global market. It ranks fifth worldwide in
textile and apparel exports. The industry is considered to be a very important
producer and exporter. However, it is also one of the most serious polluters. At each
of the stages typically required to make a garment product, there are negative
environmental impacts, with dyeing and finishing having the greatest impact on the
environment. Figure 1 schematically sets out the production process and the
environmental impacts at each of the stages.
There are four main steps in the textile and garment production process: yarn
fabrication, fabric production, dyeing and finishing, and sewing. SMEs normally
operate one or two stages of this process. For example, some companies only
produce yarn or fabric; some produce fabric and also provide dyeing services. Only
a few large companies in Vietnam operate all four stages of the production process.
Currently, raw materials are mainly imported from overseas. About 400,000 mt
of cotton is consumed annually, of which 35 % is imported from the United States,
32 % from India, and 19 % from South Africa (TextileWorld 2012). Some is

Dyes Energy
Feedstock Finishing Fabrication
Energy Energy Chemicals Materials
Water Energy Packaging
Water Materials

Yarn Fabric Dying and Dyed and Garment

Yarn Fabric Products
Fabrication Production Finishing Finished Fabric Manafacture

Severe Water Pollution Interior Air Pollution

Interior Dust Pollution
Interior Dust Pollution Air Pollution Noise
Noise
Noise Interior Solvent Solid Waste
Water Pollution
Exposure

Cumulative Impacts on Environment and Health

Fig. 1 The production process and its environmental impacts

94 N.H. Nguyen et al.

imported from other countries, such as Pakistan, Brazil, Australia, and Indonesia.
Materials imported into Vietnam have to comply with the quarantine regulations in
Vietnam, including requirements for environmental protection.
The main environmental problems of the yarn fabrication and fabric production
are dust and noise. Dust arises from fiber and fabric scraps. Noise comes from the
operation of the spinning or weaving machine. In addition, some small companies
are still using coal and firewood, and the emissions (including some hazardous
chemicals such as SO2 and NO2) are polluting the air.
Dyeing and finishing operations consume a vast amount of water, energy, and
inorganic chemicals. If wastewater is not properly treated before discharging into
the environment, it has well known and serious impacts on the environment. Duong
(2006) reported that more than 90 % of the textile companies in Vietnam are
violating environmental requirements.
To control environmental pollution from the textile and garment industry, the
Vietnamese government has implemented many policies and measures, mainly
following the traditional command-and-control system of environmental regula-
tions, such as end-of-pipe treatment solution, fines and penalties, relocation, and
even forced closure of polluting enterprises. In addition, Vietnam has started
introducing environmentally friendly technologies and business practices directed
at achieving cleaner production.
However, current practices of environmental protection and environmental
management at textile and garment companies, especially SMEs, remain poor.
Many do not meet the national standard requirements of environmental manage-
ment practices. They are equipped with old manufacturing technologies, which
result in both inefficient use of resources and high emissions. Environmental pro-
tection technologies are luxurious to such enterprises. Some tried to install pollution
control facilities. However, due to lack of adequate monitoring, most of these
facilities have not been put into operation for economic reasons (Pham 2006)—they
are just to show to environmental inspectors.
Although most of the textile and garment companies have been relocated to
suburban districts or industrial zones, the problem of location remains increasingly
problematic due to the fast rate of urbanization. Pham (2006) observed that more
and more companies are becoming parts of residential neighborhoods. When these
SMEs cannot adopt a proper environmental protection technology, the pollution
caused by their production activities is almost certainly having serious impacts on
the health and daily lives of the people.

2.5 Environmental Legislation in Vietnam

From the mid-1990s, the government of Vietnam has implemented many policies
and measures to limit the environmental impacts from industries. These mainly
follow the traditional command-and-control system of environmental regulations,
such as end-of-pipe standards, air emission standards, treatment solution, fines and
Environmental Adaptation by Small and Medium Sized Textile … 95

penalties, relocation, and even forced closure of polluting enterprises. In addition,

Vietnam has started introducing more proactive approaches, such as cleaner pro-
duction systems, environmental management systems, and the employment of
better technologies to achieve the improvement that is required by such approaches.
Since the passage of Law on Environmental Protection (LEP) in 1993, a wide
range of decrees, directives, and circulars were issued to realize the goals of
environmental regulation and enforcement. The LEP was followed by other policies
related to environmental management, such as the Prime Minister’s Directive 200/
TTg on “Ensuring the clean water and environmental hygiene for rural areas”, the
Inter-Ministerial Circular 142/MTg on “Guidelines on environmental impact
assessment for operating establishment” (issued in 1994), and the Circular 715/
MTg on “Guidelines on environmental impact assessment for foreign direct
investment projects” (issued in 1995). The passage of the Mineral Law in 1996 and
the Water Resource Law in 1998 were also signs of the government’s concern for
the country’s environmental problems.
Another important step in national environmental control was the formation of
the Ministry of Science, Technology and Environment (MOSTE) in 1993, which is
responsible for environmental management. In 1995, the Vietnam Standards
Institute within MOSTE issued national environmental standards, including stan-
dards on ambient air quality and the maximum allowable concentrations of haz-
ardous substances in ambient air (inorganic and organic).
The main tool to achieve pollution control from SMEs in Vietnam was the
Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA). Both existing and new firms are required
to undertake an EIA. However, the EIA process is costly and time-consuming for
many Vietnamese SMEs. Thus, in 1999, a circular on environmental registration
was promulgated by the MOSTE to simplify the environmental approval procedure
for SMEs. SMEs are now required to obtain an environmental license or certificate
on pollution control instead of carrying out an EIA.
After the establishment of the Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment
(MONRE) in 2002, the state management of environmental protection at central
level was transferred from MOSTE to MONRE. The newly established provincial
department of natural resources and environments (DONREs) are responsible for
the environmental management involving SMEs in their provinces.
The Law on Environmental Protection was amended in 2005. Together with this,
numerous other decrees, directives, and circulars were also issued to instruct the
implementation of these regulations. However, it has been shown that the
enforcement of environmental regulations in Vietnam is still very weak (O’Rourke
2002; Dao and Ofori 2010). Responses to environmental problems from the busi-
ness community in Vietnam are diverse (Dao and Ofori 2010). Only a small number
of big companies—especially those with international supply chains—are demon-
strating good environmental protection practices. The majority of SMEs continue to
have poor environmental performance.
96 N.H. Nguyen et al.

Fig. 2 Government agencies

Environmental
responsible for environmental Regulations in Vietnam
monitoring in Vietnam National level Provincial level

MONRE PPC

DONRE DPC & CPC

VEA

Provincial EPA

2.5.1 Issuance and Monitoring of the Government’s Environmental

Regulations

The environmental regulations in Vietnam are issued by the Vietnam Environment

Admistration (VEA), which is under MONRE. The Provincial People’s Commit-
tees (PPCs) are also able to issue environmental requirements, which are particu-
larly applied to their provinces.
The monitoring of environmental regulations is conducted at both the national
and provincial levels. At the national level, VEA takes the main responsibility for
monitoring the environmental performance of all companies operating in Vietnam
through their network of environmental inspectors. At the provincial level, the
DONRE and the provincial Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), in coopera-
tion with the commune and district level People’s Committee (CPC and DPC), are
responsible for the environmental performance of the companies in their province.
The provincial DONREs are under the management of PPC but under the technical
supervision of MONRE.
Provincial EPAs are parts of DONRE. Figure 2 illustrates these relationships.

3 Evaluating Governance and Environmental Adaptation

In this chapter, we use institutional theory as a tool to evaluate the governance

issues related to environmental adaptation for textiles and garment SMEs in
Vietnam.
Institutional theory initially suggested that a strong motivating force behind firm
behavior is socially based and embedded within institutions (Meyer and Rowan
1977; Scott 1987). The term “institution” refers to the formal or informal sets of
rules, regulations, norms, and understandings that organizations and individuals are
expected to follow (Meyer and Rowan 1991).
More recently, Scott (2008) reported the maturation of the theory and differ-
entiated institutions by the types of institutional forces that shape them. This insight
was elaborated on by Bruton et al. (2010) as follows:
Environmental Adaptation by Small and Medium Sized Textile … 97

• Regulative pillar: represents models of behavior based on sanctions and con-

formity. Behaviors are guided by rules, monitoring, and enforcement, which
stem primarily from government legislation and industrial agreements and
standards. These rules provide guidelines and can lead to organizations com-
plying with laws or may require a reaction if there is a lack of laws or regu-
lations in the firms.
• Normative pillar: represents models of behavior based on obligatory dimensions
of social, professional, and organizational interactions. Behaviors are guided by
what is appropriate (values) or expected (norms). Normative institutions exert
influence because of a social obligation to comply, rooted in social necessity or
what an organization should be doing.
• Cognitive pillar: represents models of individual behavior based on subjectively
and constructed rules and meanings that limit appropriate beliefs and actions.
The cognitive pillar may operate more at the individual level in terms of culture
and language.
The three pillars vary substantially in the type of institutional order they support.
They are different in motives for compliance, logics of action, mechanisms, and
indicators employed. Each offers a different rationale for claiming legitimacy,
whether by being legally sanctioned, morally authorized, or culturally supported
(Bruton et al. 2010).
In this chapter, we only focus on the regulative pillar of the environmental
adaptation process in textiles and garment SMEs in Vietnam. This reflects the early
evolutionary state of the industry, in which government legislation, industrial
standards, and customer requirements are paramount. We go on to assess if the
current governance system has any influence on the environmental adaptation
process at these companies. In interviews with company managers, nongovern-
mental organizations (NGOs), and government officials, focused questions, with
follow ups, were used in long interviews.
Underpinned on institutional theory and the regulative pillar of the environ-
mental adaptation process informed by a literature review (Nguyen et al. 2014) and
preliminary interviews, we developed focused questions for interviews with com-
pany officials of textiles and garment SMEs in Vietnam:
1. What environmental requirements does your company have to comply with?
2. How easy or difficult do you find responding to these requirements?
3. How does the current governance system influence the environmental adaptation
process at your company?
Similar focused questions for NGOs, experts, and governmental officials were
developed:
1. What are the environmental requirements that the SMEs in the garment and
textile industry currently have to comply with?
2. How do these companies react to these requirements?
3. How does the current governance system influence the environmental adaptation
process at your company?
98 N.H. Nguyen et al.

A total of 21 interviews were conducted; of these, 8 interviews were with

government officials, 3 were with NGOs, and 10 were with SMEs. The number of
interviews for each group stopped when theoretical saturation was reached (Flick
2002; Robson 2002). Theoretical saturation occurred at a small sample size, sug-
gesting homogeneity of issues faced in the industry. The interviews revealed a
number of problems with the current environmental legislative as well as the
governance system in Vietnam.

4 Current Environmental Requirements at Textile

and Garment SMEs in Vietnam

The environmental requirements for textile and garment SMEs in Vietnam can be
identified in four main groups. The first group is the Law on Environmental Pro-
tection 2005 (LEP). LEP is applied to all kinds of economic facilities in Vietnam,
including all sizes (large, medium, small) and all types (state-owned, private, for-
eign-owned, joint stock, joint venture) of enterprises. The second group consists of
regulatory documents issued by the government, such as decrees and decisions. The
third group are regulatory documents issued by ministries and provincial govern-
ments, such as standards, directives, and circulars (in this case, regulations are
mainly from the MONRE). The last group is the requirements from the customers.
Table 2 summaries the key environmental requirements that the textile and garment
SMEs in Vietnam have to comply with.
The Law on Environmental Protection (52/2005/QH11), which was adopted on
29 November 2005 and took effective in 1 July 2006, is the most important
environmental legislative in Vietnam. The law and its related decrees and decisions
provide a foundation for environmental management activities in Vietnam. Within
the 3 years from 2011 to 2013, a total of 18,400 violations of the law were
prosecuted, resulting in total punishment fines of 196 billion Vietnamese dongs
(MONRE 2014). However, after 8 years, the implementation of the law is patchy
and environmental degradation continues; the law has become more complicated,
with differing views on how to proceed.
On one hand, the government and the public took a view that the law and its
decrees are not strict enough. The fines applied in Decree 117/2009/ND-CP are not
high enough to prevent enterprises from violating the environmental protection law.
Many companies are willing to pay the penalties rather than to make investments in
environmentally friendly technologies. Some companies have been equipped with
modern wastewater treatment plants, but they have not used them because the
operational costs are high.
Very few firms have pollution emissions monitored because fines are inadequate to in-
centivize expensive investment in pollution control equipment and polluters do not face
criminal sanctions, a senior environmental economist from Ministry of Natural Resources
and Environment said in our interview.
Environmental Adaptation by Small and Medium Sized Textile … 99

Table 2 Key environmental requirements for textile and garment SMEs in Vietnam
No. Name of the requirement
1. Law on Environmental Protection 2005
2. Decree 80/2006/ND-CP, detailing and guiding the implementation of a number of
articles of the law on environmental protection
Decree 21/2008/ND-CP, amending and supplementing a number of articles of the Decree
80/2006/ND-CP
Decree 179/2013/ND-CP on regulations for penalties for violations against environ-
mental protection (a revision/amendment of decree 117/2009/ND-CP)
Decision 1788/QD-TTg of the Prime Minister on the plan for managing the polluted
enterprises in the period from 2012 to 2020
Decree 25/2013/ND-CP on fees for discharging wastewater
Decree 29/2011/ND-CP, stipulating the requirements of strategic environmental
assessments, environmental impact assessments, and environment protection
commitments
3. Circular 32/2013/TT-BTNMT: national technical standards on the environment,
including national standards on the air quality (QCVN 05:2013/BTNMT) and national
standards on the mud level arising from the wastewater treatment process
(QCVN:50:2013/BTNMT)
Circular 47/2011/TT-BTNMT: national technical standards on the environment,
including national standards on industrial wastewater (QCVN 40:2011/BTNMT)
Circular 39/2010/TT-BTNMT: national technical standards on the environment,
including national standards on noise (QCVN 26:2010/BTNMT)
Circular 63/2013/TTLT-BTC-BTNMT issued by MONRE and Ministry of Finance to
instruct the implementation of Decree 25/2013/ND-CP
Circular 26/2011/TT-BTNMT, detailing the requirements of Decree 29/2011/ND-CP
Decision 16/2008/QD-BTNMT and QCVN13:2008/BTNMT: national standards on
wastewater treatment in textiles and garment industry
TCVN 5945: 1995 industrial wastewater discharge standards
Decision 64/2003/QD-TTg (closure, upgrades in technology or investment in wastewater
treatment systems)
Others: requirements from the customers (e.g. the 39 standards from Nike)

On the other hand, all companies interviewed think the environmental regula-
tions in Vietnam are too hard. It is too difficult for them to implement these
requirements because they do not have enough human and financial resources to do
so. They consider these regulations to be big barriers for the development of their
business.
Current requirements are too hard for such small companies as us, one of the company
managers said.

One of the reasons why the current requirements are too hard for the companies
is that they are being copied from the environmental laws of developed countries,
and these are not easily implemented in Vietnam. This was verified by several
100 N.H. Nguyen et al.

informants and confirmed by one representative from the textiles and garment
association:
Current laws and regulations are developed based on international experience (copies of
other countries’) and therefore they are not feasible in Vietnam’s context. Many of them are
too difficult to implement if there is no help from the government. The companies will
worm their own way in complying with these requirements.

For example the requirements on the concentration of waste water (NH3-N for instance) are
copies of environmental law in foreign countries so they are too hard for Vietnamese
companies. The policy makers must have not had any knowledge or experience in textile
industry. Many requirements are not suitable for our sector, one of the managers said.

Furthermore, according to many interviewees, current regulations are quite

“unfair.” First, the implementation of the laws should not be the same among
different sizes and types of companies.
We divided companies into large, medium and small ones. Why didn’t we divide the
requirements on environmental protection into different groups which are suitable for
different groups of enterprises? It is unfair for the small companies if they have to comply
with the same regulations as the large ones. SMEs are weak in both technical capacity and
financial resources. Their response to the regulations cannot be the same as large ones.

Second, the monitoring and enforcement policies were not applied fairly enough
among different types of companies.
Many state-owned companies, especially the ones in the army, violate the law but they are
not punished or if they are punished the punishment is also much lower than the one for
private companies. State-owned enterprises have more privileges than private ones. The
government cannot shut down state-own enterprises but they can ask private ones to shut
down.

Environmental regulations have become increasingly stricter since 1993. Poli-

cymakers have been trying to improve the current environmental legislative in order
to best suit the new situation. Various decrees have been continuously issued in
order to clarify and better explain how to implement the law. For example, after the
Vedan scandal,6 it was found out that Decree 80/2006/ND-CP was too broad (not
detailed enough about the quantity of wastewater); therefore, Decree 117/2009-ND-
CP was developed to further guide local authorities in handling violations of
environmental protection law. After 2 years of implementing Decree 117/2009/ND-
CP, it was determine that some punishments were not harsh enough and were still
too general. Thus, Decree 179/2013/ND-CP was adopted.
However, the current law and its decrees are still controversial and claimed to be
unsuitable for Vietnamese SMEs. In addition, many provisions overlap or contra-
dict with the provisions of other laws (UNDP 2013).

6
Vedan scandal: Vedan is a Taiwanese MSG maker who started business in Vietnam in 1991.
The company was accused of polluting the river in 1994, 1995, 2004, and 2006. It was suspected
of having wastewater discharging directly to the river, but this was not uncovered until 2008 when
a hidden pipe discharging directly into the river was found.
Environmental Adaptation by Small and Medium Sized Textile … 101

On the other hand, companies will try their best to comply with the requirements
of customers because it determines the survival of their business.
Regarding to the requirements from the customers, we have to try our best to comply with
them, otherwise we cannot get the orders.

Nevertheless, not all the customers have requirements for environmental pro-
tection and environmental management. Those who do tend to be big customers,
and most of these are based overseas. The small domestic customers only care
about prices and designs. In some cases where customers have strict environmental
requirements but do not place big orders, the companies may not comply with those
requirements:
If the requirements are too hard, then we have to accept to lose the orders because we
cannot afford such big investment.

In general, many problems exist with the current laws and regulations on
environmental protection in Vietnam. None of the textiles and garment SMEs
interviewed were happy with the current requirements. They all tried to respond to
these requirements at the minimum level. They either try to defer the implemen-
tation of the requirements, ignore them, or are willing to pay a fine if necessary.

5 Current Public and Corporate Governance Systems

Public governance in Vietnam has two elements. First, it is concerned with the
implementation of the government policy on environmental management. Second,
it considers the relationships between the government and the companies regarding
responsibility and accountability for environmental management. Corporate gov-
ernance is the system by which companies are directed and controlled. It provides a
set of rules and procedures for making decisions related to environmental
management.

5.1 Public Governance

Table 3 shows the different levels of environmental authorities in Vietnam. At the

national level, the main authorities of textile and garment SMEs are the Ministry of
Industry and Trade (MOIT) and the MONRE. MOIT is the line ministry and acts as
the management agency for the textile and garment sector. This ministry promul-
gates legal documents that guide the sector on professional issues, some of which
relate to environmental matters. However, although MOIT has an agency (which is
equivalent to a department) with a mandate for environmental protection and
environmental management, the environmental issues regarding production within
the textile and garment sector are still predominantly in the purview of MONRE.
102 N.H. Nguyen et al.

Table 3 Main environmental authorities in Vietnam

No. Authorities for inspecting and monitoring environmental performance
1. MONRE/VEA
2. Other ministries such as MOIT, Ministry of Police and Ministry of Public Security (C49)
3. PPCs
4. DONRE, Provincial EPA
5. District and Commune People’s Committee
6. Management Board of Industrial Park

MONRE is the highest national environmental agency. It issues the circulars to

implement the Law on Environmental Protection and takes responsibility for
improving the environmental performance of industries via Environmental Impact
Assessment appraisal and the promulgation of environmental decrees, standards,
and programs. In practice, MONRE authorizes the VEA to execute the imple-
mentation of environmental policies in the whole country. VEA is a subsidiary
body under MONRE to advise and assist the Minister of MONRE in the field of
environmental management and to provide public services in compliance with the
laws.
At local level, the relevant stakeholders in the environmental adaptation process
for Vietnam’s textile and garment SMEs are the city/provincial People’s Committee
(PC), the DONRE, the Department of Industry and Trade (DOIT), and district and
commune PCs. The city or provincial PC is the highest government body. DOIT is
responsible for the sector development and DONRE is in charge of environmental
issues in their city or province. Both are under the technical supervision of MOIT
and MONRE, but they operate under the direct management of the city or pro-
vincial PC. Similarly, the offices of Natural Resources and Environment within the
district and commune PCs are under the technical supervision of DONRE, but are
directly managed by their PCs.
In practice, environmental issues at companies, including textile and garment
SMEs, are mainly monitored and managed by the provincial EPA, which is under
DONRE. EPA’s main mandates include: (i) giving advice to the DONRE Director
on environmental implementation at the provincial level; (ii) giving guidance to
organizations and individuals in the provinces to implement environmental regu-
lations and standards; and (iii) cooperating with the inspectors to monitor the
environmental performance of the organizations and individuals in the provinces.
Almost all of the interviewees complained about the overlaps among these
enforcement authorities. First, there existed some jurisdictional overlaps in issuing
permits, licenses, and supervising EIAs. For example, several agencies, such as
MONRE, PPCs, and DONRE are involved in issuing licenses for discharging
wastewater. The management boards of the industrial parks also have different
regulations about discharging wastewater. Overall, the companies claim that this is
very confusing.
Environmental Adaptation by Small and Medium Sized Textile … 103

There are some overlaps between different functional and jurisdictional authorities, making
us really confused. We have to submit our reports to too many people. And sometimes it is
really difficult because the information is inconsistent and unclear.

Second, there exist some overlaps in inspecting and imposing penalties on non-
complying companies. According to regulations on governing administrative
sanctions and penalties, both the People’s Committee, including DONREs at local
level and professional agencies such as MONREs and the Ministry of Police
(including their inspectorates), are authorized to impose a broad spectrum of
sanctions (warnings, fines, penalties) on noncomplying facilities. Therefore, they all
have the same legal authority to carry out inspections and impose sanctions against
environmental violators. The companies claimed that this was confusing.
We have to receive the authorities visiting for an inspection of our factory for 6 to 7 times a
year. It took a lot of time, a manager complained.

The LEP includes some guidance for cooperation between functional agencies in
administrating inspections and enforcement actions. For example, enforcement
actions require the involvement of several functional agencies, including local
People’s Committees, police, and professional agencies. In practice, however, there
is insufficient cooperation between these agencies, resulting in the local PPCs
handling most enforcement cases. PPCs dominate the environmental inspectorate in
enforcement because of their greater human resources and their ability to mobilize
the police force.
However, a lack of professionally trained officials in charge of environmental
protection remains a challenge for environmental protection agencies, especially at
the local level. The inspection quality is different, making the competition unfair
among the companies.
The companies inside the industrial parks are inspected by the inspectors of the industrial
parks. The companies outside the industrial park are inspected by the inspectors of the
Department of Natural Resources and Environment. The inspection quality is so much
different and therefore it is unfair in many cases.

Moreover, corruption is not an uncommon issue. Many companies are willing to

pay the inspectors so that they overlook their noncomplying activities. For them,
paying a corrupted “fee” is cheaper than doing the real environmental protection. In
some cases, the local authorities do not want to monitor the environmental per-
formance of the companies in their areas because those companies are too small or
too poor to pay the penalties. In other cases, the local authorities suffer from
political power, either not punishing the companies because of orders from higher
level authorities or because they have to sacrifice the environmental targets in order
to achieve their economic targets. In fact, the great efforts by the central government
and the community to protect the environment are in vain if local authorities
determine that local economic development has the top priority.
Another big issue for the current governance system is the inefficient support
from the government. There are a number of supporting programs in terms of both
104 N.H. Nguyen et al.

technology and finance, but accessibility is very hard. The procedures for getting
incentives are also very complicated.
We don’t have anything to mortgage when accessing capital from the bank. Very few of us
could access to financial support from the government.

While acknowledging that the government’s resettlement plan7 is necessary,

many textile and garment SMEs found it difficult to implement without the support
from the government.
The industrial zones only lend a big piece of land (for example 5,000 m2) while we don’t
need such a big area and we could not afford it. Furthermore, many provinces don’t accept
dying and textile companies. Only 4 among 61 provinces accept textile companies to locate
within their administrative area.

Many textile SMEs companies have to choose any place that is affordable or
they have to close down their business. Most of them are running very unsettled
businesses.
In short, many interviewees—both governmental officials and SME managers—
agree that the government has failed in effectively implementing environmental
regulations in Vietnam. On one hand, they cannot shut down all of the enterprises
who do not meet the environmental requirements because that eliminates the textile
industry from economy, resulting in negative social and economic impacts. On the
other hand, they have to tighten the requirements relating to the environment
because of a commitment to sustainable development, international pressures, and
public discontent. While not intractable, these issues pose a considerable problem
for government.

5.2 Corporate Governance

Corporate governance in terms of environmental protection and environmental

management in textile and garment SMEs in Vietnam is quite weak. None of the
companies interviewed have any official rules and procedures requiring environ-
mental compliance. They react to the environmental requirements from the gov-
ernment and the customers on a case-by-case basis. They do not allocate annual
budget for environmental protection but use the contingency fund for environ-
mental issues if needed. In many cases, environmental issues are not integrated in
the company’s policy or business strategy. If plans for environmental protection
exist, they only exist on paper and are not implemented unless requested by the
customers.

7
Ho Chi Minh City People’s Committee released decision No.80/2002/QĐ-UB dated July 8th,
2002 on the approval of the “Relocation of Polluted Enterprises to Industrial Zones Programme”.
Following this decision, many textile companies were required to move out of residential areas and
relocate to industrial zones.
Environmental Adaptation by Small and Medium Sized Textile … 105

The law requires the companies to develop annual plan about environmental protection, but
implementation is still different from what they planned.

None of the companies interviewed had any staff members who were directly in
charge of environmental management. Environmental issues are dealt by pur-
chasing officers, administrative officers, or even financial officers. These staff
members are not provided with any training on environmental management.
Although both the managers and staff are quite well aware of the importance of
complying with environmental requirements, they do not consider these issues to be
important or a priority for their business.

6 Conclusions and Recommendations

A general comment from the interviews and observations at textile and garment
SMEs in Vietnam is that these companies do not actively comply with environ-
mental requirements. Arguably, while governance is an issue influencing SMEs’
proactiveness and capacity in adapting to environmental requirements, the evidence
is weak. The influence that does exist comes from government legislation on
environmental protection and the current local governance system.
SMEs consider the current environmental requirements to be hard, infeasible,
and unfair. However, if the requirements are from the customers, the companies
will put more effort into implementing them. Therefore, one of the most effective
potential legislative tools is likely to be trade agreement. In other words, envi-
ronmental requirements should be formulated on the basis of commercial reality.
The current public governance system reveals a number of problems, such as
overlaps between jurisdictional and functional authorities, corruption, and insuffi-
cient support from the government. It is hoped that the amended Law on Envi-
ronmental Protection (2005) will resolve these problems. Specifically, as the new
LEP is deployed, it needs to address the following issues:
• Amending provisions to clearly assign tasks of environmental protection and
enforcement among agencies at all levels to avoid jurisdictional and functional
overlaps.
• Information on the duties and mandates of the inspectorates need to be acces-
sible by the companies.
• Providing a strong legal basis of incentives for reporting corrupted cases as well
as mandating stronger penalties and other sanctions for those who are corrupt.
• Providing a stronger legal basis for public participation in environmental
compliance and enforcement, including a regime to report on corrupted cases.
• Increase investment and government budgets both at the central and local levels
for environmental protection. Investment needs to be made in supporting pro-
grams for SMEs, such as a relocation program for polluted textile and garment
companies to green field areas that are outside current urban areas.
• Providing support to SMEs to assist in adjustment and adaptation.
106 N.H. Nguyen et al.

For the corporate governance to be improved, training on environmental pro-

tection and environmental management is a must. Stricter regulations on integrating
environmental issues in companies’ policies and business strategies should be
developed. There should also be more support and incentives from the government
to the companies who are willing to proactively undertake environmental man-
agement practices.
This chapter has only focused on the regulative pillar of institutional theory. We
recognize the importance of all three institutional forces, including the normative
and cognitive pillars. Further research on this issue, with a focus on all three pillars,
is needed to identify a more comprehensive set of institutional conditions, under
which environmental adaptation at textile and garment SMEs in Vietnam is likely to
occur.

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Sustainable Measures Taken by Brands,
Retailers, and Manufacturers

Thilak Vadicherla and D. Saravanan

Abstract Sustainability is a triple bottom line that includes three aspects—namely

the environment, economics, and society. A lot of emphasis has been placed on the
brands, retailers, and manufacturers because the customers not only purchase their
products but also observe the sustainable practices followed by brands, retailers,
and manufacturers. Topics discussed in this chapter include the code of conduct for
suppliers; supplier rating, which is based on key performance indicators; and
incentives for the adoption of best practices, disclosure of carbon footprint, fair
trade and social compliance, use of sustainable materials (organic cotton, better
cotton, recycled or reclaimed fibers), ways and means of improved water, and
material and energy efficiency by brands, retailers, and manufacturers.

Keywords Annual sustainability report Carbon footprint disclosure
Fair trade



and social compliance Energy efficiency Sustainable materials

1 Introduction

The entire world seems to be obsessed with single term these days—sustainability.
The kind of attention that sustainability has evoked for the past 3 decades or so
raises plenty of questions. Customers’ increased awareness of sustainability is
creating responsible global citizens who have started using sustainability practices
to the extent of their personal capacities, but a lot is now expected from these global
citizens. Customers and consumers take cues from their brands, retailers, and

T. Vadicherla (&)
D. Saravanan

Department of Textile and Fashion Technology, Bannari Amman Institute
of Technology, Sathyamangalam, Erode, Tamilnadu, India
e-mail: [email protected]
D. Saravanan
e-mail: [email protected]

© Springer Science+Business Media Singapore 2015 109

S.S. Muthu (ed.), Roadmap to Sustainable Textiles and Clothing,
Textile Science and Clothing Technology, DOI 10.1007/978-981-287-164-0_5
110 T. Vadicherla and D. Saravanan

manufacturers about trends, styles, efficiency, technologies, and features. In light of

this, we must understand how to measure sustainability.
What are the elements of sustainability? Sustainability is a triple bottom line that
includes the environment, economics, and society. How can we understand the
interplay of the elements of sustainability? Can sustainability be measured? If so,
how can we measure it?
Sustainability can be measured. It considers all aspects related to the quantitative
basis of the informed management of sustainability. Many metrics are presently
available and many are still evolving. Metrics used for the measurement of sus-
tainability include indicators, benchmarks, audits, indexes and accounting, assess-
ment, appraisal and other reporting systems. For instance, the Consultative Group on
Sustainable Development Indicators combine multiple sources of data and form an
aggregate sustainability index. Examples of sustainability indices include air quality,
energy sustainability, environmental performance, environmental sustainability,
environmental vulnerability, and sustainable society, among many other indices. A
benchmark is a point of reference for a measurement that assesses trends and mea-
sures progress once established. The sustainability performance of a company or
organization is measured using sustainability auditing and reporting. ISO 14000, ISO
14031, the natural step, and triple bottom line accounting are some popular auditing
procedures. Sustainability indicators can be classified (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/
Sustainability_measurement) into descriptive indicators (description based), per-
formance indicators (target based), efficiency indicators (improvement based), policy
effectiveness indicators (policy based), and total welfare indicators (better off). The
latest developments include the Global Reporting Initiative and green accounting,
which focuses on environmental reporting and costs.
Lately, many people have been keenly observing the sustainable measures taken
by leading brands, retailers, and manufacturers. This chapter highlights some of
these sustainable measures, such as those included in Table 1, to form a roadmap.
All the measures involved in the roadmap are elaborated in this chapter.

2 Sustainable Measures Taken by Brands

2.1 Adidas

Athletes never stop trying to improve their performance. This well-known quote has
become synonymous with the sustainable efforts of Adidas, helping the company to
win the coveted SAM Gold Class, Sector Leader Award for Sustainability, obtain
recognition by the Dow Jones Sustainability Index, and released the highly
appreciated Olympic Collection for London 2012 (http://www.adidas-group.com/
en/sustainability/reporting-policies-and-data/sustainability-reports/). Adidas partic-
ipates in many industry-wide initiatives related to sustainability, including the Fair
Labor Association, Fair Factories Clearinghouse, International Labour Organization
Sustainable Measures Taken by Brands, Retailers, and Manufacturers 111

Table 1 Sustainability Measures

Brands, retailers, and manufacturers Sustainability measures
Brands: Adidas, Burberry, Eileen Fisher, Supplier rating and auditing system based on
Esprit, Levi’s, Nike, Patagonia, Puma certain key performance indicators
Retailers: C&A, Gap, H&M, JCPenney, Social compliance and fair wages
Target, Walmart
Sustainable materials and life cycle
assessment
Manufacturers: Dystar, Lenzing, MAS Sustainable collection
Holding, Novozymes Sustainable design tools
Virtual technology
Code of conduct or ethical trading policy
Sustainable standards
Digital and print campaigns focusing on
sustainability
Carbon footprint disclosure
Energy-efficient practices

(ILO) Better Work Programme, Zero Discharge of Hazardous Chemicals (ZDHC)

Group, and AFIRM Working Group. In addition, Adidas extends its support to the
Sustainable Apparel Coalition (SAC) and the Global Social Compliance Pro-
gramme, and it follows the Global Reporting Initiative guidelines and sustainable
reports, the leading international benchmark for sustainability reporting systems.
Adidas has initiated audits of their suppliers on certain key performance indi-
cators and rates them innovatively on their ability to deliver fair, healthy, and
environmentally sound workplace conditions in an effective manner. The cumula-
tive score of key performance indicators and the average score are rated as 1C, 2C,
3C, 4C, or 5C, as described in Table 2. Based on the rating, the suppliers are trained
to build their capacity sustainably.
Adidas capitalizes on the expertise of their Social and Environmental Affairs
(SEA) and Capacity Building and Development teams for the continuous
improvement of workplace conditions of their suppliers. The company also has
initiated a text messaging system and a worker hotline, through which employee

Table 2 Key performance indicators and scores of Adidas

Key performance indicators PI score (%) Rating
i. Management commitment and responsiveness 0–29 1C
ii. Management systems 30–59 2C
iii. Worker-management communication
60–79 (good or better) 3C
and industrial relations
iv. Compliance training 80–89 (self-governance) 4C
v. Transparency in communication and reporting 90–100 (self-governance) 5C
vi. Compliance performance
112 T. Vadicherla and D. Saravanan

grievances are sent to the Adidas Group for redress, which has been proven to have
a direct impact on workers’ attitude. The strategic compliance plans of the suppliers
are audited and enhanced by the Adidas Group’s SEA team to identify the gaps in
the plans and/or their implementation, which are then reported back into the stra-
tegic action plan. The report card process of Adidas is very transparent; it is
executed by the SEA team, which measures the effectiveness of the compliance
systems of the business entities in their daily operations. Fair wages at Adidas are
determined from the social dialogue, balanced pay systems, and legal compliances.
Adidas strongly believes that the success of sustainability in innovation basically
lies in a combination of the choice and manufacturing of materials and components.
Measures, such as avoiding oil-based plastics, thinners, and lighter materials, have a
huge impact on the environment. Adidas DryDye technology is a Polyester fabric
dyeing process that uses no water (dye is injected into the fabric using compressed
carbon dioxide), 50 % fewer chemicals, and 50 % less energy, but it shows greater
dye retention in the fabrics than traditionally dyed fabrics; therefore, the technology
is a truly eco-friendly process.
The London Olympics 2012 is well appreciated for its use of sustainable
materials in the uniforms, torch relay kits, village wear, and training wear. The polo
top for game-makers (100 % recycled polyester) and the Fluid Trainer shoe for
Olympic volunteers (recycled and eco-friendly materials) boast an upper pattern
efficiency of more than 70 %. Adidas achieved a 19 % reduction in the color palette
used in the previous 2 years and set an ambitious target of reducing the same by
50 % in the Adidas Sports Performance Division.
Adidas’s concept of Design for the Environment is an approach for the sys-
tematic application of environmental and human health considerations at the
product design stage, with an aim to avoid/minimize significant environmental
impacts and increase resource efficiency at all stages of a product’s life cycle.
Adidas’s Element Soul, part of the Spring/Summer 2013 collection, is made up of
sustainable fabrics and accessories manufactured using recycled polyester and
soybean-based foams, with a one-piece injection mid-sole. The shoe contains only
the essential items, resulting in a lighter shoe—two-thirds the weight of a standard
show. All fabrics and apparel contain significant amounts of sustainable content,
such as organic cotton, Better Cotton, and recycled polyester, which are manu-
factured using environmentally friendly dyeing processes (DryDye).
The Adidas Group is increasingly using virtual technology to reduce energy,
materials, and waste generated and the quantity of physical samples required to
design and sell new products. Through this paradigm shift in sampling, Adidas has
been able to produce 600,000 fewer samples in the years 2011 and 2012 compared
to 2010. The company has also introduced a three-dimensional design tool and
started virtual product sales in more than half of the markets around the world. The
company developed an innovative web-based catalogue to aid the sales of the
Rockport Spring/Summer 2012 collection and was able to reduce the physical
collections by 39 %. Standardized hand-tags across genders and business units, as
well as single-wall transportation cartons with thinner and less paper than the
Sustainable Measures Taken by Brands, Retailers, and Manufacturers 113

double-wall heavy cartons in the retailing and packing sections, are other initiatives
taken by the Adidas toward reducing the environmental impacts of its activities.
In addition, Adidas has initiated attempts to reduce color-material combinations,
trained cotton farmers through the Better Cotton Fast Track Program, encouraged
suppliers to become members of the Better Cotton Initiative, established partial to
full traceability of more sustainable materials (apparel products), reduced energy
emissions in core suppliers, and achieved a Leather Working Group (LWG) silver
or above rating for leather tanneries.
Implementation of green design requirements for new supplier buildings is
another sustainable initiative of Adidas. Its unique GreenENERGY Fund, a global
sustainability venture capital fund for energy efficiency and renewable energy
projects, is being used to retrofit Reebok and Rockport stores in the United States.
The Adidas Group is determined to reduce waste at their facilities. For example,
canteen wastes are used for the production of bio-gas and electricity, and single-use
paper cups were replaced with reusable cups made out of the materials left over
from the paper production process. The company has established a Centre of
Excellence in Retail and set up a Best Practice Library that allows sharing of current
best practices, tools, and key performance indicators related to sustainability across
the Adidas retail business. Adidas also has green teams that create awareness on
sustainability, develops green ambassadors, and assists in waste collection. Adidas
is committed to reducing not only the company’s carbon footprint but also the
information technology footprint by the use of green power management options
for desktops and laptops, virtualization of servers, and data center consolidation.

2.2 Burberry

Burberry, founded in the year 1856 by Thomas Burberry, has become a well-known
fashion label for innovative and functional (outdoor and extreme) purposes, par-
ticularly for the iconic Burberry coats and jackets in its collection (http://www.
burberryplc.com/corporate_responsibility/burberry-beyond). With a strong com-
mitment to ethical trading, sustainability, and environmental friendliness, Burberry
has become a member of the UN Global Compact and uses the compact’s ten
principles. The company is an active member of both the Ethical Trading Initiative
and Business for Social Responsibility, achiever of the Carbon Trust Standard, and
is listed on the FTSE4Good Index. Burberry is also a member of the LWG, which
supports improvements in transparency in the leather industry. Burberry does not
use sandblasting on any of its products, manufactured or outsourced.
Even though the majority of Burberry products are manufactured in the Europe
through outsourcing or near-sourcing, all of the Burberry suppliers are governed by
the group’s ethical trading policy, which also includes four policies on bribery and
corruption, foreign contract labor, unauthorized subcontracting, and animal welfare
to make the practices more ethical.
114 T. Vadicherla and D. Saravanan

Table 3 Scope and significance of Burberry’s commitment

Policy Scope Significance Focus areas
Burberry Ethical trade and Provides meaningful People, product, process,
Impact environmental sus- and lasting improve- and property
tainability aspects ments to workers’
employment and work-
place conditions;
reduces the environ-
mental impact
Burberry Encourages its asso- Volunteering programs, Inspiring young people in
Engage ciates to connect with harnessing talent to give their local communities
Burberry Beyond back to local
framework communities
Burberry Supports innovative Burberry donates 1 % of Burberry Foundation
invest organizations and group profits before tax assists young people in
holds events in com- to charitable causes arts and design, oriented
munities worldwide towards employment

Burberry Beyond, an initiative of the Burberry, encompasses all of the activities

related to Burberry’s commitment to driving positive social, cultural, and envi-
ronmental impact globally, as monitored through policies such as Burberry Impact,
Burberry Engage, and Burberry Invest (Table 3). Burberry also supports the next
generation of creative talent through scholarship funds at the Royal College of Art
(UK) and Ball State University (US).

2.3 Eileen Fisher

Eileen Fisher's Sustainable Campaign focuses on storytelling and 50% of its print
advertisements carry an ampersand symbol [3], which signifies the information
about the sustainable choices behind the clothing and the partnership with artisans
of Spain and the holistic Bluesign standard. The company highlights the brand’s
mission to empower the women and girls and support leadership in women and
girls by donating 10% of proceeds to them. Eileen Fisher's recycling initiatives have
grown large, its profits from recycled clothing continues to support programs for
women and girls.
Supplementing the print advertisements, digital campaigns feature the sustain-
able initiatives, in-store newspapers enable customers to read articles and interviews
with Fisher, and various activities are featured on social media platforms such as
Twitter and Facebook.
Eileen Fisher has become the first company to have Bluesign certified silks and
also the first American fashion company to become a member of Bluesign. In
addition, the company assesses water and energy usage to reduce the impact on
Sustainable Measures Taken by Brands, Retailers, and Manufacturers 115

manufacturing. Customers who purchase products made from recycled materials

receive rewards, which they can use in the showrooms or for online purchases.
Eileen Fisher’s slogan is “The biggest change starts with the smallest act.” The
company has many sustainable options for consumers, such as wash less, switch to
cold water, choose products from plants not petroleum, line dry, steam instead of
iron, hand wash instead of dry clean, and green dry clean. The company supports
traditional crafts and cultures throughout the world. At present, 25 % of Fisher’s
collections are made from sustainable materials, including fair-trade organic cotton
knits, Bluesign certified eco-dyed silk, organic cotton, linen and wool, and sus-
tainable and recycled fibers and coloration processes. Currently, Eileen Fisher
makes seamless sweaters (knit garments without any seams) with fewer production
stages and reduced waste.
Eileen Fisher’s Peru Project focuses upon fair-trade wages and organic cotton as
a part of a company-wide commitment to make fair-trade Peruvian knits as an
important part of the sustainable collection. Eileen Fisher’s Peruvian partners fol-
low the guidelines of the Fair Trade Federation, who are committed to provide fair
wages, support safe and healthy community workplaces, supply financial and
technical support, ensure environmental sustainability, respect cultural identity,
offer public accountability and transparency, build direct and long-term relation-
ships, and educate the consumers.

2.4 Esprit

“Social and environmental commitment is part of Esprit’s DNA”—this has been a

motto of Esprit to implement and ensure sustainability in their operations (http://
www.esprit.com/company/sustainability). To Esprit, sustainability means creating
high-quality fashion that one can enjoy for a long time, and the company strongly
believes that the people who make the company products must be treated fairly and
respectfully along with the environment. This commitment means there should be
no child labor, no forced labor, legal compensation, no involuntary overtime, no
illegal or disciplinary deductions from wages, strict adherence to local law and
regulations, no workplace discrimination, safe and healthy working conditions, no
use of restricted chemicals, and minimized damage to the environment. Esprit’s
other initiatives include support for the Business Social Compliance Initiative and
ZDHC, and the company is a founding circle member of the SAC.
The SAC was founded by a group of sustainability leaders from global apparel
and footwear industries (http://www.apparelcoalition.org/). It seeks to identify
common metrics and approaches to reduce the social and environmental impacts of
apparel and footwear products. The major focus of the SAC is on the Higg Index,
which measures the environmental impact of apparel and footwear products.
Esprit’s mission statement of the year 1990—Be informed, be involved, make a
difference—paved the way for the designers to look beyond the gamut of fashion
and pay attention to the social and environmental impacts of apparel manufacturing.
116 T. Vadicherla and D. Saravanan

As a result, the organic collection by Esprit was launched in the year 1992, pro-
jecting Esprit as a pioneer in the sustainable apparel market. Esprit uses organic
cotton certified by the Global Organic Textile Standard, with traceability
throughout the production process. In addition to organic cotton, Tencel, organic
linen, and organic wool are also are used by Espirit for the production of garments.
Recycled wool is made from wool waste, coming from pre- and post-consumer
waste that would otherwise be going to landfills.
Esprit’s Beachwear Collection 2012 was manufactured using recycled nylon
fibers with a blend proportion of 70 % recycled nylon, subsequently enhanced to
82 % recycled nylon and 18 % spandex in the Beachwear Collection 2013. Some
Esprit clothing items are manufactured using 100 % recycled polyester and cotton
fabric wastes. Recycled collections show impressive results in the lifecycle
assessment (LCA), with up to 75 % less use of water compared to the conventional
products, facilitating the Global Recycle Standard certification.
Esprit has also been a part of I:Collect (I:CO), a Swiss-based recycling startup
that resells clothing in the second-hand or vintage markets, since 2011 to encourage
the people to bring back and deposit their old clothes and shoes in exchange for
discount coupons to purchase new products. Esprit offers various sponsorships and
talent competitions and also conducts workshops, giving young professionals a
chance to present themselves to a broad audience.
Esprit supports sustainability awards as well as sustainable design competitions
for young designers. The EcoChic Design Award supported by the Esprit is a
sustainable fashion design competition organized with an aim to inspire young
fashion designers to create mass-market clothing with minimal textile wastes.

2.5 Levi’s

The Dockers Wellthread process is a classic example of how Levi Strauss is

working to make its products more socially and environmentally sustainable (http://
www.levistrauss.com/sustainability/). This groundbreaking approach combines
sustainable design and environmental practices, with an emphasis on supporting the
well-being of the employees involved in the garment manufacturing. The Dockers
design team aims for novel design concepts, as well as a reduction of water and
energy use in manufacturing processes, including garment-dyeing with cold-water
pigment dyes and salt-free reactive dyes.
The Levi’s Waste<Less collections feature aesthetic and durable denims made
from recycled wastes—specifically, an average of eight recycled plastic bottles
(12–20 oz.) per pair of jeans that are dyed using less water. In the year 2012 alone,
the Levi’s brand made 29 million Water<Less units, which translates to saving
more than 360 million liters of water.
Levi’s has developed a unique, long-staple yarn for its premium Wellthread.
These extremely long staple cotton fibers are easily recycled and every garment has
100 % traceable components.
Sustainable Measures Taken by Brands, Retailers, and Manufacturers 117

Levi’s is also one of the six apparel companies working with the National
Resources Defense Council on a pioneering initiative to reduce the environmental
impact of textile mills in China. The company’s other sustainable initiatives include
The Future of Sustainable Fashion (trends that impact the fashion industry), A Care
Tag for Our Planet (requesting that people act and drive change) and Lifecycle of a
Jean (LCA and environmental impact over the lifespan of a pair of Levi’s jeans and
Dockers pants), which give a roadmap for reducing the carbon footprint. Levi’s is
also actively engaged in supporting the International Labor Organization’s Better
Work program, as well as the BSR Apparel Mills and Sundries Working Group,
which aim at improving working conditions and the supply chain for textile mills
and sundry/component parts suppliers. Levi’s has a reputation for its social con-
cerns, including Health Enables Returns (also known as the HER project), which
coordinates general and reproductive health training for female factory workers in
Pakistan and Egypt and combats HIV/AIDS in South Africa.
The LCA for Levi’s 501 jeans and Dockers Original Khakis gives an in-depth
understanding of the climate change, water usage, and energy impacts of these
products, revealing that 58 % of the energy and 45 % of the water used during the
lifetime of Levi’s jeans occurs during the consumer use phase. Keeping this in
mind, company has initiated a global dialogue with consumers, Care for Our Planet,
to educate how caring for clothes affects the environment. Through this initiative,
Levi’s encourages the consumers to wash less, wash in cold water, line dry when
possible, and donate clothing to a charity when no longer needed. Levi’s also
launched a contest, Care to Air, to find a better way to air dry jeans, as well as every
other article of clothing that typically ends up in the dryer. Levi’s has established a
partnership with Goodwill in the United States to encourage consumers to increase
the lifecycle of a pair of jeans by donating them, as well as piloting projects in
which old jeans are reused as building insulation and other materials.
Levi Strauss launched the code of conduct—“the code that launched a thousand
codes”—a pioneering concept to developing a comprehensive responsible global
sourcing program. In 1991, Levi’s created Terms of Engagement (now popularly
known as the Sustainability Guidebook), which was a first for the apparel industry,
outlining expectations from their business partners in practices pertaining to
everything from worker rights to the environment. It is based on the United Nations
Universal Declaration of Human Rights and International Labor Organization Core
Conventions. Strict water quality standards were subsequently added, along with
strengthening of the protection of workers’ rights to form unions and conduct
collective bargaining. Levi’s is also a member of the Fair Factories Clearinghouse,
which is dedicated to improving workplace conditions.
Levi’s was one of the first apparel companies to release the names and locations
of all of their active, approved owned-and-operated, contract, and licensee factories
that manufacture and finish Levi’s, Dockers, and Signature by Levi Strauss prod-
ucts. The Levi Strauss Foundation focuses on funding programs that strengthen
worker rights and improve the working and living conditions for the people who
make their products.
118 T. Vadicherla and D. Saravanan

Levi’s has been aggressively pursuing ways to reduce their carbon footprint by
shifting from the most carbon-intensive modes of transport (air and trucking) to less
intensive modes (rail and ships). In addition, the company also focuses on reducing
energy use at their large-scale distribution centers by overhauling the lighting
(installing efficient lighting systems that yield savings from 20 to 40 %), updating
the maintenance programs to increase the efficiency of air-conditioning units,
installing Forest Stewardship Council-certified wood flooring, and adding denim
recycling stations. Levi’s is reducing the number of hangtags on each garment from
an average of three to two, and the company also began printing the size and care
information directly onto garments.

2.6 Nike

A designer’s knowledge of the Materials Sustainability Index and Higgs Index is an

added advantage for designing sustainable products. The product creation teams at
Nike use the Nike Materials Sustainability Index (Nike MSI) to select environ-
mentally friendlier materials (http://www.nikeresponsibility.com/report/content/
chapter/our-sustainability-strategy#sthash.m4MQWpf7.dpuf). Each material’s
impacts are assessed in four areas: energy, chemistry, water, and waste. The
weighting of these environmental factors gives the MSI value: the higher the value,
the better it is in terms of sustainability.
Being a company that is committed to sustainability, Nike has released an
updated version of the MAKING app, adding new features and a roster of addi-
tional materials commonly used in footwear and apparel to help designers make
sustainable design decisions from head to toe. MAKING is powered by data from
the Nike MSI, a database built on materials research and analysis. Additional
features of MAKING include the following:
(i) Inclusion of 20 materials commonly used in footwear, including rubber,
ethylene-vinyl acetate foam, and zinc
(ii) Deeper insights on the materials, including insulation, waterproof, and
absorbance
(iii) Tips for improving the environmental impact of designs
(iv) A comparison tool to measure the sustainability attributes between materials
(v) The ability to select/filter materials for apparel, footwear, and all materials
categories.
These data have been made public with the goal of helping to lead industry
sustainability efforts and provide designers and product creators with guidance in
selecting materials with lower environmental impacts.
Nike has created the awareness on sustainability across the globe in a positive
manner (http://www.nikeresponsibility.com/report/content/chapter/our-sustainability
-strategy), such as with its sports jerseys for the 2010 FIFA World Cup that were
made from recycled plastic bottles and Flyknit, an innovative manufacturing process
Sustainable Measures Taken by Brands, Retailers, and Manufacturers 119

that reduces wastes in knitted fabrics used in the upper parts (shoe uppers) of the
shoes. Other sustainable efforts from Nike include the exploration of new materials
and manufacturing processes through their Sustainable Business and Innovation Lab,
toward a leaner and greener supply chain.
Nike has been using an innovative technology, ColorDry, which replaces water
with recyclable CO2, thus reducing energy use and eliminating the need for aux-
iliaries in the process. Compared to the traditional dyeing methods, the ColorDry
process reduces dyeing time by 40 %, energy use by *60 %, and the factory’s
carbon footprint by 25 %.

2.7 Patagonia

Patagonia was one of the first apparel manufacturing companies to initiate sus-
tainable efforts, during the early 1990s. Patagonia’s mission is to “inspire and
implement solutions to the environmental crisis.” The company hopes that these
solutions will inspire others to follow their lead (http://www.patagonia.com/).
Patagonia has been a pioneer on numerous environmental and social fronts since its
inception, including the following:
• Using only organic cotton in cotton products since 1996
• Redefining corporate transparency through its Footprint Chronicles
• Launching the Common Threads Partnership to invite customers to take mutual
responsibility for the entire lifecycle of the company’s products through the 5Rs
(reduce, repair, reuse, recycle, and reimagine)
• The first brand member of the Bluesign system
• One of the first California companies to switch to wind energy and on-site solar
energy systems
• Launching $20 Million and Change, a fund to help like-minded responsible
start-up companies
• One of the first U.S. outdoor apparel companies to introduce Fair Trade Cer-
tified garments
• The first outdoor clothing manufacturer to manufacture fleece made from
postconsumer recycled plastic soda bottles
• One of the first companies to use hemp, recycled nylon, recycled polyester, and
Tencel
Patagonia’s most recent initiative is working with The Nature Conservancy and
Ovis XXI, representing fifth-generation ranchers, to regenerate overgrazed grass-
lands in Argentina, where it sources its merino wool. The company also takes
responsibility for every garment at the end of its life by taking it back for recycling
or repurposing. Patagonia co-founded 1 % for the Planet, Freedom to Roam, The
Conservation Alliance, and the SAC, the company is a founding member of the Fair
Labor Association.
120 T. Vadicherla and D. Saravanan

Fig. 1 Patagonia’s Don’t Buy

This Jacket Campaign (http://
www.treehugger.com/
corporate-responsibility/
patagonia-dont-buy-our-
jackets.html)

Patagonia’s other sustainable campaigns, such as Buy Less and Don’t Buy This
Jacket have positive impacts on customers’ awareness of sustainability. The cam-
paign was inspired by the enormous response to its provocative Don’t Buy This
Jacket (http://www.treehugger.com/corporate-responsibility/patagonia-dont-buy-our-
jackets.html) promotional advertisement, which asked customers to think twice about
whether they needed a new jacket (Fig. 1). The Better Than New advertisement
celebrated the resale of well-used, long-surviving Patagonia clothing. Patagonia’s Buy
Less campaign aimed at asking the customer whether they really need that several-
hundred-dollar new parka. Indirectly, the message suggests that a customer could
repair and keep using the $700 Patagonia parka he or she already has instead of
buying a new one. The company also has produced a series of videos to show
customers how to fix things themselves. Patagonia’s new campaign, The Responsible
Economy, asks consumers and businesses alike to rethink disposability for more
effective resource allocation.

2.8 Puma

Puma, another sportswear manufacturer, is committed to working in ways that

contribute to the world by supporting creativity, sustainability, and peace. The
company aims to stay true to the values of being fair, honest, positive, and creative
in decisions and actions taken (http://about.puma.com/sustainability/). PUMAVi-
sion lays the foundation for all the activities, a concept that guides with its three
core programs of PUMA.Creative, PUMA.Safe, and PUMA.Peace. PUMA.Safe
comprises initiatives and commitment for environmental protection and improved
working conditions, with a focus on implementing cleaner, safer, and more sus-
tainable systems and processes within the supply chain. PUMA.Peace supports the
global day of ceasefire on September 21 every year through its initiative One Day
One Goal, which aims at bringing people together to play football, with an idea that
Sustainable Measures Taken by Brands, Retailers, and Manufacturers 121

the power of sports could unite people in peace. PUMA.Creative emphasizes cre-
ativity as the core competence of the brand, aiming to bring together artists and
different organizations for mutual creative exchange and offering them an inter-
national platform.
Puma’s Bring Me Back program has played a significant role in the recycling
process. Puma’s InCycle is a sustainable collection that includes shoes, apparels,
accessories, and home insulation materials made up of either biodegradable poly-
mers or recycled polyester and organic cotton. Puma also introduced a successful
program called Cradle-to-Cradle, certified collections of lifestyle sneakers (biode-
gradable; a blend of organic cotton and linen with the biodegradable plastic AP-
INAT Bio sole), the legendary Puma Track Jacket (recyclable; made up of 98 %
recycled polyester and 2 % elastane), shirts (biodegradable), and backpacks
(recyclable; polypropylene), with facilities to collect them back from the general
public. Puma’s Re-suede uses 100 % recycled materials and an outsole of rice-husk
fillers instead of rubber components.
Many retailers take measures to follow these sustainable options by modifying
retail outlets. The Puma stores feature a range of products made from organic cotton
as well as Puma’s Wilderness Collection, which is primarily sourced and produced
in Africa using sustainable materials. The sustainability measures implemented in
the Puma’s Sustainable Store in Bangalore include constructing the building with
recycled steel from old DVD players, bicycles, and tiffin boxes; using porotherm
blocks in the shell of the building, which were made of silt; using furniture and
fixtures made of recycled wood and low-volatile organic compound paint; reducing
artificial lights by supplementing with access to natural lighting in the interior;
installing a foam roof on the building for insulation; cooling the retail showroom
without air-conditioning (natural cooling) by underfloor air distribution systems
combined with air passing through an underground tunnel; generating energy by the
pedal powers of customers entering the store; and using 100 % solar-powered
energy and occupancy sensors.

3 Sustainable Measures Taken by Retailers

3.1 C&A

Sustainability is one of the underlying principles behind the C&A business model,
which is coordinated by Sustainable Business Development (http://www.c-and-a.
com/uk/en/corporate/company/our-responsibility/). C&A is committed in their
responsibilities towards employees, customers, and the people who are involved in
the entire supply chain by dealing with important matters concerning the envi-
ronment, product safety, and employment conditions. A few of the sustainable
measures taken by C&A include the following:
122 T. Vadicherla and D. Saravanan

• Supporting the fight against Sumangali schemes (a form of bonded labor in

India)
• Not accepting cotton originating from Uzbekistan
• Ceasing the purchase of sandblasted jeans
• Using products that only contain down feathers from birds primarily raised for
meat production
• Using leather and skins from animals that are primarily raised for meat
production
• Having zero tolerance of child labor
• Assisting the investigation by EEB commissions on the fire at Tazreen Fashion
in Bangladesh
• Signing the Accord on Fire and Building Safety for implementation
• Following ILO standards on minimum wage
• Donating during natural calamities, such as earthquakes
• Operating training centers for youths on reading, writing, mathematics, and
various trades.
The C&A Code of Conduct was developed in the year 1995, specifying both
social and ecological standards in the supply chain. It also addresses issues such as
waste avoidance, recycling, and energy saving. The Code of Conduct is monitored
by the Service Organisation for Compliance Audit Management and an independent
organization. C&A’s environment protection strategy pursues two main objectives:
reduction of total energy consumption in all relevant areas and meeting remaining
energy needs from renewable resources with low CO2 emissions. The European
Crisis Management Team assists in the management of an unforeseen crisis, such as
the spread of H1N1 virus and protection of workers in production facilities per-
forming sandblasting operations.
Organic cotton plays a key role in C&A’s sustainability strategy, such as the
initiative in its new Bio Cotton range. C&A is one of the global market leaders for
organic cotton, selling 110 million garments a year—nearly 38 % of total cotton
sales in the year 2013. Farmers are trained in collaboration with organizations such
as Textile Exchange and CottonConnect to cultivate the use of natural pesticides
and fertilizers, reduce health risks, and protect the soils, fresh water, and revenue
streams. Water Footprint Network demonstrated that organic cotton creates five
times less gray water pollution from pesticide run-off than conventional cotton
farming.
C&A is known for its sustainable supply chain. The company monitors and
collaborates closely with suppliers in an effort to both validate and significantly
advance social and environmental performance throughout the supply chain. C&A
neither accepts nor sells products made of real fur, Angora rabbit fibers, or wool
fibers from sources where mulesing practices are applied. C&A requires that all of
its products and their manufacturing, use, and disposal/recycling processes are in
full compliance with all the applicable legislation, as well as the latest version of the
C&A Restricted Substance List policy.
Sustainable Measures Taken by Brands, Retailers, and Manufacturers 123

3.2 Gap

Gap Inc. has been recognized by the Ethisphere Institute, an American management
consulting firm, as one of the world’s most ethical companies for 8 years in a row,
reflecting that the company lives up to its promise “to do more than sell clothes”
(http://www.gapinc.com/content/csr/html.html). Gap’s sustainable initiatives
include the following:
• The human resources strategy is based on UN Guiding Principles on Business
and Human Rights.
• Gap is the first American retailer to set minimum and standard hourly rate
(wage) for US employees.
• Gap currently employs 70 % female workers in its retail and corporate offices.
The PACE program, which has been operational since 2007, provides female
garment workers with technical skills to move up in the workplace and better
their own lives, the lives of others, and the community in terms of communi-
cation, management of finances, problem solving, nutrition, and hygiene.
• Gap also works with local organizations and development experts to address the
root cause of child labor in a regional education initiative that helps raise
awareness on how to avoid traffickers.
• Gap was among the first US companies (along with Walmart and Children’s
Place) to contribute US$40 million to the victims of the Rana Plaza factory
collapse in Bangladesh in April 2013.
• Gap stores and distribution centers incorporate the use of renewable energy,
energy saving, and waste reduction.
• Human rights strategies focus on two key areas: vendor engagement and fire and
building safety, as per the Human Rights Policy and Code of Vendor Conduct.
• The company is one of the founding members of the ILO’s Better Work Pro-
gram and is now a member of its Advisory Council.
• Gap has been transparent in reports of social and environmental impacts since
2003.
• The company reports to the Carbon Disclosure Project, and their score has been
increasing every year.
Gap has “greened” its largest San Francisco building through a series of mea-
sures, including the way the employees sort and dispose of waste. Gap also
developed a sustainable fiber toolkit for designers and merchants across their brands
to highlight the environmental and social impacts of natural, manufactured, and
alternative fibers. Another sustainable avenue is Gap brand’s Wise Wash denim
(www.gapinc.com), which was launched in the year 2012. Wise Wash (Fig. 2) is a
manufacturing process that uses low-impact manufacturing techniques, consuming
less energy and water than conventional wet processing.
124 T. Vadicherla and D. Saravanan

Fig. 2 Wise wash of Gap

[http://www.gapinc.com/
content/csr/html/environment/
product.html]

3.3 H&M

H&M has been designing collections made out of the sustainable materials since
2007. H&M’s continuous commitment to more sustainable fashion was reinforced
by two collections, Conscious and Conscious Exclusive, launched in 2014. Using
two new sustainable materials, organic leather, from the Swedish leather supplier
Tärnsjö, and organic silk, the collections exhibit the range of possibilities of the
sustainable fashion (http://about.hm.com/en/About/sustainability.html).
H&M, the world’s second largest clothing retailer, introduced a garment col-
lecting initiative in 1,500 stores. The remaining 1,300 shops are expected to follow
the practice to change the mindset of the customers, so that they can see their old
clothes as a resource rather than throwing them into the garbage or letting them pile
up at the back of their closet. Customers can go to any participating H&M store
with their old clothes and hand them over at the cash desk, in exchange for
redemption vouchers for a new purchase. H&M sells the donated clothes to I:CO.
Clothes that are in poor condition are either converted for other uses, such as
cleaning cloths, or recycled into textile fibers. H&M is well known for its sus-
tainability, as demonstrated by the following initiatives:

3.3.1 Providing Fashion for Conscious Customers

• Using only more sustainable cotton—the largest user of recycled cotton, organic
cotton, and BCI cotton
• Supporting innovation in sustainable fibers—Tencel, recycled wool, organic
linen and hemp, recycled polyethylene terephthalate
• Promoting more sustainable leather—leather shoes are made from LWG-certi-
fied leather and water-based adhesives
• Inspiring customers to join conscious actions—HIV/AIDS awareness, H&M for
Water, supporting children’s rights with UNICEF in India and Bangladesh,
reuse and recycle initiatives, climate and water-conscious garment care
• Introducing Conscious wash and care instructions—Ginetex Clevercare label
Sustainable Measures Taken by Brands, Retailers, and Manufacturers 125

• Setting industry standards for measuring product sustainability

• Collaborating with the French government in product LCA
• Providing sustainability training for buyers and designers
• Increasing knowledge among sales advisors about the sustainability works
• Translating the new sustainability website into multiple languages.

3.3.2 Choosing and Rewarding Responsible Partners

• Implementing a supplier relationship program—survey on the relationship with
H&M
• Choosing responsible partners—order placement only occurs after an initial
audit and the order is subjected to the full audit program
• Analyzing of supplier management systems
• Measuring sustainability performance
• Rewarding good sustainability performers with better business
• Increasing workers’ awareness of their rights
• Promoting higher wages for garment workers across the country
• Teaming up with the best partners and creating model factories
• Ensuring freedom of association and promoting social dialogue
• Reducing overtime in supplier factories
• Supporting better health for factory workers in Cambodia
• Continuing to promote improved fire safety in Bangladesh
• Continuing to promote an end to the Sumangali schemes in India
• Requesting a ban on Uzbek cotton.

3.3.3 Being Ethical

• Ensuring awareness and understanding of the code of conduct
• Launching a human rights policy based on United Nations guiding principles
• Promoting diversity and ensuring equality amongst colleagues
• Ensuring good workplace relationships and dialogue with colleagues in all
markets
• Attracting and retaining talent
• Developing and implementing a new global training system
• Introducing an updated global leadership program
• Reaching over 90 % compliance with the company’s safety standards
• Communicating business ideas through responsible advertising.

3.3.4 Being Climate Smart

• Reducing the operation’s total greenhouse gas emissions
• Reducing electricity use in stores by 20 % per square meter
126 T. Vadicherla and D. Saravanan

• Sourcing 100 % electricity from renewable sources

• Choosing and promoting environmentally conscious transportation
• Promoting energy efficiency among suppliers
• Using natural resources responsibly
• Strengthening the communities.

3.4 JCPenney

JCPenney’s sustainability activities can be summarized by the following categories

(http://ir.jcpenney.com):
• Stores and operations: JCPenney is committed to increasing operational effi-
ciency, utilizing programs to manage energy consumption, reducing waste, and
encouraging recycling across all the stores and logistics facilities. JCPenney has
received ENERGY STAR certification for more than 500 locations and earned
the ENERGY STAR Sustained Excellence Award for five consecutive years as
an acknowledgement.
• Supplier social and environmental standards: JCPenney focuses on respon-
sible sourcing and improving social and environmental supply chain standards
in collaboration with Bureau Veritas (BV) in performing compliance audits.
• Product safety: The company has partnered with the BV’s Consumer Products
Services to analyze product performance and spot the potential issues and
concerns.
• Ethics: The company publishes a statement of business ethics.
• Employment: JCPenney continually celebrates and enriches its diverse and
skilled workforce through business resource teams and continuing education.
• Community: JCPenney is known for its grants and sponsorships, disaster relief,
in-kind donations, and community engagement.

3.5 Target

Target’s most important sustainable effort is the development of the Target Sus-
tainable Product Standard, which was developed in partnership with industry
experts, vendors, and nongovernmental organizations toward establishing a com-
mon language, definition, and process for qualifying products as more sustainable
(https://corporate.target.com). Target collects the information from vendors and
evaluates a product’s qualities against set criteria using GoodGuide’s UL Trans-
parency Platform. The standard was first rolled out in three categories: household
cleaners, personal care, and beauty and baby care. This tool helps to showcase the
authenticity of products while pushing for industry-wide clarity around what really
Sustainable Measures Taken by Brands, Retailers, and Manufacturers 127

Fig. 3 Target product

sustainability standard
(https://corporate.target.com)

makes a product sustainable. As the product standard rolls out and matures, it is
expected to form the basis for Target’s merchandising and product-placement
decisions. The Target Sustainable Product Standard (https://corporate.target.com/
discover/article/introducing-the-Target-Sustainable-Product-Standard) is just one
example (Fig. 3) of how Target integrates sustainability in all areas of business,
from the way stores are built to the products on their shelves. Using this standard
and process, Target tries to incentivize innovation among the vendors and promote
continuous improvement in the full assortment of their products.
Target takes its sustainability measures seriously and focuses on four commit-
ments: sustainable living, sustainable products, smart development, and efficient
operations. Target empowers both customers and employees to live more sustain-
ably. Examples include the following:
• A reusable bag discount
• Recycling kiosks placed near the entrance of all stores, where guests can recycle
bottles, cans, and small electronic devices
• Elimination of the potentially lethal sandblasting process for finishing apparel
• Assuring the ENERGY STAR label for Target stores
• LEED Gold rating for Target stores
• Use of low-wattage light fixtures and motions sensors in refrigerators
• Steps to protect and preserve water resources and the surrounding habitats
• Comprehensive storm water management to reduce and improve the quality of
storm water run-off
• Efficient operations by using resources responsibly, eliminating waste, and
minimizing carbon footprint
• New packaging designs using fewer components to minimize the volume of
trash produced
• Disclosure of the company’s carbon emissions each year through the Carbon
Disclosure Project link
• Using energy-efficient store designs, new lighting technologies, and experiments
with renewable energy
• Designing and building stores with plumbing fixtures that save up to 30 % more
water.
128 T. Vadicherla and D. Saravanan

Target’s commitment to communities goes well beyond sustainability. The

company has committed $1 billion to education by the end of 2015, in addition to
the roughly $4 million a week to the communities to make them safer, happier, and
healthier places to live.

3.6 Walmart

Walmart is reputed for its sustainable activities on the social, environmental, and
economic fronts (http://corporate.walmart.com/global-responsibility/environmental-
sustainability). Walmart has been continually focusing on supply chain capacity
building, worker safety initiatives, women’s empowerment initiatives, community
investment programs (e.g. scholarships for migrant workers), anti-human trafficking,
stakeholder engagement programs, a global social compliance program, retail market
compliance, color-coded factory rating system (95 % green/yellow factories), worker
helplines, orange school program (training to selected factories and suppliers, pro-
viding hands-on training to resolve high-risk social and environmental violations),
violation correction training (in which the factories with higher-risk observations are
requested to attend the training for a better understanding of the Walmart ethical
practices), supplier development program, supplier roundtable, the Walmart zero-
tolerance policy for unauthorized subcontracting, hunger-relief grants (at the local,
state, and national levels), disaster relief, and emergency operation centers.
Sustainability 360 is a comprehensive view of the business that integrates the
ideas, actions, and enthusiasm of all its suppliers, associates, and customers around
the world. Walmart is taking numerous steps to reduce emissions, with techno-
logical advances in energy-efficient equipment, focused reduction efforts in
refrigerant losses, reduced carbon intensity of utility power, and increased
deployment and consumption of renewable energies. Since 2009, the Walmart has
been committed to developing a Global Sustainability Index as the new retail
standard for the twenty first century. This index is integrated along with the work of
The Sustainability Consortium into the business and is tied to buyer incentives and
performance evaluations. Sustainable agriculture is a new initiative of Walmart that
supports farmers and the farming communities.

4 Sustainable Measures Taken by Manufacturers

4.1 DyStar

DyStar’s sustainability strategy is twofold: reduce the company’s own environ-

mental impact and help customers to reduce their environmental impact (http://
www.dystar.com/sustainability.cfm). The company has zeroed in energy,
Sustainable Measures Taken by Brands, Retailers, and Manufacturers 129

greenhouse gas emissions, water, and waste as the main environmental impacts to
address. DyStar has set an optimistic target of reducing environmental impacts in
these four areas by 20 % by the year 2020, with a 2 % annual reduction of the
impacts.
A compliance management system coordinates and supports employees to help
in accordance with the company’s core values and Code of Conduct and Social
Accountability. DyStar has implemented a companywide sustainability initiative,
the Caring for the Future program. Sustainability councils have been formed as part
of these initiatives to identify opportunities for reductions and to enhance sus-
tainability performance with local, regional, and international expertise. DyStar has
released an annual sustainability report since 2010 in compliance with the Global
Reporting Initiative Guidelines. DyStar also has published a carbon footprint report
annually since 2011, in accordance with the Greenhouse Gas Protocol.
DyStar manufactures dyes and chemicals that are engineered to meet legislation
such as REACH, voluntary regulations such as Oeko-Tex, or any of the Restricted
Substances List of well-known brands and retailers. DyStar is committed to man-
ufacturing products with an eco-clean profile, which shortens production time,
decreases the use of water and energy, and provides improved color consistency
with a right-the-first-time approach.
DyStar Textile Services supports the brands, retailers, and their industry partners
with fast and innovative global solutions to create sustainable fashion. Color
Solutions International (CSI) brings the most environmentally friendly and cost-
effective solutions into the market and facilitates sustainable fashion. The CSI
program includes ColorWall products, approximately 4,000 readymade colors that
are updated regularly with the inspirations to provide trend-aligned colors. They are
used from design to development and production, thus eliminating costlier and
wasteful processes of laboratory trials and color approvals.
Some of the sustainable products in the DyStar line are Levafix, a reactive dye
with high fixation levels for cotton textiles; Remazol Ultra RGB reactive dyes (low-
impact dyes) for deep shades on cotton; Dianix green range, dispersed dyed
polyester textiles that meet the stringent requirements of brands and retailers; Sera
Zyme C-PE, which substitutes the conventional scouring with a bio-scouring
process, thus providing less process time (7.3 %), less water usage (15.9 %), less
electricity consumption (11.3 %), and less steam consumption (19.6 %); Sera Gal
G-RFX and Remazol Ultra RGB, which allow the scouring and dyeing processes to
be combined, with 38 % less processing time, 24 % less water, 28 % less electricity,
and 38 % less steam.
DyStar’s Sustainable Textile Solutions (STS) is a team of experts that guides the
textile manufacturing units to optimize production, water and energy, and use of
chemicals, while reducing the cost and delivering a similar or better quality of
goods, as required through consultancy, auditing, and capacity building. The STS
team also supports the brands and retailers in their efforts to develop, implement,
and communicate Restricted Substances Lists to assure the safety of the consumer,
have a minimum impact on the environment, and popularize their efforts. STS
provides integrated advice on ZDHC compliance and third-party testing results to
130 T. Vadicherla and D. Saravanan

further improve compliance systems, assess the supplier and its full chemical
inventory, and provide advice accordingly. STS has been instrumental in the Dis-
charge Data Report, which was recently launched by C&A, H&M, and G-Star Raw.
It is a joint roadmap from a group of major apparel and footwear brands and
retailers to help the industry towards ZDHC by the year 2020 based on the 11
priority chemical groups detected in wastewater discharge from textile manufac-
turing processes.
DyStar’s Ecology Solutions Team supports textile mills, dyes houses, and
laundries with ways to meet the demand for responsible and sustainable production,
on issues relating to ecology and chemical legislation, and with recommendations
for suitable products to meet the ecological specifications of the Ecoconfidence
program.

4.2 Lenzing

The Lenzing Group has published a sustainability report entitled “Focus Sustain-
ability—Taking Responsibility for Our Business” according to the Global
Reporting Initiative (http://www.lenzing.com/en/fibers/botanic/sustainability.html).
Lenzing is committed to sustainability through manufacturing environmentally
friendly fibers, such as Tencel, Eurocel, and Modal as alternatives to viscose rayon,
whose production involves highly corrosive and toxic chemicals.
For example, the mindset of consumers is to dispose of wipes in the toilet,
regardless of whether they are “flushable” or not, which often leads to problems
with blockages in public sewage systems. By using Tencel as a short-cut type,
biodegradable, strong, and smooth surface, wipes are ideal for skin, prevent skin
irritation, and have “flushable” characteristics. Environmental certificates, such as
the EU Ecolabel, Nordic Swan, and OK biodegradable from Viocotte or Ecocert,
demonstrate the environmentally responsible production of Tencel.
Eurocel is a new cellulosic fiber combined with a European footprint, made in
Austria (Sandler AG) in an environmentally responsible process. Production in the
Europe translates into shorter delivery distances, which means reduced carbon
dioxide emissions during transportation and thus a lower carbon footprint—an
approach toward near-sourcing. Additional advantages include improved product
properties, such as improved volume, higher tear resistance, and reduced elonga-
tion. Eurocel is certified through Oeko-Tex Standard 100, European Ecolabel,
Compostable, Vinçotte OK Compost Home, Vinçotte OK Compost, Vinçotte OK
Biodegradable Soil, Medically Tested/ITV Denkendorf, US BPI compostable cer-
tificate, and Food Contact Compliance Certification to demonstrate its sustainable
nature.
Lenzing Modal is produced from indigenous beech wood (100 % natural). Both
the pulp and fiber production employ the principles of sustainability and processes
are optimized for byproduct recovery. Eucalyptus, primarily used to produce the
Tencel fiber, is an interesting raw material because it grows quickly and does not
Sustainable Measures Taken by Brands, Retailers, and Manufacturers 131

require any artificial irrigation or genetic manipulation. A comparison of Tencel

with conventional cotton revealed surprising results: The use of water and pesti-
cides plays no role in the cultivation of eucalyptus trees and eucalyptus can be
planted even in the marginal lands that are not used for the cultivation of the food
products. An important asset is that the fiber yield with Tencel is 10 times higher
than that of conventional cotton.

4.3 MAS Holdings

In 2006, MAS Holdings launched “MAS Eco Go Beyond,” a community outreach

initiative, together with the support of the Ministry of Education of Sri Lanka to
create awareness of sustainability among the future generations of the country.
MAS Holdings incorporated the concepts from the United Nations Environment
Programme Youth Exchange Programme, the Consumer Citizenship Network, and
the Looking for Likely Alternative toolkit to develop a sustainability curriculum in
Sri Lankan schools. In 2008, the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cul-
tural Organization used the outlines of the Eco Go Beyond program to develop the
Education for Sustainable Development (ESD) Toolkit for the Asia-Pacific region,
and recognized MAS Holdings as the best partnership with the private sector for
ESD in the year 2009.
MAS Holdings has been working aggressively to identify and minimize the
environmental impact of their operations and products (http://www.masholdings.
com/responsibility/environmental_sustainability.php). All MAS Holdings facilities
are retrofitted for lower carbon, energy, and water footprints. A substantial change
has been brought in their products and operations through the strong commitment to
certifying all the facilities in Sri Lanka under ISO 14001 by the end of 2012. This
led to key achievements, including a reduction of the energy intensity of production
facilities by 8 % through intense focus on energy efficiency and establishing energy
security using biomass boilers in larger steam-consuming factories. The company’s
commitment to ‘build green’ has resulted in all new buildings being designed as
green facilities—and thus, MAS Holdings being the first LEED Platinum apparel
manufacturer in the world. MAS Holdings has also focused on sustainable prod-
ucts, launching eco-elastics, and carbon-neutral products. The company works with
customers to promote organic cotton, BCI cotton, recycled nylon, and recycled
polyester to bring more environmentally sustainable products to the market.
MAS Holdings is committed to gender equality and became a signatory to the
UN Global Compact Women’s Empowerment Principles, ensuring that workplace
policies and practices are free from gender-based discrimination, as well as ensuring
the health, safety, and well-being of all female and male workers. MAS Holdings
has established a zero-tolerance policy towards all forms of violence at work,
including verbal and physical abuse, and sexual harassment. The company pro-
motes education, training, and professional development for women; conducts
training programs that include basic computer skills, English-language skills,
132 T. Vadicherla and D. Saravanan

leadership skills, team building, financial management, and sign language training;
and creates awareness among all employees on HIV/AIDS. Another important
program, Getting More Out of Life, includes a series of programs that aim to
improve workers’ knowledge of sexual and reproductive health, to achieve the
desired behavioral change with regard to reproductive and general health, and to
face life events more competently and effectively.

4.4 Novozymes

Novozymes is one of the leading manufacturers of industrial enzymes as an alter-

native to harsh and toxic chemicals (http://www.novozymes.com/en/sustainability/
Pages/default.aspx). The company’s Sustainability Board determines sustainability
targets, which are then broken down into four different levels:
(i) Across the supply chain to ensure the suppliers meet the company’s
standards
(ii) Within the company’s own operations (energy, water, etc.)
(iii) The environmental footprint of the customers through the use of eco-
friendly products
(iv) Society-level impacts.
An interesting practice of Novozymes’ sustainability targets is the linking of
annual employee bonuses to meeting the sustainability targets. If sustainability
goals are not met, employees are paid less. Novozymes has framed many concepts
to achieve sustainability, including rethink tomorrow. Driving the world towards
sustainability is the specific mission of the company, which includes the aims to
become a voice on the world stage, to drive new business from sustainability, and
to build sustainability capabilities.
Novozymes is committed to reducing CO2 emissions across the world. The
company started the production of biogas from wastewater treatment in China,
generated energy from windmills corresponding to electricity consumption in
Denmark, and implemented many water-efficient practices for the reduction of
water usage. Novozymes supports international human rights principles and labor
standards and contributes to the local communities by enhancing their competency
levels in science, environmental responsibility, and innovations.
Novozymes uses LCA to assess the environmental impact of the solutions
covering the entire lifecycle from cradle to grave. Novozymes has topped the Dow
Jones Sustainability Index in the biotechnology sector for 11 years. Novozymes
provides cost-competitive biorefining to produce biofuels and biochemicals, pro-
viding a viable, renewable feedstock alternative. The company’s bioagricultural
products improve crop yields while reducing the environmental impact. Novozymes
Taegro is a good example of a bacterial-based biofungicide/bactericide used for
suppressing selected soil-borne and foliar diseases on fruit and leafy vegetables.
Table 4 SWOT analysis of various sustainability measures practiced by brands, retailers, and manufacturers
Sustainble measure/ Strength Weakness Opportunity Threat
initiative
Supplier rating Evaluates supplier’s sustainable Frequency of surprise visits by Training and capacity- Huge competition
practices the auditing team to be further building of the suppliers with many suppliers/
Supplier’s ability to deliver fair, increased Targets can be increased brands on the market
healthy, and environmentally- every year
sound workplace conditions All units including outsourcing Incentives for performing
Transparency by the supplier and to be fully audited suppliers
the auditing agency
Sustainable Use of organic cotton, better cot- High cost of organic and better Increased customer Voluntary regulations
materials ton, recycled polyester, and recy- cotton awareness
cled nylon Incentives for the use of Growing demand for
Lifecycle-based assessment sustainable materials government rules and
regulations
Design tools List of sustainable materials and Lack of designer knowledge on Training programs for Growing understand-
processes available for the sustainability and sustainable designers on sustainability ing of sustainable
designer materials and processes practices materials
Computer-aided design tools that Virtual technology for Mass market and
include three-dimensional tools sample development, mod- production
ifications, and approvals
Sustainable Measures Taken by Brands, Retailers, and Manufacturers

Fast fashion.
Virtual technology Minimization of physical samples Customers’ mindset Surge of e-commerce Growing security con-
Reduce energy, materials, and encourages the use of vir- cerns regarding
waste generation tual technology designs/ideas
Reduction of color pallets
Web-based catalog for specific Can be used during sam-
collections pling, production, approv-
Ease of storage, retrieval, and als, and sales
133

modification
(continued)
Table 4 (continued)
134

Sustainble measure/ Strength Weakness Opportunity Threat

initiative
Code of conduct or Norms a supplier has to meet Frequency of surprise visits by Training programs on code Huge competition
ethical trading auditing team to be further of conduct with many suppliers/
policy Social compliance, such as fair increased Incentives for performing brands in the market
trade practices All units, including outsourcing, suppliers Cost-cutting measures
to be fully audited
Sustainable Highlights the sustainability Higher price tag Global Recycle Standard Demand for low-cost,
collection commitment Less customer awareness certification high-quality, and
durable clothing
Digital and print Highlights the sustainability Cost of promotion Global awareness on Campaigns must meet
campaigns focused commitment Translation of awareness to sustainability the demands of the
on sustainability Effective impact on the customers purchase depends on the price Widespread use of internet target audience
factor also Use of celebrities
Carbon footprint Transparency and commitment to Use of proper methodology/cal- Voluntary practices. Cost-cutting measures
disclosure sustainability culations is essential Trading based on carbon
Assists in baseline status and tar- credit
gets to be achieved Incentives for carbon-neu-
tral products/companies
Energy-efficient Energy efficiency across the Energy efficiency is initially Growing demand for Cost-cutting measures
practices processes expensive Energy Star certifications
Use of renewable resources
T. Vadicherla and D. Saravanan
Sustainable Measures Taken by Brands, Retailers, and Manufacturers 135

5 SWOT Analysis of Various Sustainability Measures

Practiced by Brands, Retailers, and Manufacturers

The sustainability measures practiced by brands, retailers, and manufactures can be

best understood by analyzing the strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats
(SWOT) of an organization, company, industry, technique, practice, or measure.
Table 4 shows the SWOT analysis of some sustainability measures discussed in this
chapter.
SWOT analysis indicates that the use of sustainable materials and sustainable
collections are bound to increase in the future. Digital and print campaigns focused
on sustainability inform the customer about the initiatives and lay down the
foundation for customers to make sustainable choices. A special mention has to be
given for the use of virtual technology because of the prospects and benefits it will
have on the sustainability front. Sustainable design tools can be a boon to the LCA
initiative because product-making begins at the design stage. A supplier’s rating,
along with its code of conduct or ethical trading policy, must be made more
transparent and has to be incentivized sufficiently. Energy-efficient practices assist
in lessening the carbon footprint, which can be seen from the carbon footprint
disclosure. In nutshell, all sustainability measures are going to have increased
opportunities in the future and can only become more and more transparent.

6 Summary

Sustainable measures practiced by brands, retailers and manufacturers have been on

the rise and can only improve in the future. All of these stakeholders often take
collective measures to ensure sustainability in the entire value chain, making the
system a robust one. The interesting features of such collective measures impose
more restrictions and pressure on manufacturers operating in developing countries,
which often suffer due to the problems associated with economic and political
instabilities, in turn hindering the implementation of sustainable measures with the
necessary supports.
Development of Eco-labels for Sustainable
Textiles

A.K. Roy Choudhury

Abstract The main purpose of the eco-label is to stimulate consumers to buy

environmentally-sound products and, in turn, to stimulate producers to produce in
an environmentally friendly manner. Labels allow consumers to make comparisons
among products. Consumers are also provided with the ability to reduce the
environmental impacts of their daily activities by purchasing environmentally
preferable and healthy products and by minimizing adverse consequences during
use and disposal. Eco-labeling has emerged globally as a differentiating factor in
retail markets for textile and apparel purchases. It is a primary tool for marketing to
well-informed and ‘green’ customer; thus, eco-labeling has become very important
to the development of a sustainable and credible textile industry. The Ecolabel
Index currently contains brief details about 449 eco-labels in 197 countries and 25
industry sectors.

Keywords Ecology
Eco-label
Restricted substances lists (RSLs)
Organic

cotton

1 Introduction

Ecology is the scientific study of interactions among organisms and their envi-
ronment, such as the interactions organisms have with each other and with their
abiotic (nonliving) environment. Ecosystems are composed of dynamically inter-
acting parts, including organisms, the communities they make up, and the nonliving
components of their environment. Ecosystem processes, such as primary produc-
tion, pedogenesis (soil formation), nutrient cycling (the movement and exchange of
organic and inorganic matter back into the production of living matter), and various

A.K. Roy Choudhury (&)

Government College of Engineering and Textile Technology, Hooghly, Serampore 712201,
West Bengal, India
e-mail: [email protected]

© Springer Science+Business Media Singapore 2015 137

S.S. Muthu (ed.), Roadmap to Sustainable Textiles and Clothing,
Textile Science and Clothing Technology, DOI 10.1007/978-981-287-164-0_6
138 A.K. Roy Choudhury

niche construction activities, regulate the flux of energy and matter through an
environment. These processes are sustained by organisms with specific life history
traits, and the variety of organisms is called biodiversity. Biodiversity—which
refers to the varieties of species, genes, and ecosystems—enhances certain eco-
system services.
Ecology is an interdisciplinary field that includes biology and earth science. The
word ecology (“Ökologie”) was coined in 1866 by the German scientist Ernst
Haeckel (1834–1919). Ancient Greek philosophers, such as Hippocrates and
Aristotle, laid the foundations of ecology in their studies on natural history. Modern
ecology transformed into a more rigorous science in the late 19th century. Evolu-
tionary concepts on adaptation and natural selection became cornerstones of
modern ecological theory. Ecology is not synonymous with the environment,
environmentalism, natural history, or environmental science. An understanding of
how biodiversity affects ecological function is an important focus area in ecological
studies. Ecologists seek to explain:
• Life processes, interactions, and adaptations
• The movement of materials and energy through living communities
• The successional development of ecosystems
• The abundance and distribution of organisms and biodiversity in the context of
the environment.
Ecology is a human science as well. There are many practical applications of
ecology in conservation biology, wetland management, natural resource manage-
ment, city planning (urban ecology), community health, economics, basic and
applied science, and human social interaction (human ecology). Organisms and
resources compose ecosystems, which, in turn, maintain biophysical feedback
mechanisms that moderate processes acting on living (biotic) and nonliving (abi-
otic) components of the planet. Ecosystems sustain life-supporting functions and
produce natural capital, such as biomass production (food, fuel, fiber, and medi-
cine), the regulation of climate, global biogeochemical cycles, water filtration, soil
formation, erosion control, flood protection, and many other natural features of
scientific, historical, economic, or intrinsic value (Odum and Barrett 2005).
This chapter discusses the use of various nonsustainable materials in the textile
industry, the development of a large number of eco-labels to assure the nonuse of
such substances, and confirmation of the sustainability of textile processes and
products.

2 Textile and Ecology

Since prehistoric times, textiles have been produced by human beings. Textile
manufacturing developed empirically based on previous experiences and randomly
acquired knowledge; many professionals kept their manufacturing experiences
secret. Technology stagnated, while the rate of developments and improvements in
Development of Eco-labels for Sustainable Textiles 139

manufacture was extremely slow. For a long time, there was no scientific approach
to textile manufacture. Significant developments in the textile industry started by
the end of the 18th century. Increased demand for textiles initiated investigations
into ways to improve production. A series of inventions followed in the field of
textile machinery and textile chemistry, as well as the introduction of new machines
for manufacturing. These machines marked the beginnings of the Industrial Rev-
olution. By the middle of the 19th century, artificial dyestuffs and the mercerization
process were invented, which paved the way for a more scientific approach to
textile finishing and dyeing. At the end of the 19th and beginning of the
20th centuries, these fields were marked by full industrial development. Environ-
ment pollution by this type of manufacturing presented no serious threat because
textile manufacture at the time was much smaller, as was the population that used
its products. Additionally, the chemicals used were mostly of natural origin (e.g.
soaps, starches, vegetable oils), which were all easily biodegradable. Chemicals in
wastewater and the air were mostly degraded and neutralized by natural processes.
However, increased population and higher consumption of textiles per capita led to
increased production and care, which resulted in a serious hazard to the
environment.
During the last century, numerous new dyestuffs and auxiliaries were synthe-
sized and gradually accumulated in the environment. Because of increased envi-
ronment consciousness and enhanced knowledge, people began to realize that
numerous chemicals previously considered to be safe and harmless were in fact
carcinogenic, potentially carcinogenic, or toxic; consequently, legal regulation to
ban these products or to limit their use resulted (Sivaramakrishnan 2009a, b).
According to these regulations, designers and manufacturers of textile products
are supposed to pay special attention to meeting contemporary ecological
requirements. For a product to be “green”, it should be environmentally friendly
throughout its production cycle, during use and care, as well as after its useful life
has been terminated. Product design must not consider only the requirements of the
economy but also those of ecology (Thiry 2009). In constructing a product, the
designer should analyze the production process, together with the product’s end
use, everyday use, and care for the product designed.
Special certificates are awarded by independent institutions to the products that
are environmentally friendly and do not represent health hazards. Ecological
acceptability can be influenced by the raw material selection. Textiles that can be
recycled should not be mixed with those that are not acceptable for recycling.
Individual garment parts, such as some coatings, fibers, and zippers, may not be
ecologically friendly. Although their substitution may be quite expensive, a pro-
ducer aiming for ecological production will consider substituting such parts with
ecologically acceptable and environmentally friendly products.
Designers should keep in mind that the responsibility for the product does not
end with its manufacture; it lasts at least as long as the lifecycle of the product in
question. It is extremely important for textile products not to emit volatile organic
compounds or some other harmful substances (e.g., heavy metals) during their use
and care. Textile care exhibits more profound and more serious impacts on the
140 A.K. Roy Choudhury

environment than the manufacture itself. Excessive quantities of water are generally
used for the repeated washing of used textile materials. This is the reason why
textile products should be designed to have as little need as possible for washing
and dry cleaning. For example, a proper and environmentally friendly oil-proof
finish, if also soil-resistant, can considerably reduce the number of necessary
washing and dry cleaning cycles, which obviously saves water and energy in the
lifecycle of the product being treated. Washing at lower temperatures offers a
method of savings as well.
Another approach to the problem is to extend the lifecycle of the product as
much as possible because costs will be reduced in this manner for raw materials,
manufacture, and finishing. The product should be manufactured to soil as little as
possible, while the colors should not fade until the end of the product’s useful life.
Another important factor is the elimination of unpleasant odors that could develop
in wear and general use. The useful life of the product can be additionally extended
in this way.
The last factor is of special importance for sports articles. Antimicrobial treatment
is necessary for these products because microorganisms degrade human sweat, and
the products of this degradation often develop unpleasant odors. Antimicrobial
treatment is even more important in finishing rugs, carpets, and other decorative
textiles. Various bacteria and molds often develop on such products, especially
under wet conditions, and they can easily damage the texture, cause color changes,
or create stains that are extremely hard to remove (Bešensky and Soljacic 1983).
Some experts think that textile designers and manufacturers should be obligated
to care for the final disposal of textiles, after their lifecycle is complete. The worst
solution is to consider putting such products in landfills. At minimum, a product
could be burned, producing some energy in the process. The best solution is to
recycle textiles and reuse them as fillers for other textile articles or remanufacture
them into new products. Obviously, the advantage is to have textiles designed from
a single type of fiber, or fibers of similar properties, so as to make recycling easier
(Thiry 2009).
The growing population and increased per capita consumption of textiles result
in higher loads on the environment, both by effluent water and exhaust air. The
literature confirms that water consumption has double the growth rate of population.
Population has tripled in the past 100 years, whereas water consumption increased
sevenfold. A serious shortage of potable water is expected in the near future
(Strohle and Böttger 2008). There is also a real danger of permanently damaging
and polluting the environment. Considerable and harmful consequences could be
expected, which will be detrimental to human health and nature, particularly aquatic
animal life.
Textile industry is considered to be the most hazardous environmental issue
globally (Oecotextiles 2012). Primary sources of ecological problems in the textile
industry are the finishing processes, from initial scouring and bleaching, through
mercerization and dyeing, to final finishing processes and coatings applied to
textiles. Therefore, it is of crucial importance to monitor and control wastewater
pollution and exhaust air pollution in order to reduce the harmful effects of the
Development of Eco-labels for Sustainable Textiles 141

above-mentioned processes. Additionally, textiles produced in conventional pro-

cesses sometimes contain dyestuffs and residual chemicals, which can evaporate or
penetrate through the skin. Some of them are carcinogenic or can cause allergic
reactions (Sivaramakrishnan 2009a, b).
To prevent these harmful effects, but also thanks to new knowledge and higher
levels of ecological awareness, more and more restrictions and bans have been
imposed or proposed, concerning on the use of particular chemicals and dyestuffs.
In some instances, their use is limited by the regulations dealing with maximum
allowed concentration for a particular chemical compound that can be used in
treating a textile or that is allowed to remain on a particular textile substrate
(Soljacic and Pušic 2005). This problem has been recognized since the 1960s,
although some protective measures were taken even earlier. The measures aimed at
protecting the environment and workers’ health are becoming stricter. Currently,
the following measures and procedures are most often implemented:
• Complete elimination of all the carcinogenic or potentially carcinogenic
chemicals and dyes
• Substitution of aggressive chemicals with biodegradable materials
• Elimination of active chlorine and other active halogen compounds or, at
minimum, a reduction in their use
• Recycling, purifying, and reusing chemicals (e.g., caustic soda from
mercerization)
• Substitution of formaldehyde compounds with those that contain no formalde-
hyde or, when necessary, with compounds that contain reduced amounts of
formaldehyde
• Elimination of dyestuffs containing heavy metal ions
• Use of dyestuffs with maximum exhaustion (if possible, above 90 %) so that
wastewater pollution is reduced
• Reduction of the dye-to-liquor ratio, as well as the reduction of water, energy,
chemical, and dyestuff consumption
• Reuse of heat and water (using them repeatedly in treatment processes) by
which considerable savings in energy and water can be realized while reducing
the level of environment pollution
Textile care consumes more water, chemicals, and energy than textile production
(dyeing, finishing). Additionally, textiles are not washed only in large laundries, but
primarily in numerous households, which multiplies the effect. Generally, the same
principles of environment protection are implemented in textile care and production
as well. Maximum energy, water, and chemical savings are the aim, while toxic and
hazardous chemicals are supplemented by ecologically more favorable products
that have less harmful impacts on both the environment and human health.
Special attention in laundering is given to compounds that are not fully biode-
gradable, primarily surfactants, which should be eliminated; biodegradable com-
pounds should be used instead. Textile products that come to a shop should be
marked with hanging tags or in-sewn labels—or often, both. Care instructions
should contain the information on how and under which conditions a particular
142 A.K. Roy Choudhury

textile product should be washed or dry cleaned to remain functional and keep its
appearance for as long as possible.
Ecology has been, for some time, one of the key factors in selecting and man-
aging textile finishing and care processes. Proper selection of dyestuffs, detergents,
and chemicals, together with optimal process control, can result in serious savings
of natural resources, water, and especially energy, as well as in considerable
reduction of environment pollution.

2.1 Textile Ecology

The term textile ecology is easier to comprehend if it is explained in three parts:

production ecology, human ecology, and disposal ecology (Moore and Wentz
2009).
Production ecology refers to the process of production and manufacture of fibers,
textiles, and garments. Sustainable textiles should be environmentally friendly and
should satisfy the rational conditions to respect social and environmental quality by
pollution prevention or by installing pollution control technologies. Third-party
certification bodies and governments have issued Restricted Substances Lists
(RSLs) that link production ecology to human ecology. Such lists provide stimuli to
promote the use of safer chemical inputs and provide targets for the verification of
cleaner production of textile products.
Human ecology focuses on the effects of textiles on the users and their near
environment or surroundings. According to the present methodology, concentra-
tions of substances that could induce dangerous effects on humans during normal
use must be understood, modeled, and managed. Consumers are concerned with
this aspect of textile human ecology. Risks have been addressed through the
development of RSLs by governments, retail organizations, producers, and non-
governmental organizations. RSLs must be analyzable for the final textile products
used by people, and they must be reviewed regularly as living documents.
Product analyses to detect and quantify RSL substances should be performed by
accredited independent laboratories. Consensus-based test methods must be used to
verify the absence or concentrations of harmful chemicals. The diverse and com-
plex nature of global textile production requires analytical verification of the
absence or concentration of restricted substances by accredited international labo-
ratories. The modular concept of the Oeko-Tex Standard 100 certification at every
stage of production has the advantage that intermediate textile components can be
certified for eco-labeling. It prevents costly supply rejections at every step of the
textile chain and supplements conventional quality assurance testing. The devel-
opment of updated RSLs and the corresponding development of international third-
party laboratory networks to verify RSL compliance is becoming an important tool
for human ecology product assurance. This concept of disposal ecology is based on
what happens at the end of the ‘first use’ of textile products. Disposal ecology
addresses the recycling, reuse, energy, disposal, and/or decomposition of textile
Development of Eco-labels for Sustainable Textiles 143

products without release of harmful substances or thermal elimination without

endangering air purity.
Ecology for textiles, and by inference eco-labels for textiles, may address pro-
duction, human, and disposal ecologies. Because the textile industry is truly global
in scope, products are made and sold throughout the world. Therefore, compliance
with various companies’ individual requirements can be a challenge. Some trade
regulations have produced unified information label requirements that describe the
country of origin and fiber content. Eco-labels are now attempting to inform con-
sumers additionally of the ‘textile ecology’ of the products they are buying.
For modern production technologies, analytical laboratories (after rapid infor-
mation dissemination) can produce eco-certifications and labeling schemes that are
transparent, accurate, and cost-effective. Until recently, textile labels that addressed
composition, care, and origin were considered adequate. Human ecology, produc-
tion ecology, and lifecycle information are now demanded by major international
retailers. The eco-labels of the future will provide a myriad of information that
encompasses the social and environmental aspects of a product.

3 Sustainability

Sustain means “to maintain” or “to uphold.” With regards to industrial processes,
sustainability means establishing principles and practices that help to maintain the
equilibrium of nature—or, in other words, to avoid damage to the earth’s natural
sources. A greater degree of sustainability in industrial processes and systems
requires a better balance between the social, economic, and environmental aspects
of textile production. A sustainable product is one that is manufactured in the
following ways:
(1) It respects the social elements of fair trade and the human rights of the people
involved in the whole of the manufacturing chain.
(2) It has the lowest possible adverse effect on the environment with the most
efficient use of water and energy, recycling of raw materials and water, and
recovery of heat from wastewater.
(3) It should not be an uneconomic choice versus less sustainable products and the
economic returns should be fairly distributed along the supply chain.
Various fashion brands and retailers are considering the options available to
make their products “green.” To achieving more ethical or sustainable clothing, one
should start at the design stage, such as the use of more sustainable textile fibers and
low-impact dyes and chemicals. Eco-friendly fibers may be natural or synthetic, but
they must have reduced environmental impact in their production and processing
compared to conventional fibers. Exclusion or reduction in the use of pesticides and
synthetic fertilizers during their production results in less hazards for human beings,
especially for farmers. Some of these fibers have been used in the textile and
apparel industries for a long time but became more important in recent years due to
144 A.K. Roy Choudhury

Table 1 Classification of eco-friendly textile fibers

Class Eco-friendly fibers
Organic Organic cotton, organic wool, organic silk
Man-made Corn/soya bean, lyocell, pineapple, milk weed
Recycled Recycled cotton, recycled polyester
Natural Naturally colored cotton

their environmental benefits, such as organic fibers (cotton, wool, silk), recycled
cotton, naturally colored cotton, lyocell, corn, soya bean, recycled polyester, and
some others, as listed in Table 1 (Jain and Easter 2010).
With the increase in consumer interest and the establishment of third-party
certification systems, the textile industry has emphasized the production of sus-
tainable fibers and the search for newer alternatives. Some successful examples are
Tencel, recycled polyester, recycled and organic cotton, and bamboo. However, the
sustainability and eco-friendliness depend critically on how the fiber is subse-
quently processed.
The careful selection of dyes and chemicals through accurate and reliable
information provided by reputed suppliers enables processors to match a customer’s
RSL criteria. Because of a lack of clear information and the absence of an inter-
nationally agreed-upon standard for a definition of eco-friendly dyes, various myths
and misinformation have emerged around dyestuffs.
In summary, a sustainable approach covers the following points:
• Minimum use of resources (water and energy)
• Minimum chemical consumption
• Minimum pollution load
• Elimination of toxic chemicals from the supply chain.
Therefore, sustainable textiles or apparels are,
• Safe for humans and the physical environment
• Made from renewable materials
• Produced while making the most efficient use of resources, such as water and
energy
• Manufactured by people employed in decent working environments
• Capable of being washed at low temperatures using environmentally friendly
laundering agents
• Capable of being returned safely to the environment at the end of their useful
life (Performance Apparel Markets 2009).
In terms of life cycle assessment, sustainable textiles are manufactured and used
in sustainable ways without using restricted substances and can be disposed of
sustainably after use.
To minimize the usage, it is important to measure the inputs. To eliminate the
most harmful chemicals, it is important to know and understand what is being used.
Development of Eco-labels for Sustainable Textiles 145

Uncontrolled or unknown inputs lead to the unmanaged use of resources and

uncontrolled outputs. The measurement and control of these inputs and outputs can
lead to the following:
• Improved resource productivity
• Improved eco-efficiency
• Improved cost efficiency
• Improved customer satisfaction
• Improved brand reputation

4 Restricted Substances

The relocation of production due to globalization has created additional levels of

complexity for sustainable textile production because different nations have dif-
ferent environmental laws—or even none at all. To secure a clean production by
manufacturers, trade and brands around the world refer to the RSL. The number of
demanding and critical consumers requesting transparent value chains and high-
quality, harmless, and environmentally safe products is constantly growing. This is
a challenge that future-driven businesses have to accept. The textile industry is a
major manufacturing industry and will continue to be so in the foreseeable future. It
is no longer adequate to have a finished product be safe only to human beings—the
product has to be environmentally safe during its entire lifecycle, and even beyond.
Environmental technology (or green technology, clean technology) is the applica-
tion of the environmental science and green chemistry to conserve the natural
environment and resources and to curb the negative impacts of human involvement.
RSLs can be very extensive. These lists differ from country to country and from
industry to industry. Not surprisingly, governments and industries focus on the
dangerous substances that are important to them, in the sense that they cause severe
health or environmental problems. Nevertheless, some substances are commonly
found in RSLs.
Textile industries are using a large number of chemicals, which include toxic and
harmful substances used during various processes; a few are listed here (Roy
Choudhury 2011):
(a) Cotton growing—banned pesticides such as DDT, Dieldrin, Aldrin, etc.
(b) Sizing—pentachlorophenol as a preservative
(c) Scouring—chlorinated products
(d) Bleaching—sodium and calcium hypochlorite
(e) Dyeing and printing—azo dyes containing/releasing banned amines, dyes
containing traces of heavy metals (e.g. arsenic, lead, cadmium, mercury,
nickel, copper, chromium, cobalt and zinc), formaldehyde-based auxiliaries
(f) Finishing—formaldehyde-based finishes, stain removers containing chlori-
nated products
(g) Packing—wooden boxes treated with insecticides
146 A.K. Roy Choudhury

4.1 Azo Dyes

The use of azo dyes is one of the hottest issues that the textile/garment and apparel
industries have had to face. These dyes have outstanding fastness properties and
have been widely used in the industry, accounting for about 60–70 % of the dyes
used. However, certain azo dyes may, under suitable conditions, undergo in vivo
reductive cleavage of the azo bond to form harmful aromatic amines. Some of these
aromatic amines are either proven or suspected carcinogens. At present, 22 amines
are classified by the European Union or the MAK Commission as human carcin-
ogens. The use of dyes that may cleave to any of those 22 amines has been
restricted.
Before 1970, bladder cancer was common among workers engaged in handling
benzidine in the production of benzidine dyes. In 1971, the major German colorant
manufacturers voluntarily agreed to cease production and marketing of such azo
dyes.
At the beginning of the 1990s, the German Senate Commission for testing for
harmful substances recommended that azo dyes should be treated in the same way
as the amines on which they are based, because the azo dyes can be split under
certain physiological conditions to form carcinogenic amines. In a second
amendment in 1994 to the Ordinance on Materials and Articles, the use of certain
azo dyes is prohibited in the manufacture of materials and articles that are designed
for more than temporary contact with the human body. The specific azo dyestuffs
include those that are known to be toxic or are suspected to release harmful aro-
matic amines.
Two German laws have been amended that apply specifically to textile pro-
cessing activities: the Fourth Federal Emission Protection Ordinance and the
ordinance on materials and articles. The German Legislation came in force from
30th June 1996. The German ordinance on materials and articles has received
worldwide attention because of its fundamental importance for the textile supply
chain. It is probably the most widely discussed law in the textile sectors in the last
few years. Twenty aromatic amines are banned, which are listed below (source:
Eco-Tex Consortium, Germany).
Amines definitely carcinogenic in nature:
(1) Benzidine
(2) 4-chloro-o-toluidine
(3) 2-naphthylamine
(4) 4-aminodiphenyl
Amines reasonably suspected to be carcinogenic:
(5) o-toluidine (3,3/ dimethyl benzidine)
(6) o-dianisidine (3,3/ dimethoxy benzidine)
(7) p-chloro-aniline
(8) 4-chloro-o-toluidine
(9) 3,3/-dichloro-benzidine
(10) o-amino-azotoluene
Development of Eco-labels for Sustainable Textiles 147

(11) 2-amino-4-nitrotoluene
(12) 2,4-toluylendiamine(4-methyl 1-1,3 phenylenediamine)
Other prohibited amines:
(13) 2,4-diaminoanisole (4-methoxy-m-phenylenediamine)
(14) 4,4/-diaminodiphenylmethane
(15) 3,3/-dimethyl-4-4/-diaminodiphenylmethane
(16) p-kresidine (2-methoxy 5-methylaniline)
(17) 4,4/-methylene–bis-(2-chloroaniline)
(18) 4,4/-oxydianiline
(19) 2,4,5-trimethylaniline
(20) 4,4/-thiodianiline
Dyes releasing following amines on decomposition that are to be phased out:
(21) p-amino-azobenzene
(22) 2-methoxyaniline
Approximately 70 % of all dyes (belonging to various dye classes) used in the
textile industries are azo dyes. Due to their toxic nature or amine-releasing prop-
erties, approximately 25 % of the azo dyes are already prohibited in manufacture
and use.
According to DIN 55493, pigments are colorants that are not bioavailable
because they are not soluble in the application medium. The Fifth Amendment
(November 1996) excludes poorly soluble pigments with a molecular weight of
more than 700. The decision on whether a pigment is prohibited is based on the
official test method.
The forbidden dyes belonging to various dye classes are listed below (without
any guarantee of completeness).
Direct dyes (amine releasing, 82 dyes):
C.I. Direct Yellows 1 (22250), 24 (22010), 48 (23660).
C.I. Direct Oranges 1 (22370), 6 (23375), 7 (23380), 8 (22130), 10 (23370), 108
(29173).
C.I. Direct Reds 1 (22310), 2 (23500), 7 (24100), 10 (22145), 13 (22155), 17
(22150), 21 (23560), 22 (23565), 24 (29185), 26 (29190), 28 (22120), 37 (22240),
39 (23630), 44 (22500), 46 (23050), 62 (29175), 67 (23505), 72 (29200).
C.I. Direct Violets 1 (22570), 12 (22550), 21 (23520), 22 (22480).
C.I. Direct Blues 1 (24410), 2 (22590), 3 (23705), 6 (22610), 8 (24140), 9 (24155),
10 (24340), 14 (23850), 15 (24400), 22 (24280), 25 (23790), 35 (24145), 53
(23860), 64 (22595), 75 (24411), 76 (24411), 151 (24175), 160 (-), 173 (-), 192 (-).
201 (-), 215 (24115), 295 (23820).
C.I. Direct Greens 1 (30280), 6 (30295), 8 (30315), 8:1 (-), 85 (30387).
C.I. Direct Browns 1 (30045), 1:2 (30110), 2 (22311), 6 (30140), 25 (36030), 27
(31725), 31 (35660), 33 (35520), 51 (31710), 59 (22345), 79 (30056), 95 (30145),
101 (31740), 154 (30120), 222 (30368).
C.I. Direct Blacks 4 (30245), 29 (22580), 38 (30235), 86 (24115), 91 (30400), 154 (-).
148 A.K. Roy Choudhury

Direct dyes (without C.I. No.) - (23820), - (30230).

Acid dyes (amine releasing, 24 dyes):
C.I. Acid Orange 45 (22195).
C.I. Acid Reds 4 (14710), 5 (14905), 24 (16140), 73 (27290), 85 (22245), 114
(23635), 115 (27200), 116 (26660), 128 (24125), 148 (26665), 150 (27190), 158
(20530), 167 (-), 264 (18133), 265 (18129), 420 (-).
C.I. Acid Violet 12 (18075), Brown 415 (-).
C.I. Acid Blacks 29 (-), 94 (30336), 131 (-), 132 (-), 209 (-).
Acid dyes (poisonous, 2 dyes):
C.I. Acid Oranges 156 (26501), 165 (28682)
Acid dyes (carcinogenic, 4 dyes):
C.I. Acid Red 26 (16150), Violets 17 (42650), 49 (42640), (without C.I. No.) -
(16155).
Basic dyes (carcinogenic, 8 dyes):
C.I. Basic Yellows 2 (41000), 21 (48060).
C.I. Basic Reds 9 (-), 12 (48070).
C.I. Basic Violet 16 (48013).
C.I. Basic Blues 3 (51004), 7 (42595), 81 (-).
Basic dyes (amine releasing, 3 dyes):
C.I. Basic Reds 42 (-), 111 (-).
C.I. Basic Brown 4 (21010).
Azoic colors (poisonous, 3 components):
C.I. Azoic Diazo Components 20 (37175, Blue BB), 24 (37155, Blue RR), 41
(37165, Violet B).
Azoic colors (amine releasing Components, 8 Nos.):
C.I. Azoic Blue 37.
C.I. Azoic Diazo Components 11 (37085, Red TR), 12 (37105, Scarlet G), 17
(37270, Orange R), 29 (37255, Red GTR), 48 (37235, Blue B), 112 (37225,
Corinth B), 113 (37230, Dark Blue R).
Disperse dyes (carcinogenic, 1 dye):
C.I. Disperse Blue 1 (64500).
Disperse dyes (allergenic, 26 dyes):
C.I. Disperse Yellows 1 (10345), 3 (11855), 7 (26090), 9 (10375), 23 (26070), 39 (-),
49 (-), 54 (47020), 56 (-), 64 (47023).
C.I. Disperse Oranges 1 (11080), 3 (11005), 76 (-), 149 (-).
C.I. Disperse Reds 1 (11110), 11 (62015), 15 (60710), 17 (11210), 151 (-).
C.I. Disperse Blues 3 (61505), 7 (62500), 26 (63305), 35 (-), 102 (-), 106 (-), 124 (-).
Development of Eco-labels for Sustainable Textiles 149

Others:
C.I. Developer 14 (76035, Developer B)
C.I. Ingrain Blue 2/2(74160, Phthalogen Brill. Blue IF3G, Brill. Blue 3G)

4.2 Chlorinated Phenols

Chlorinated phenols (e.g., pentachlorophenol [PCP] and tetrachlorophenol [TeCP])

have been used as wood preservatives, as an impregnation agent for textiles, as a
bactericide in tanning, and in the paper and pulp industries. They are very haz-
ardous to both humans and the environment.

4.3 Formaldehyde

Formaldehyde, with its pungent smell, can be used as a cross-linking. anti-greasing,

and anti-shrinking agents; it is also used as a preservative. Formaldehyde is a
suspected carcinogen and is irritating to the eyes, nose, and other tissues.

4.4 Brominated Flame Retardants

Brominated flame retardants are also on RSLs. These substances persist once they
enter the environment and the food chain and are likely to accumulate in biological
tissues, implicating them as being dangerous to wildlife. The European Parliament
has banned the application of pentabromodiphenyl ether (pentaPBDE) and octab-
romodiphenyi ether (octaPBDE), while risk assessments of decabromodiphenyl
ether (decaPBDB) are in progress.

4.5 Organotin Compounds

Organotin compounds are commonly used as plastic stabilizers, catalytic agents,

industrial biocides, and antifouling paints. They are environmental pollutants and
are particularly harmful to the aquatic environment. Organotins are very toxic to
marine and freshwater organisms, even at very low levels.

4.6 Other Substances

Some RSLs have been extended to include other substances causing health concerns.
Chemicals such as disperse dyes for polyesters and nickel released from metal parts
150 A.K. Roy Choudhury

may cause skin sensitization when the articles are in direct contact with skin. Heavy
metals with different health hazards may be present as impurities in dyes or catalytic
agents. Pesticides and biocides raise serious health concerns because of their par-
ticularly toxic nature. Other substances such as some organic solvents, chlorinated
organic carriers, nitrosamines, and nonylphenol may also be listed.

5 Organic Fiber Production

Organic vegetable fiber is produced from plants that are not genetically modified
and are certified to be grown without the use of any synthetic agricultural chemi-
cals, such as fertilizers, pesticides, or defoliants. They are produced according to the
internationally recognized organic farming standards of EU regulation 834/2007,
the US National Organic Program, the Indian National Programme for Organic
Production, or the Japanese Agricultural Standard. Organic fiber production is more
environmentally friendly and better for the health of the community (Global
Organic Cotton Community Platform 2012).
Organic cotton production does not simply mean replacing synthetic fertilizers
and pesticides with organic types. Rather, it is a systemic approach that aims to
establish a diverse and balanced farming ecosystem, ideally including all types of
crops and farm activities. Farms typically need to complete a two-year conversion
period to change their production system from conventional to organic. An essential
element of organic cotton production is the careful selection of varieties adapted to
local conditions in terms of climate, soil, and resistance to pests and diseases. Soil
fertility management and crop nutrition are based on crop diversification and
organic inputs, such as compost, mulch, and manures. Pest management focuses on
pest prevention and the stimulation of a balanced agro-ecosystem through crop
rotation, mixed cultivation, trap crops, and the use of natural pesticides when pest
infestation rises above the economic threshold. The beneficiaries of organic cotton
are farmers, traders/retailers, and consumers. The benefits gained include the fol-
lowing (OTA 2013):
(1) A balanced ecosystem and enhanced health
(2) Improved economic situation and food security
(3) Improved access to markets
(4) Training and education
The benefit for the traders and retailers include the following:
(1) Participation in a dynamic market
(2) Traceability, risk management, and quality management
(3) Contribution to ecological and social sustainability
(4) Credibility and a good image
Development of Eco-labels for Sustainable Textiles 151

Benefits for consumers include the following:

(1) Buying a healthy product
(2) Traceability, clear standards, and labels
(3) Environmental friendliness
(4) A positive impact on producers’ livelihoods

5.1 Organic Cotton

For a given weight of cotton harvested, a farmer uses one-third of that weight in
chemical fertilizers. Cotton plants are highly susceptible to pests, especially in
humid areas (Grose 2009). Clay (2004) reported that whilst cotton production is
restricted to 2.4 % of the cultivatable land globally, an estimated 25 % of insecticide
and 11 % of global pesticide production is consumed in cotton cultivation. A report
(Bĺecourt 2010) claimed that the global insecticide share used on cotton had
declined from 19 % in 2000 to 15.7 % in 2008. Also in 2008, cotton’s pesticide
consumption was claimed to be 6.8 % of global use. This thirsty crop also requires
7,000–29,000 L of water to produce 1 kg of cotton fiber (ISIS 2007).
Historically, cotton was planted at low densities and rotated with other crops to
ensure the optimum health of the soil. Pest cycles were taken into consideration
before planting and harvesting. Significant amounts of pesticides began to be
applied from the mid-twentieth century. The advent of dichlorodiphenyltrichloro-
ethane and other neurotoxins were considered to be cheaper ways of controlling
pests compared with strategic crop management and the efforts of agricultural
laborers (Haenow.com 2012). Today, however, there are increasing concerns that
the pesticides used in ‘conventional’ (versus ‘organic’) cotton farming increasingly
threaten people, wildlife, and the environment; as insects gradually become resis-
tant to pesticides, ever-increasing amounts of pesticides need to be applied to be
effective, resulting in ecological damage and crop failures (ISAAA 2011).
In 2010, organic cotton represented 0.76 % of global cotton production. Organic
cotton was grown in 22 countries worldwide, with the top ten producer countries
led by India, followed by (in order of rank) Turkey, Syria, Tanzania, China, the
United States, Uganda, Peru, Egypt and Burkina Faso. Approximately 220,000
farmers grew the organic fiber (Ferrigno 2012).
In the United States, it is required by law that any producer wanting to label and
sell a product as “organic” must meet the standards established by the Organic Food
Production Act of 1990, enforced by the state organic program. This act specifies
the procedures and regulations for the production and handling of organic crops
(US Department of Agriculture 2013). The Global Organic Textile Standard
(GOTS) was developed in 2006 through a collaboration by leading standard setters.
The aim of GOTS is to define requirements that are recognized worldwide and that
ensure the organic status of textiles, from the harvesting of raw materials through
environmentally and socially responsible manufacturing all the way to labeling, in
152 A.K. Roy Choudhury

order to provide credible assurance to the consumer (Global Standard 2013). The
preparatory processes required before dyeing and printing are similar for organic
cotton and conventional cotton processing. However, some chemicals, such as
substances with high adsorbable organic halogens (AOX) values, bluing agents,
chelating agents, chlorine compounds, and formaldehyde, are prohibited for use on
organic textiles. All dyestuffs should conform to ETAD (1997) restrictions
regarding residual heavy metals and banned aromatic amines. The first choice for
dyeing organic fabrics, where applicable, could be plant-based natural vegetable
dyes; however, they have never been subjected to rigorous eco-toxicological test-
ing, and their commercial availability is limited. The best choice may be low-impact
dyes, such as fiber-reactive dyestuffs made from petrochemicals.
Permitted synthetic and non-synthetic chemicals are listed in eco-labels, such as
the GOTS (www.global-standard.org). The use of synthetic flame-retardants and
many functional finishes are prohibited. Mechanical finishing techniques must be
explored instead of chemical finishes wherever possible (Wakelyn and Chaudhry
2009). Most of the top apparel brands and retailers in the world—such as Nike,
Levi’s, Walmart, Patagonia, Timberland, Orvis, Adidas, Marks and Spencer, Roots,
Cotton Ginny, and Target—have already introduced organic cotton into their
product range and are expecting increases in the demand for organic textiles in
coming years, particularly in the health-conscious, high-end markets (Hanu 2010).
Besides helping the environment, there are other benefits from organic cotton
products. Working environments are better for those on farms, and small-scale
farmers save money by not having to buy large amount of pesticides. Consumers
benefit, also. Some suggest that organic cotton products are softer and easier on the
skin. Recent awareness of these benefits has increased demand for organic cotton
and thus lowered its cost (Baldwin 2008).
Organic agriculture protects the health of people and the planet by reducing the
overall exposure to toxic chemicals from synthetic pesticides that can end up in the
ground, air, water, and food supply, and that are associated with health conse-
quences from asthma to cancer. Because organic agriculture does not use toxic and
persistent pesticides, choosing organic products is an easy way to help protect
oneself (OTA 2011a).

5.2 Organic Flax

The flax plant (Linum usitatissimum) is one of the oldest fiber crops in the world
and has been used in the production of linen for over 5,000 years. Organic linen
refers to linen made from flax fibers grown without the use of toxic pesticides or
chemical fertilizers. Although there are products on the market claiming to be
“organic linen” or “eco-friendly linen,” some of these products may be made from
flax fibers, but many are made from other fibers.
Like all conventional crop farming, flax cultivation has environmental impacts
(Duigou et al. 2013), which can be greatly reduced if a certified organic method of
Development of Eco-labels for Sustainable Textiles 153

crop production is used. Compared with other crops, flax performs poorly in soils
with low fertility and can require significant use of fertilizers. However, by using
crop rotation, multi-seeding methods, biological pest control, and green manure and
compost, organic flax farming can produce the seeds with reduced environmental
impact. Crop rotation is not only essential from an organic certification standpoint
but also for maintaining soil quality (www.natural-environment.com 2008).

5.3 Organic Wool and Silk

Organic certification standards vary between countries. In some countries, the

standards are set and overseen by the government, whereas in others, the standards
are set by a non-profit organization or private company. The requirements for
certification of organic wool by the Organic Trade Association (OTA) in North
America are as follows (OTA 2011b).
• Livestock feed and fodder used from the last third of gestation must be certified
organic.
• The use of synthetic hormones and genetic engineering is prohibited.
• The use of synthetic pesticides (internal, external, and on pastures) is prohibited.
• Producers must encourage livestock health through good cultural and man-
agement practices.
To be classified as organic, wool must have been sheared from sheep given
organic feed and raised without the use of hormones or pesticides. Organic livestock
management is different from nonorganic management in at least two major ways:
(1) Sheep cannot be dipped in parasiticides (insecticides) to control external
parasites, such as ticks and lice.
(2) Organic livestock producers are required to ensure that they do not exceed the
natural carrying capacity of the land on which their animals graze.
This poses problems in the prevention of blowflies (meat-seeking fly strikes) on
sheep when the usual sheep dipping is not allowed. In many countries, sheep are
dipped in organophosphate or synthetic pyrethroid types of pesticide. In the United
Kingdom, between 1.25 and 30 ml of fully-active sheep dip is used per sheep year.
Wool textiles as a whole constitute less than 2 % of total world textile fiber
production; hence, the production of organic wool (and silk) is small.
Organic silk must not only be obtained by feeding the silkworms with leaves
from mulberry bushes that have been grown organically, but in which no ‘cruelty’
has been employed (i.e. not by the conventional production method of placing the
cocoons containing the live silk worms into boiling water) . Thus, in the so-called
‘peace’ or ‘vegetarian’ varieties, the silkworms are allowed to develop and emerge
as moths. As a consequence, the silk is obtained in the form of a short staple instead
of continuous filament, yielding a fabric with a different appearance and handle, but
with a warmer handle.
154 A.K. Roy Choudhury

6 Eco-certification

The objective of certification is to gain access to the market for environmentally

sustainable products (Rundgren and Hagenfors 1999). The certification process
should help because data collected in the process of certification can be very useful
for market planning as well as for extension and research; moreover, it improves the
image of product and increases its credibility and visibility. Auriol and Schilizzi’s
(2003) studies have shown that the costlier the certification process, the fewer the
firms that are able to afford certification. That is, cost becomes a major factor in
deciding market structure, potentially leading to monopoly and ultimately to no
certification at all.

7 Eco-label

Eco-labels identify products, raw materials, or companies that meet a particular

organization’s or government agency’s standards in terms of organic content,
sustainability, or minimizing risks to humans, animals, or the environment. Eco-
labels will certify the quality of a particular product and also provide information
about the whole lifecycle. Eco-labeling is becoming a differentiating factor on a
worldwide scale in retail markets for textile and apparel purchases. Consumers are
becoming increasingly concerned with the adverse impacts of industrial pollution
on the environment and their health, resulting in mounting pressure on the textile
and fashion industries to adopt more eco-friendly chemicals and manufacturing
processes. Environmental concerns raised by production systems have been rec-
ognized since the late 1960s. Attempts to move towards more sustainable and
environmentally friendly approaches have been through a range of regulatory
measures, from green taxes to strict bans.
One approach gaining increasing importance is that of environmental labeling or
eco-labeling. According to Piotrowski and Kratz (2005), environmental labeling is
broad, covering a range of labels and declarations of environmental performance,
with a focus on consumption rather than the production of a given product (e.g.
recyclable material). Eco-labels, on the other hand, are a subgroup of environmental
labeling. They convey environmental information about a product to the consumer
and communicate that the environmental impacts are reduced over the entire life-
cycle of a product, without specifying the production practices. An eco-label pro-
vides brief information on environmentally related product qualities. It enables
consumers to identify products that are environmentally safe, have been manu-
factured using eco-friendly materials, and do not contain chemicals that are harmful
to the user. Certification, such as eco-labels, plays a major role in giving credible
assurance to retailers and end consumers that products comply with standards based
on social, ecological, and environmental standards.
The characteristics of an eco-label are as follows:
Development of Eco-labels for Sustainable Textiles 155

• It identifies the overall environmental preferences of a product.

• It carries information on environmentally related product qualities.
• It is a tool for consumers to identify environmentally safe products.
• It assures that a manufacturer has used eco-friendly raw materials and
ingredients.
• It is an additional product quality that can be used as a marketing tool.
• It can be issued by a private or public body.
• It assures less stress on the environment.
• It increases the selling value of products.
The benefits of eco-labeling (Sivaramakrishnan 2012) include the following:
(1) Global marketing: Manufacturers and retailers of textile goods come under
pressure to comply with the international eco-labels.
(2) Improved product quality: Eliminates substances in the fabric that may be
harmful to the customer.
(3) Financial savings—Results in saving of water, chemicals, and energy through
process optimization and improvements. Frequently, the processing time is
reduced by adopting a “Right the First Time” approach. These benefits gen-
erally offset the incremental costs of using eco-friendly chemicals or of
adopting a modified process.
(4) Improved environmental performance—Achieved through the phase-out of
toxic and hazardous substances and conservation of water, energy, and raw
material usage. This leads to a reduction in the quantities and pollution
potential of various emissions. Elimination of hazardous chemicals from the
textile manufacturing process is also beneficial for the environment. For
example, a complete phase-out of sodium hypochlorite and the antichlor agent
sodium bisulphite results in the elimination of halogenated organic compounds
(AOX) and a reduction of total dissolved solids in the effluent. The removal of
these hazardous chemicals results in safer and better working conditions in the
workplace.
The Organic Exchange Fiber Report (2008/2009) estimated a 54 % increase in
cultivation of organic cotton from the previous year, but production of organic
cotton only 0.959 % of conventional cotton. That is, the growth in eco-labeled
textiles is not reflected in consumer demand, raising questions about the impact of
eco-labeled or ‘sustainable’ textiles. A number of issues may impede the spread of
eco-labeled textiles through the supply chain: costs and time required to achieve,
use and renewal, the eco-label, the recession, and the potential loss of competitive
advantages.
The five factors for measuring the effectiveness of an eco-label (EPA 1994) are
as follows:
(1) Consumer awareness of labels
(2) Consumer acceptance of labels (credibility and understanding)
(3) Changes in consumer behavior
156 A.K. Roy Choudhury

(4) Changes in manufacturer behavior

(5) Net environmental gains.
The first four of the above items serve to support the last.
There are many challenges for eco-labeling, the most serious of which are
misleading or fraudulent to uninformative claims, unfair competition and protec-
tionism, and lack of stringency or standardization in the process or mechanisms of
eco-labeling. Eco-labeling educates the consumer, differentiates the product and the
targeted market, provides a sustainable connotation for the producer or seller, and
develops a higher or different perception for the product in the eyes of the entire
supply chain. However, eco-labels can be used as market-based trade barriers, and
some research indicates that although a global, transparent eco-labeling system
benefits markets, regional eco-labeling can limit market access and reduce global
competition (Hyhyvarinen 2008).
Differences in testing and certification methods create difficulties in the appli-
cation of an eco-label to a particular product category. A few questions are stated
below:
• Should the assessment be the product’s environmental burden over its entire
lifecycle, or some subset of it?
• What techniques can be used to measure environmental impact?
• What specific environmental impacts are the most important?
• What criteria are appropriate in rating impacts?
• How can the consumer verify the claims made by the eco-label?
An analysis of the ecological labeling process by Lavallee and Plouffe (2004)
concluded that a ‘cradle-to-grave’ analysis for eco-labelled products and services is
not always respected. At the present time, eco-label delivery criteria are not suffi-
ciently stringent or standardized, leading to confusion in the marketplace, making it
difficult for companies to identify stakeholder preferences, and making it difficult
for justified environmental claims to be considered credible (EPA 1998).
Types of labels include the following:
• Eco-labels
• Organic labels
• Fair-trade labels
• Health-related labels
Eco-labels may be voluntary or mandatory. Mandatory labeling is always third-
party labeling (i.e. issued by an independent body). Voluntary programs may be
established by firms or business associations, as well as third parties. Currently,
there are no eco-labels in textiles and clothing enforced by mandatory rules. Eco-
labels are normally issued either by government-supported or private enterprises
once it has been proven that the product of the applicant has met the criteria
(Hyvarinen 1999).
Development of Eco-labels for Sustainable Textiles 157

The following eco-labels are issued by the governments of various countries:

• Blue Angel (Germany)
• Eco Mark (Japan)
• Environmental Choice (Canada)
• White Swan (Nordic countries)
• Eco-Mark (India)
• Green Label (Singapore)
Some of the eco-labels issued by private agencies are as follows:
• Eco-tex
• Oeko-Tex (textiles and clothing) (Germany)
• Green Seal (United States)
The eco-label has a role in Integrated Product Policy, aiming for minimum
environmental degradation caused by any of the phases of a product’s lifecycle
(European Commission, 2008). The criteria for granting eco-labels are mostly based
on the “cradle-to-grave” approach—that is, the lifecycle analysis of the product and
assessment of its impact on the environment from the processing of raw materials,
production, distribution, consumption, maintenance, (i,e, washing, ironing, dry-
cleaning), and finally disposal of the product. All participants—namely designers,
industry, marketers, retailers, and consumers—are to be engaged. A ‘cradle-to-
cradle’ certification program assesses the sustainability of product ingredients for
human and environmental health, as well as their recyclability or compostability,
making it easier at the design stage to create ecologically intelligent products by
choosing materials that meet key sustainability criteria for material health and
material reutilization (Braungart and McDonough 2008). Differences between
various eco-labeling schemes confuse public understanding of eco-labels: some are
based on detailed analysis of the environmental impacts, whereas others analyze
only certain stages of the lifecycle. The International Standards Organization (ISO)
has classified voluntary labels into three typologies: Type I, II, and III, according to
the specification of preferential principles and procedures (Moore and Wentz 2009):
• Type I is voluntary, based on multiple criteria. It is issued by third-party pro-
grams that award a license, which authorizes the use of environmental labels on
products indicating environmental preference within a category based on life-
cycle considerations. Type I programs can also be categorized as ‘multi-criteria
practitioner programs.’
• The Type II labels are informative self-declarations of environmental claims (de
facto). These are self-declarations based on common terms, definitions, and
symbols.
• Type III labels are voluntary and provide quantifiable environmental data under
preset categories, which are produced by a qualified third party and verified by
that or another qualified third party. Such programs provide quantified product
information report cards of performance in multiple areas of qualification, such
as social responsibility, ecological performance, toxic residues, etc.
158 A.K. Roy Choudhury

Many other prominent international trade and environmental organizations deal

with issues related to eco-labeling, such as the United Nations, the World Trade
Organization through its International Trade Centre and Committee on Trade and
Environment, the US Environmental Protection Agency, and the Organisation for
Economic Co-operation and Development.
The ISO labeling standards are principle-based. Requirements include the fol-
lowing (Moore and Wentz 2009):
• Accurate labeling that is verifiable, relevant, and nondeceptive
• Relevant information concerning attributes must be available and their deriva-
tion transparent to purchasers
• Labels must be based on scientific methods that are reproducible and based on
agreed standards of practice,
• Transparency for information and methods should be ensured for all stake-
holders and interested parties
• Labeling should include the lifecycle of the product or service
• Administration of the eco-labels should not be burdensome
• Labels should not create unfair trade restrictions
• Labels should not inhibit innovations that improve ecological performance
• Label criteria should be developed by consensus
Greenwashing (or green sheen) is a form of spin (i.e. propaganda) in which
green marketing is deceptively used to promote the perception that an organiza-
tion’s products, aims, or policies are environmentally friendly. Evidence that an
organization is greenwashing often comes from pointing out the spending differ-
ences—that is, when significantly more money or time has been spent advertising
being “green” (i.e. operating with consideration for the environment) than is
actually spent on environmentally sound practices (Greenpeace USA 2013).
Greenwashing efforts can range from changing the name or label of a product that
contains harmful chemicals to evoke the natural environment to multimillion dollar
advertising campaigns portraying highly polluting energy companies as eco-
friendly (Karliner 2007).
While greenwashing is not new, its use has increased over recent years to meet
consumer demand for environmentally friendly goods and services. The problem is
compounded by lax enforcement by regulatory agencies, such as the Federal Trade
Commission in the United States, the Competition Bureau in Canada, and the
Committee of Advertising Practice and the Broadcast Committee of Advertising
Practice in the United Kingdom. Critics of the practice suggest that the rise of
greenwashing, paired with ineffective regulation, contributes to consumer skepti-
cism of all green claims and diminishes the power of the consumer in driving
companies toward greener solutions for manufacturing processes and business
operations (Dahl 2010).
Development of Eco-labels for Sustainable Textiles 159

8 Various Eco-labels

The Ecolabel Index is the largest global directory of ecolabels, currently tracking
449 eco-labels in 197 countries and 25 industry sectors (http://www.ecolabelindex.
com, accessed on 20 April 2014). Within Europe, there are many textile eco-labels,
such as Ecotex, Oekotex, GuT, Nordic Swan, Stitching Milieukeu, and Skal
Organic. For EU eco-labels, a single set of criteria was agreed upon, which is
intended to reduce key impacts, such as energy use, global warming, acid rain, and
water pollution. The Nordic Swan label is the world’s first multinational environ-
ment labeling scheme. The standard Eco-Mark scheme of different organizations in
Germany is based on seven major eco-parameters: (a) formaldehyde (b) toxic
pesticides (c) pentachlorophenol (d) heavy metal traces (e) azo dyes that release
carcinogenic amines, (f) halogen carriers, and (g) chlorine bleaching.
Some of the eco-labels are discussed below:

8.1 Green Mark

Figure 1 is an example of a certification label issued for the production of textile

materials. The label is a registered trademark of Green Mark (Taiwan).
Objectives include the following:
• To guide consumers in product purchasing
• To encourage manufacturers to design and supply
Product categories include cloth diapers and unbleached towels.
Criteria for cloth diapers are defined as follows:
The product shall not contain fluorescent whitener, formaldehyde, or other
hazardous chemicals. The product shall last for at least 150 times of use to bear a
label reading “reusable diaper”. The diaper shall contain not less than 50 % cotton.
The name and address of the Green Mark user must be clearly printed on the

Fig. 1 Green mark (Taiwan). Retrieved from, http://www.ecolabelindex.com/legal/

160 A.K. Roy Choudhury

Fig. 2 Thai green label (Thailand). Retrieved from, http://www.ecolabelindex.com/legal/

product or on the packaging material. For nonmanufacturing logo users, the man-
ufacturer’s name and address shall also be shown.
Criteria for nonbleached towels are defined as follows:
There shall be no use of bleach of any kind fluorescent whitener and formal-
dehyde in the manufacturing process of the product. Any dyestuff used in the
manufacturing process must not contain mercury, chromium (+6), cadmium, lead,
copper, zinc, arsenic, or other heavy metals or their oxides. The product shall be
made of 100 % natural fiber to bear a label reading “nonbleached.” The packaging
box used for the product is recommended to be made from recycled pulp with at
least 80 % recycled paper.

8.2 Thai Green Label

Developed by Thailand Environment Institute in 1994, the Green Label (Fig. 2)

uses lifecycle consideration and stresses certain high-priority national goals, such as
waste reduction and energy and water conservation.
Product categories (made from cloth) include the following:
• Hats, bags
• Products made for babies
• Garments (i.e. shirts, trousers)
• Clothing accessories
• Home and household textile fabrics

8.3 Eco Mark

The Eco Mark (Fig. 3) Program was established in 1989 by the Japanese Envi-
ronmental Association. Products must meet the following criteria:
• Impose less environmental load than similar products in their manufacture, use,
and disposal
• Reduce the environmental load in other ways
Development of Eco-labels for Sustainable Textiles 161

Fig. 3 Eco mark (Japan). Retrieved from, http://www.ecolabelindex.com/legal/

Product categories include the following:

• Cloth diapers for infants (24 products, 9 companies)
• Unbleached clothes, bed linens, and towels (68 products, 55 companies)
• Cloth shopping bags (53 products, 27 companies)
• Textiles made of waste fibers (122 products, 91 companies)
• Clothing made of used polyethylene terephthalate resin.

8.4 Ecomark

The Government of India launched the Ecomark scheme (Fig. 4) in 1991. The label
is awarded to consumer goods that meet the specified environmental criteria and the
quality requirements of Indian standards. The logo is an earthen pot, which uses a
renewable resource, does not produce hazardous waste, and consumes little energy
in making.
Production categories include baby clothing and fabrics made by various textile
fibers.

8.5 EcoMark (Africa)

The EcoMark Africa eco-label (EMA, Fig. 5) is currently in development. It will

consist of threshold criteria and indicators suitable for the African continent. The
standard will be designed in such a way that existing standard systems may be

Fig. 4 Eco mark (India). Retrieved from, http://www.ecolabelindex.com/legal/

162 A.K. Roy Choudhury

Fig. 5 Eco mark (Afrika). Retrieved from, http://www.ecolabelindex.com/legal/

benchmarked against it and accredited certifiers may use it to certify companies

against it. In both cases, operations that fulfil the requirements of the EMA standard
may use the EMA eco-label.
With its certifiable standard, EMA will provide one continent-wide and cross-
sectorial label to mark sustainably produced African products. EMA will encourage
African producers to access the markets with sustainably produced goods and
services. EMA will particularly support small- and medium-sized enterprises to get
certified and gain access to niche markets.

8.6 Ecocert

Ecocert (France) (Fig. 6) is a certification body for sustainable development. It is an

inspection and certification body established in France by agronomists aware of the
need to develop environmentally friendly agriculture and of the importance of
offering some form of recognition to those committed to this method of production.
From its creation, Ecocert has specialized in the certification of organic agricultural
products. Ecocert has contributed to the expansion of organic farming. Conformity
with Ecocert’s standard is verified by an independent organization (third party)
following ISO 14001 and 9001.

Fig. 6 Ecocert (France) (Japan). Retrieved from, http://www.ecolabelindex.com/legal/

Development of Eco-labels for Sustainable Textiles 163

Fig. 7 Energy star (US). Retrieved from, http://www.ecolabelindex.com/legal/

8.7 Energy Star

ENERGY STAR (United States, Fig. 7) is a voluntary government-backed program

dedicated to helping individuals protect the environment through energy efficiency.
The ENERGY STAR mark is the national symbol for energy efficiency, making it
easy for consumers and businesses to identify high-quality, energy-efficient prod-
ucts, homes, and commercial and industrial buildings. ENERGY STAR distin-
guishes what is efficient/better for the environment without sacrificing features or
performance. Products that earn the ENERGY STAR mark prevent greenhouse gas
emissions by meeting strict energy-efficiency guidelines set by the U.S. Environ-
mental Protection Agency.

8.8 Environmental Choice

Environmental Choice (New Zealand) (Fig. 8) is a voluntary, multi-criteria envi-

ronmental labeling program operating to international standards and principles. It
originates from a New Zealand Government initiative and International Accredi-
tation New Zealand manages it on behalf of the Minister for the Environment. The
Australian scheme, Environmental Choice Australia, was trialed in Australia from
1991 to 1994 but it did not gain wide industry support.
Product categories include the following:
• Wool pile carpets
• Wool-rich pile carpets

Fig. 8 Environmental choice (New Zealand) (Japan). Retrieved from, http://www.ecolabelindex.

com/legal/
164 A.K. Roy Choudhury

Fig. 9 EU ecolabel (EU) (Japan). Retrieved from, http://www.ecolabelindex.com/legal/

8.9 EU Ecolabel

EU Ecolabel (EU) (Fig. 9) is a voluntary scheme designed to encourage businesses

to market products and services that are kinder to the environment and to allow
European consumers (including public and private purchasers) to easily identify
them. Conformity with EU Ecolabel’s standard is verified by an independent
organization (third party) following ISO 17011.

8.10 Nordic Ecolabel

Nordic Ecolabel (Fig. 10) demonstrates that a product is a good environmental

choice. The “Swan” symbol, as it is known in Nordic countries, is available for 65
product groups. The Swan checks that products fulfill certain criteria using methods
such as samples from independent laboratories, certificates, and control visits.
Each Nordic country has local offices with the responsibility for criteria devel-
opment, control visits, licensing, and marketing. In Denmark, the Nordic Ecolabel
is administered by Ecolabeling Denmark at Danish Standards Foundation; in
Sweden, by Ecolabeling Sweden AB; in Finland, by Finnish Standards; in Norway,
by The Foundation for Ecolabeling; and in Iceland by the Environment Agency,
which operates under the direction of the Ministry for the Environment. Conformity
with Nordic Ecolabel or “Swan” standard is verified by an independent organization
(third party) following ISO 17011 Accreditation, ISO 17021 Management system
certification, and ISO 17025 Testing and Calibration Laboratories.

Fig. 10 Swan ecolabel (Nordic) (Japan). Retrieved from, http://www.ecolabelindex.com/legal/

Development of Eco-labels for Sustainable Textiles 165

Fig. 11 Austrian ecolabel (Austria). Retrieved from, http://www.ecolabelindex.com/legal/

8.11 Austrian Ecolabel

Österreichisches Umweltzeichen, the Austrian Ecolabel (Fig. 11), is primarily for

consumers but also for manufacturers and public procurement. The eco-label pro-
vides consumers with guidance in order to choose products or services that are the
least hazardous to the environment or health. The eco-label draws the consumer’s
attention to aspects of the environment, health, and quality (fitness for use).

8.12 Singapore Green Label Scheme (SGLS)

The Singapore Green Label Scheme (SGLS; Fig. 12) aims to help the public
identify environmentally friendly products that meet certain eco-standards specified
by the scheme. It seeks to encourage eco-consumerism in Singapore as well as to
identify the growing demand for greener products in the market. The scheme hopes
to encourage manufacturers to design and manufacture with the environment in
mind. It was launched in May 1992 by the Ministry of the Environment. It was
handed over to the Singapore Environment Council (SEC) on 5 June 1999 and is
currently under the authority of the SEC.

Fig. 12 SGLS (Singapore). Retrieved from, http://www.ecolabelindex.com/legal/

166 A.K. Roy Choudhury

Fig. 13 Milieukeur ecolabel (Dutch). Retrieved from, http://www.ecolabelindex.com/legal/

8.13 Milieukeur Label

Milieukeur is the Dutch environmental quality label (Fig. 13) for products and
services. There are Milieukeur criteria for a wide variety of food products, con-
sumer products and services, ranging from vegetables, potatoes, fruit, beer, pork,
trees and plants to concrete products, fire extinguishers, florists, butchers, green
electricity, and car washes.
The Milieukeur criteria relate to the entire lifecycle of the product or service and
represent an integrated approach to sustainability. The Milieukeur certification
schemes cover a diverse range of sustainability issues, including raw materials,
energy and water consumption, noxious substances, packaging and waste, plant
protection, fertilizers, animal welfare, nature management, food safety, and
employee care. Milieukeur is supported by the Dutch government.

8.14 Oeko-Tex Standard 100

The Oeko-Tex Standard 100 (Fig. 14) is a globally uniform testing and certification
system for textile raw materials, intermediate, and end products at all stages of
production. The certification covers multiple human-ecological attributes, including
harmful substances that are prohibited or regulated by law, chemicals that are
known to be harmful to health but are not officially forbidden, and parameters that
are included as a precautionary measure to safeguard health.
Textile products may be certified according to Oeko-Tex Standard 100 only if all
components meet the required criteria without exception. A tested textile product is
allocated to one of the four Oeko-Tex product classes based on its intended use. The
more intensively a product comes into contact with the skin, the stricter the human

Fig. 14 Oeko-tex standard 100 (Austrian Textile Research Institute). Retrieved from, http://www.
ecolabelindex.com/legal/
Development of Eco-labels for Sustainable Textiles 167

ecological requirements it must fulfill. Oeko-Tex Standard 100 is found on millions

of products around the world in (almost) all retail segments (based on more than
65,000 certificates issued to date).
Probably the most widely used textile eco-label is the Oeko-Tex Standard 100,
the label of the International Association for Research and Testing in the field of
Textile Ecology founded by Austrian Textile Research Institute. The label or mark
states that the textile product or accessory has been tested for harmful substances
according to the conditions specified in this standard. The standard is applicable to
textile and leather products. The objective is to market products that do not contain
substances detrimental to health. The products have been classified into four groups
according to their contact with human skin:
Class I: Products for babies up to the age of 2 years.
Class II: Products having direct contact with skin, such as blouses, shirts, and
underwear.
Class III: Products not having direct skin contact, such as skirts, trousers, and
jackets.
Class IV: Furnishing and decorating materials.
One of the main features of the scheme is the test procedure for chemicals
associated with dyeing processes and for dyes themselves. Thus, for each product
group, there are limiting values of extractable heavy metals (EHM). Limiting values
and fastness properties in the Oeko-Tex Standard 100 are shown in Table 2.

8.15 Oeko-Tex Standard 1000

To achieve better environmental performance for a company, as well as verifying

and communicating it to the public, the environmental auditing and certification
scheme, Öko-Tex Standard 1000 (Fig. 15), has been developed. The aim of
Standard 1000 is an evaluation of the environmental performance of textile sites
and products. It also independently documents that certain environmental measures
were undertaken and a certain level was achieved.
To complement the product-related Oeko-Tex Standard 100, the Oeko-Tex
Standard 1000 is a testing, auditing, and certification system for environmentally
friendly production sites throughout the textile processing chain. To qualify for
certification according to the Oeko-Tex Standard 1000, companies must meet
stipulated criteria in terms of their environmentally friendly manufacturing pro-
cesses and provide evidence that at least 30 % of total production is already certified
under Oeko-Tex Standard 100. In addition, companies must prove that the social
standards demanded by Oeko-Tex 1000 are fulfilled.
Certification criteria include the avoiding the use of environmentally damaging
chemicals, auxiliaries, and dyestuffs; compliance with standard values for waste-
water and exhaust air; optimization of energy consumption; avoidance of noise and
168 A.K. Roy Choudhury

Table 2 Oeko-tex standard 100 limits

Parameter/compound Product class
I II III IV
pH value 4–7.5 4–7.5 4–9 4–9
Formaldehyde 20 75 300 300
Antimony 5.0 10.0
Arsenic 0.2 1.0
Lead 0.2 1.0
Cadmium 0.1 0.1
Chromium 1.0 2.0
Chromium (VI) Under detection limita
Cobalt 1.0 4.0
Copper 25.0 50.0
Nickel 1.0 4.0
Mercury 0.02 0.02
Pesticidesb 0.5 1.0
PCP/TeCP 0.05 0.5
Banned dyesc Not used
Chlorinated organic carriers 1.0
Biocidic and flame-retardant finishes None
Color fastness (staining)
Water 3
Acidic perspiration 3–4
Alkaline perspiration 3–4
Rubbing, dryd 4 4 4 4
Rubbing, wetd 2–3 2–3 2–3 2–3
Emission of volatiles
Aromatic hydrocarbons 0.3 0.3
Organic volatiles 0.5 0.5
Odor No abnormal odore
Extractable quantities are in ppm; fastness is in grades
a
Detection limits, 0.5 ppm for Cr (VI), 20 ppm for arylamines, 0.006 % for allergeneous dyes
(using TLC techniques)
b
Total pesticides incl. pentachlorophenol (PCP)/2,3,5,6 tetrachlorophenol (TeCP)
c
Cancerogenes, allergenic dyes, and dyes with cleavable arylamines
d
For pigment, vat, or sulfur dyes, rubbing fastness of 3 (dry) and 2 (wet) are acceptable
e
No odor of mold, high-boiling fraction of petrol, fish, aromas, or perfumes

Fig. 15 Oeko-tex standard 1000 (Austrian Textile Research Institute). Retrieved from, http://
www.ecolabelindex.com/legal/
Development of Eco-labels for Sustainable Textiles 169

dust pollution; compliance with defined measures to ensure safety at the workplace;
no use of child labor; introduction of the basic elements of an environmental
management system; and existence of a quality management system.

8.16 The Global Organic Textile Standard

The Global Organic Textile Standard is the worldwide leading textile processing
standard for organic fibers, including ecological and social criteria, backed up by
independent certification of the entire textile supply chain. GOTS (Fig. 16) Version
4.0 was published on 1 March 2014, 3 years after Version 3.0 was introduced and
9 years after the launch of the first Version. The high ecological and social
requirements as well as worldwide practicability and verifiability were considered
in the revision work, in order to achieve a reliable and transparent set of criteria.
The aim of the standard is to define globally recognized requirements that ensure
the organic status of textiles, from harvesting of the raw materials, through envi-
ronmentally and socially responsible manufacturing, up to labeling, in order to
provide a credible assurance to the end consumer. Textile processors and manu-
facturers are enabled to export their organic fabrics and garments with one certi-
fication accepted in all major markets.
The standard covers the processing, manufacturing, packaging, labeling, trading,
and distribution of all textiles made from at least 70 % certified organic natural
fibers. The final products may include, but are not limited to, fiber products, yarns,
fabrics, clothes, and home textiles. The standard does not set criteria for leather
products.
A textile product carrying the GOTS label grade of ‘organic’ must contain a
minimum of 95 % certified organic fibers, whereas a product with the label grade
‘made with organic’ must contain a minimum of 70 % certified organic fibers
Environmental criteria include the following:
• At all processing stages, the organic fiber products must be separated from
conventional fiber products and must to be clearly identified.
• All chemical inputs (e.g. dyes, auxiliaries, and process chemicals) must be
evaluated and meet basic requirements on toxicity and biodegradability/
eliminability.

Fig. 16 GOTS label. Retrieved from, http://www.ecolabelindex.com/legal/

170 A.K. Roy Choudhury

• Critical inputs such as toxic heavy metals, formaldehyde, aromatic solvents,

functional nanoparticles, genetically modified organisms, and their enzymes are
prohibited.
• The use of synthetic sizing agents is restricted; knitting and weaving oils must
not contain heavy metals.
• Bleaches must be based on oxygen (no chlorine bleaching).
• Azo dyes that release carcinogenic amine compounds are prohibited.
• Discharge printing methods using aromatic solvents and plastisol printing
methods using phthalates and polyvinyl chloride (PVC) are prohibited.
• Restrictions for accessories must be followed (e.g. no PVC, nickel, or chrome
permitted).
• All operators must have an environmental policy, including target goals and
procedures to minimize waste and discharges.
• Wet processing units must keep full records of the use of chemicals, energy,
water consumption, and wastewater treatment, including the disposal of sludge.
The wastewater from all wet processing units must be treated in a functional
wastewater treatment plant.
• Packaging material must not contain PVC. Paper or cardboard used in pack-
aging material, hang tags, swing tags, etc. must be recycled or certified
according to FSC or PEFC.
Technical quality and human toxicity criteria include the following:
• Technical quality parameters must be met (e.g. rubbing, perspiration, light and
washing fastness, shrinkage values).
• Raw materials, intermediates, final textile products, and accessories must meet
stringent limits regarding unwanted residues.
Minimum social criteria based on the key norms of the International Labour
Organisation must be met by all processors and manufacturers. They must have a
social compliance management with defined elements in place to ensure that the
social criteria can be met (GOTS-IWG 2013).

9 Future Trends

A study by Sinha and Shah (2011) examined the issues within and across the textile
supply chain that come to bear upon the growth of eco-labelled sustainable textiles
products in particular and in developing a sustainable textile industry in general. All
companies interviewed agreed that sustainable textiles products (STPs) are needed.
They felt it was very important to note that all naturally grown products are not
organic or sustainable. For example, not all naturally grown cotton is organic; it
might be genetically modified cotton. Also, there is no assurance that the land does
not have any traces of harmful fertilizer or pesticides.
A number of methods are available to enter the sustainability arena. There
should be transparency and a clear statement about the extent to which the
Development of Eco-labels for Sustainable Textiles 171

companies have taken up eco-labeling. Third-party verification of environmental

credentials can often bring legitimacy to sustainability. Many of the most successful
eco-labels are those that have been backed by issues-led organizations, such as the
GOTS certification for textile products made from organic cotton. Third-party
verification can range in scope from qualitative assurance of general claims to
detailed verification of all stages of a full lifecycle product assessment. Given the
generally low levels of consumer trust in big business, some degree of external
verification is an essential component of any credible environmental claim.
Educating, enabling, and encouraging people to act towards sustainability is key
for the success of any eco-label and STP as consumers’ usage and disposal patterns
liberate CO2, so there should be programs to educate them. Methods to do this
range from using trustworthy eco-labels with required information, through various
media, and through regulations. Once the consumers are educated, then they may be
encouraged to prefer buying more sustainable products.
Enlisting employees to promote sustainability is another method because
employees are the key players of any manufacturing facility. Investing in the skills
of employees is part of a sustainable and responsible human resource management
(Brito and Blanquart 2008).
To become sustainable, everyone from manufacturer to consumer should
remember to “reduce, reuse, and recycle.” Textile waste in landfills contributes to
the formation of leachate as it decomposes (which has the potential to contaminate
groundwater), methane gas (a major cause of greenhouse gases contributing to
global warming), and ammonia (which is highly toxic for land, water and air)
(Productivity Commission 2006).
Eco-labels are not simple to understand, so they may not be as appropriate
marketing tools as suggested by the government policies. For example, GOTS and
OE labeling guides are both standards that are applicable for products made from
organic cotton, on which retailers and manufacturers can use their respective logos
on the tags. Under both the standards, it is mandatory to mention the percentage of
organic cotton on the label. If the product is made from 100 % organically cotton,
the manufacturer or retailer can use the statements “Organic” and “Made with
100 % organically grown cotton,” respectively.

10 Conclusions

Eco-labeling will continue to grow as a method of providing ecological and social

information to consumers. A number of emerging information and labeling from
other industries may influence textile eco-labeling. Eco-labels based on a third-party
certification, a de jure standard, represent the most reliable and verifiable type of
labeling scheme. However, transparency in the standards development process,
auditing, and the verification of performance and conformity are extremely important.
Nonstandard testing methods and questionable certification processes may
damage the credibility of eco-labeling. They diminish rather than increase the value
172 A.K. Roy Choudhury

of ‘eco’ products. Eco-labeling must promote sustainability and responsible deci-

sions by retailers and consumers. The best techniques and practices must be used to
produce eco-certification and eco-labels to allow for continuous improvement. Eco-
labels are very important to the development of a sustainable textile industry and a
credible textile industry.

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Ecolabels and Organic Certification
for Textile Products

Luis Almeida

Abstract Consumers demand not only specific functionalities and quality levels
for textile products but also safety and ecology. In response to this trend, the
fashion supply chain places more and more importance on sustainability, forcing
textile producers to respect high environmental and social standards in the entire
textile-clothing chain, from raw materials to retail. In some cases, the consumer and
postconsumer (reuse, recycle, disposal) phases are also considered. To answer the
needs of consumers of eco-friendly products, several eco-labeling systems have
been developed, which include specific requirements for “organic” textiles. This
chapter presents an overview of the requirements of the major eco-labels that are
used a, including the European Union Ecolabel (flower label), Oeko-Tex 100 (and
the new certification scheme Sustainable Textile Production), Bluesign, organic
certification systems (Global Organic Textile Standard and Organic Content Stan-
dard), Fairtrade, and labels from retailer chains (Clear to Wear and Ecosafe).

Keywords Textiles Ecolabel Organic certification Sustainability Health and




safety Social responsibility Environmental protection

1 Introduction

When purchasing a garment or a home textile, consumers demand not only specific
design, functionalities, and quality levels but also safety and ecology, with concern
for the protection of the environment and producers in developing countries.
Sustainability is becoming more of a marketing tool of the fashion supply chain,
forcing textile producers to respect high environmental standards in their production
methods (Caniato et al. 2012).
To answer the needs of consumers for eco-friendly products, several eco-
labeling systems have been developed, especially since the 1990s (Moore and

L. Almeida (&)
Department of Textile Engineering, Universidade Do Minho, 4800-058 Guimaraes, Portugal
e-mail: [email protected]

© Springer Science+Business Media Singapore 2015 175

S.S. Muthu (ed.), Roadmap to Sustainable Textiles and Clothing,
Textile Science and Clothing Technology, DOI 10.1007/978-981-287-164-0_7
176 L. Almeida

Wentz, 2009). Also within this trend for sustainability, an increased demand for
organic products has emerged in the beginning of the 21st century.
Eco-labels in the textile products (either garments or home textiles) are a way to
show to the consumer that the products are:
• Safe in terms of human health: this corresponds to the so-called human ecology
and is a main requirement for consumers.
• Produced with environmentally friendly materials and technologies: this corre-
sponds to the real ecology, which takes into account the rational use of resources
(especially nonrenewable natural resources, water, and energy), air emissions,
wastewater, solid waste, use of clean technologies, water and energy recovery, etc.
• Produced with regard to the health and safety of the workers: adequate measures
should be used to prevent occupational accidents and protect the health of workers,
including the use of collective and personal protective equipment, reducing dust and
noise, preventing contact with dangerous and unhealthy chemicals, etc.
• Produced with respect to social criteria in terms of the human rights of workers,
namely according to the International Labor Organization standards.
Eco-labeled products must also have certain performance quality levels. The
different ecolabel systems impose criteria that affect the entire textile chain, with
special emphasis on the dyeing, printing, and finishing processes.
An overview of the requirements of the major ecolabels that are used for textile
products is presented in this chapter.

2 European Union Ecolabel

The EU Ecolabel, also called the “flower label” due to its logo, was launched in
1992, according to the Council Regulation (EEC) No 880/92 of 23 March 1992. At
that time, apart from private labels, some Member States were launching national
labels. The European Commission used this regulation to create conditions for
ultimately establishing an effective single environmental label in the European
Union. It was also a way to contribute to the consolidation of policies related to the
environment, particularly at preventing, reducing, and eliminating as much pollu-
tion as possible (prioritizing the source); ensuring sound management of raw
material resources; and highlighting the importance of developing a policy towards
clean products. The EU Ecolabel system has been fully revised, according to the
Regulation (EC) No 66/2010.
The EU Ecolabel identifies products and services that have a reduced impact on
the environment throughout their lifecycle, from the extraction of raw material
through production, use, and disposal (from cradle to grave) (Hale 1996). It is the
only official ecological label within the European Union, as the corresponding
regulations have been adopted as EU directives and published in the official journal.
It is, of course, a voluntary label, although the competent body in each country is
officially appointed by each European Union Member State to be responsible for
Ecolabels and Organic Certification for Textile Products 177

collecting the corresponding fees. The fees are normally calculated as a percentage
(up to 0.15 %) of the annual sales value of ecolabeled products.
One of the basic principles of this label is to consider the environmental impact
during the entire lifecycle of the product. There are several product groups, divided
into the following major groups (in alphabetical order): beauty care, cleaning,
clothing (including textiles and footwear), coverings (including textile floor cov-
erings), do-it-yourself, electronic equipment, furniture, gardening, holiday accom-
modation, household appliances, lubricants, other household items (including bed
mattresses), and paper products. Other product groups are being developed, in
coordination with the European Joint Research Center and with the participation of
different interested parties at European and national levels. Criteria are generally
revised every 3 years.
Among the different product groups are textiles. The first version for textiles was
published in 1995; at that time, it was only applicable to cotton and polyester-cotton
T-shirts and bed linens, following a detailed cradle-to-grave study by Danish
experts. The last revised version was published in 2009 (Commission Decision
2009/567/EC of 9 July 2009); it was valid until June 2014 and was still under
revision at the time of writing. The revised criteria have been published on 13 June
2014 (Decision 2014/350/EU).
The criteria are divided into three main categories: textile fibers, processes and
chemicals, and fitness for use.
The applicant must provide detailed information about the textile fibers and all
the textile processes, from spinning to fabric finishing. This includes declarations
and test reports, as mentioned in the Commission Decision.
(a) Textile fibers
Fiber-specific criteria are set for acrylic, cotton and other natural cellulosic seed
fibers, elastane, flax and other bast fibers, greasy wool and other keratin fibers,
manmade cellulose fibers, polyamide, polyester, and polypropylene. Other fibers
for which no fiber specific criteria are set are also allowed, with the exception of
inorganic fibers.
The criteria for a given fiber-type need not be met if that fiber contributes to less
than 5 % of the total weight of the textile fibers in the product. Similarly, they need
not be met if the fibers are of recycled origin. In this context, recycled fibers are
defined as fibers originating only from cuttings from textile and clothing manu-
facturers or from postconsumer waste (textile or otherwise). Nevertheless, at least
85 % (by weight) of all fibers in the product must be either in compliance with the
corresponding fiber-specific criteria, if any, or of recycled origin.
For each fiber, the criteria have been chosen by taking into account the major
impacts to the environment.
For cotton, there is a list of restricted pesticides. There are special conditions if
the cotton is organically grown. In this case, “organic cotton” can be added to the
label if at least 95 % of the cotton is organic. If 70–95 % of the cotton in one
product is organic, it may be labeled as “made with X % organic cotton.”
178 L. Almeida

For flax, there are restrictions concerning water retting. Wool has restrictions in
terms of pesticides and for the treatment of the wool scouring effluent.
For manmade fibers, the ecolabel legislation established specific criteria, either
in terms of monomer or polymer production (e.g. emissions to air of acrylonitrile in
acrylic fibers) or in terms of toxic substances in the fiber (e.g. adsorbable or-
ganohalogens [AOX] in cellulosic fibers or antimony in polyester).
(b) Processes and chemicals
In terms of chemicals, there is an increased concern about Registration, Eval-
uation, Authorisation and Restriction of Chemical substances (REACH) regulation.
There are restrictions concerning the biodegradability of auxiliaries, finishing
agents for fibers and yarns, and detergents and softeners.
Chlorine agents are excluded for bleaching yarns, fabrics, and end products.
In terms of dyeing and printing, levels of ionic impurities in dyes and pigments
are established. Dyes that are carcinogenic, mutagenic, or toxic to reproduction or
potentially sensitizing dyes are banned. Also, azo dyes that can cleave into a list of
aromatic amines are banned (according to EU regulations). Chrome mordant dyeing
is not allowed, and there are restrictions for metal complex dyes based on copper,
chromium, or nickel. Halogenated carriers shall not be used. Printing pastes cannot
contain more than 5 % volatile organic compounds. Plastisol-based printing is not
allowed.
The word finishes covers all physical or chemical treatments for a textile fabric’s
specific properties. No use is allowed of finishing substances or finishing prepa-
rations containing more than 0.1 % by weight of substances that are assigned or
may be assigned at the time of application any of the following risk categories (or
combinations thereof), as defined by Directive 67/548/EEC:
• R40 (limited evidence of a carcinogenic effect)
• R45 (may cause cancer)
• R46 (may cause heritable genetic damage)
• R49 (may cause cancer by inhalation)
• R50 (very toxic to aquatic organisms)
• R51 (toxic to aquatic organisms)
• R52 (harmful to aquatic organisms)
• R53 (may cause long-term adverse effects in the aquatic environment)
• R60 (may impair fertility)
• R61 (may cause harm to the unborn child)
• R62 (possible risk of impaired fertility)
• R63 (possible risk of harm to the unborn child)
• R68 (possible risk of irreversible effects)
Alternatively, classification may be considered according to Regulation (EC) No
1272/2008 (Classification, Labeling and Packaging (CLP) Regulation). In this case,
no substances or preparations may be added to the raw materials that are assigned,
or may be assigned at the time of application, with any of the following hazard
statements (or combinations thereof): H351, H350, H340, H350i, H400, H410,
Ecolabels and Organic Certification for Textile Products 179

H411, H412, H413, H360F, H360D, H361f, H361d H360FD, H361fd, H360Fd,
H360Df, or H341.
An applicant to the EU Ecolabel must either provide a declaration that finishes
have not been used, or indicate which finishes have been used and provide docu-
mentation (e.g. safety data sheets) and/or declarations indicating that those finishes
comply with this criterion.
Regarding biocidal or biostatic products, chlorophenols (their salts and esters),
Polychlorinated Biphenyl (PCB), and organotin compounds cannot be used during
transportation or storage of products and semi-manufactured products.
Only flame retardants that are chemically bound into the polymer fiber or onto
the fiber surface (reactive flame retardants) may be used in the product. If the flame
retardants used have any of the R-phrases listed above, these reactive flame retar-
dants should, on application, change their chemical nature to no longer warrant
classification under any of these R-phrases (less than 0.1 % of the flame retardant
on the treated yarn or fabric may remain in the form as before application). Flame
retardants that are only physically mixed into the polymer fiber or into a textile
coating are excluded (additive flame retardants).
Regarding anti-felting finishes, halogenated substances or preparations shall
only be applied to wool slivers and loose scoured wool.
Formaldehyde is traditionally present in crosslinking agents used in textile fin-
ishing. The amount of free and partly hydrolysable formaldehyde in the final fabric
shall not exceed 20 ppm (or mg/kg) in products for babies and young children
under 3 years old, 30 ppm for products that come into direct contact with the skin,
and 75 ppm for all other products.
In terms of water and energy use, although there are no restrictions, the applicant
shall provide data on water and energy use for the manufacturing sites involved in
wet processing.
(c) Fitness for use
Although the EU Ecolabel is not a quality label, minimum quality performance
levels are established in terms of dimensional changes during washing and drying,
color fastness to perspiration (acid and alkaline), color fastness to rubbing (dry and
wet), and color fastness to light.
The following information should appear on the Ecolabel: “encouraging the use
of sustainable fibers,” “durable and high quality,” and “hazardous substances
restricted.”
The proposed revision of the EU Ecolabel criteria for textiles gives further
indications concerning the substances that are used in textile finishing and which
may appear on the final product, taking into account the listed hazard classes or risk
phrases in accordance with Regulation (EC) No 1272/2008 (the CLP Regulation
mentioned previously). The textile hazard class restrictions will be split into textile
hazard categories A and B. The following restrictions will in principle apply:
180 L. Almeida

• Substances classified with textile category A hazard classes should not be used
in dyeing, printing, and finishing processes and should not be present on the
final product.
• Substances classified with textile category B hazard classes should only be used
in dyeing, printing, and finishing processes where they have been specifically
designated for use and according to associated designated conditions. For these
substances, concentration limits must be respected.
In the revision, concentration limits (with respect to the weight of the fiber) for
different kinds of finishes will be introduced (e.g. 20 % for flame retardants, 0.3 %
for water and stain repellents) and a certain durability of the effect will be required.
New criteria concerning restriction of aerial emissions from finishing processes,
namely in terms of organic substances, are also expected in the future.

3 Oeko-Tex 100

Oeko-Tex Standard 100 was developed in 1990 by a group of European research

and testing textile institutes, in response to the needs of the general public for
textiles that pose no risk to health. The label simply assures that the textile does not
contain chemicals that are potentially harmful to the human health (or the so-called
human ecology) (Zippel 1999).
The basic elements of the Oeko-Tex® system are as follows:
• Globally uniform and scientifically based (textile and human ecologically rel-
evant) test criteria
• Annual re-evaluation and development of the stipulated limit values and criteria
(every year the Oeko-Tex Standard 100 is revised)
• Testing and certification of the textile products through independent test
institutes
• Testing of textile raw materials, intermediate, and end products at all stages of
processing (modular system)
• Product conformity through internal quality management within the companies
• Company audits to ensure the best possible certification process and targeted
support for operational quality assurance
• Product monitoring by means of regular control tests in the market and site
inspections by independent auditors from the Oeko-Tex Association
Oeko-Tex tests are based on the three different methods of chemical absorption
by the body:
• Cutaneous absorption. Using an artificial sweat solution, the amount of the
substance that detaches from the existing fabric due to perspiration is
determined.
• Ingestion. Ingestion of harmful chemicals plays an important role, especially in
the case of baby items. This aspect is examined with tests using artificial saliva.
Ecolabels and Organic Certification for Textile Products 181

• Inhalation of harmful substances. The possibility of inhaling any harmful sub-

stances in air is determined by laboratories using olfactometry and emission
analysis.
The standard is applicable for all textile and leather products in all levels of
production, including nontextile accessories. It is also applicable to mattresses,
feathers and downs, foams, upholstery and other materials with similar character-
istics. It is not applicable for chemicals, auxiliaries, and dyes, although often the
dye and chemical auxiliary manufacturers claim that their products compile with
Oeko-Tex 100.
Limit values are established for four different product classes:
1. Products for babies (including children up to 36 months old)
2. Products in direct contact with the skin
3. Products not in direct contact with the skin
4. Decorative materials
Oeko-Tex certification also covers all textile-relevant substances of very high
concern on the European Chemical Agency (ECHA) candidate list. The yearly
updates of Oeko-Tex Standard 100 take into account the evolution of the list
published by ECHA.
The main criteria (according to the 2014 version of the standard) are as follows:
• pH value (4.0–7.5 for classes 1 and 2 and 4.0–9.0 for classes 3 and 4)
• Formaldehyde (not detectable for class 1, up to 75 mg/kg for class 2, and up to
300 mg/kg for classes 3 and 4)
• Extractable heavy metals (restrictions for antimony, arsenic, lead, cadmium,
chromium, cobalt, copper, nickel, and mercury; limit values are lower for class
1)
• Heavy metals in digested samples (restrictions for lead and for cadmium)
• Pesticides
• Chlorinated phenols, chlorinated benzenes, and toluenes
• Phthalates (special restrictions for baby articles)
• Organic tin compounds
• Other chemical residues (arylamines, o-phenylphenol, short-chained chlorinated
parafines, tris(2-chlorethyl)phosphate, and dymethylfumarate)
• Dyestuffs (cleavable arylamines, carcinogens, allergens, etc.)
• Polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons
• Biologically active products and flame retardants (not to be used except those in
the positive list agreed upon by the Oeko-Tex Association)
• Solvent residues (1-methyl-2-pyrrolidone, N,N-dimethylacetamide, and
dimethylformamide)
• Surfactant and wetting agent residues (nonylphenol, octylphenol, nonylpheno-
lethoxylates, and octylphenolethoxylates)
• Perfluorinated compounds (perfluoroctane sulfonates, perfluoroctanic acid,
henicosafluoroundecanoic acid, tricosafluorododecanoic acid, pentacosafluoro-
tridecanoic acid, heptacosafluorotetradecanoic acid)
182 L. Almeida

• Color fastness (water, perspiration, dry rubbing, saliva/perspiration)

• Emission of volatiles (formaldehyde, toluene, styrene, vinylcyclohexene, 4-
phenylcyclohexene, butadiene, vinylchloride, aromatic hydrocarbons, organic
volatiles)
• Determination of odors
• Asbestos is banned.
In addition to the written documents and laboratory testing of the submitted test
samples, the certification process involves a company audit at the site of the
applicant where the certified items are produced. In general, company visits are
carried out every 3 years. A prerequisite for awarding of the certificate is successful
evidence of a quality assurance system that guarantees the processing techniques,
dyestuffs and auxiliaries, recipes, and material compositions stipulated in the
application for certification on an ongoing basis.
Oeko-Tex certificates are issued by one of the participating institutes (there are
delegations all over the world) and are valid for 1 year. The association also spot-
tests labeled products in the retail market.
Products can be marked with the Oeko-Tex label, providing an effective way of
drawing more attention to the products. The association creates its own advertising
campaigns. Oeko-Tex 100 is the most widely used textile ecolabel in the market.

4 STeP (Sustainable Textile Production)

The same group of research and testing institutes involved in Oeko-Tex 100 later
developed the Oeko-Tex Standard 1000—a testing, auditing, and certification
system for environmentally friendly production sites throughout the textile pro-
cessing chain. To have this certification, at least 30 % of the total production must
be certified according to Oeko-Tex Standard 100.
The Oeko-Tex Standard 100 plus is a product label that provides textile high-
lights to the consumers—not only regarding the human ecology of the products but
also environmentally friendly production. It focuses on the effects of transformation
processes on humans and the environment, taking into account the hazards of
textiles and chemicals on health and well-being, as well as the production ecology.
All of the production sites involved in the manufacturing of a specific product need
to comply with the requirements of the Oeko-Tex Standard 1000, without excep-
tion. This label was discontinued in June 2014. The new certification system STeP
(Sustainable Textile Production) has replaced the Oeko-Tex Standard 1000.
The Oeko-Tex Association launched the new STeP system certification system,
which offers production facilities the possibility of a modular analysis of all relevant
company areas, such as quality management, use of chemicals, environmental
protection, environmental management, social responsibility, and health and safety.
Because the certification tool is specifically tailored to the situations in the indi-
vidual processing stages of the textile and clothing industry, it can provide
Ecolabels and Organic Certification for Textile Products 183

interested companies with targeted support for continuous improvement of their

production conditions. Like the Oeko-Tex Standard 1000, STeP is not itself a
product ecolabel.
STeP is a certification system for brands, retail companies, and manufacturers
from the textile chain who want to communicate their achievements regarding
sustainable production to the public in a transparent, credible, and clear manner.
Certification is possible for production facilities of all processing stages from fiber
production, spinning mills, weaving mills, and knitting mills to finishing facilities
and manufacturers of ready-made textile items. STeP certification involves the
permanent implementation of environmentally friendly production processes,
optimum health and safety, and socially acceptable working conditions. Like the
previous Oeko-Tex Standard 1000, STeP establishes performance levels in terms of
the sustainability of production beyond legislative regulations, independently of the
country of production.
STeP allows comprehensive analysis and evaluation with regard to sustainable
production conditions. In addition to this, the requirements and criteria of STeP
certification are specifically adapted to the situation in the textile and clothing
industry.
Through modular analysis of all relevant company areas, such as the manage-
ment of chemicals, environmental protection, environmental management, health
and safety, social responsibility, and quality management, the STeP certification
allows a comprehensive and reliable analysis of the extent of sustainable man-
agement provided by a production facility.
STeP Involves the following issues:
(a) Management of chemicals
• Compliance with the guidelines of a restricted substances list (RSL)
• Introduction of suitable harmful substances management
• Compliance with the principles of ‘green chemicals’
• Periodic training and further education regarding the handling of the chemicals
used
• Obligation for appropriate communication regarding the chemicals used and
their risks
• Monitoring the use of chemicals

(b) Environmental performance

• Compliance with the stipulated limit values
• Use of best available production technologies
• Optimization of production processes
• Efficient use of resources
• Responsible handling of waste, waste water, emissions etc.
• Reduction of the carbon footprint
184 L. Almeida

(c) Environmental management

• Proof of a suitable environmental management system for targeted coordination
and systematic implementation of all environmental protection measures
• Commitment to environmental targets
• Periodic creation of environmental reports
• Appointment of an environmental representative
• Periodic training regarding the implementation of environmental targets and
measures
• Implementation of existing environmental protection systems (e.g. ISO 14001)

(d) Social Responsibility

• Ensuring socially acceptable working conditions according to United Nations
and International Labour Organization conventions
• Execution of performance appraisals for employees
• Implementation of existing social standards (e.g. SA 8000)
• Guaranteed training for employees regarding the social issues of an operation

(e) Quality management

• Implementation of a suitable quality management system (e.g. in line with ISO
9001 or operational approaches)
• Guaranteed traceability, responsibility, and appropriate documentation regard-
ing the flow of goods and manufactured products
• Advanced management aspects, such as risk management or corporate
governance

(f) Health and safety

• Proof of suitable measures to ensure the required health and safety in the
workplace (e.g. filter systems, ear protection)
• Guaranteed safety of buildings and production plants (e.g. through constructive
measures, escape plans, separation of production areas)
• Risk prevention
• Implementation of existing safety standards (e.g. OHSAS 18001).
STeP certification considers three different levels describing the extent to which
the company has achieved sustainable production and working conditions:
• Level 1 = Entry level
• Level 2 = Good implementation with further optimization potential
• Level 3 = Exemplary implementation in the sense of a best-practice example
The STeP scoring system is an important tool for continuous improvement.
Ecolabels and Organic Certification for Textile Products 185

5 Bluesign

The Bluesign system was also designed to be a solution for a sustainable textile
production. It eliminates harmful substances right from the beginning of the
manufacturing process and sets and controls standards for an environmentally
friendly and safe production. This not only ensures that the final textile product
meets very stringent consumer safety requirements worldwide, but it also provides
confidence to consumers that they are acquiring a sustainable product.
The idea of the Bluesign system arose from practical experience, in a joint effort
from a textile company (Schoeller Textil), a retailer company (Nike), and a
chemical company (Huntsman). It was an effort to develop a textile product with the
least possible impact on the environment coupled with resource-conserving pro-
duction and safety for workers and consumers. Bluesign developed from a project
initiative in 1997, in order to guarantee that the system is independent and therefore
implementable for the greatest possible number of companies. The company
Bluesign Technologies AG was founded in 2000, with headquarters in Switzerland.
The label Bluesign claims to be “the independent industry textile standard”
because it was developed from the industry and retailers and not by official
authorities (like EU Ecolabel) or testing laboratories (like Oeko-Tex 100 or STeP).
Bluesign is based on five principles:
• Resource productivity
Resource productivity refers to the sustainable use of raw materials and energy.
The aim is to produce textiles of maximum quality and added value by mini-
mizing the consumption of resources as well as reducing the environmental
impact. Using as few resources as possible during the complete process auto-
matically involves cost efficiency. The environmental impact decreases while
the added value of the products increases. Finally, the textile companies reduce
their ecological footprint, consisting of energy and material input per kilogram
of manufactured textile products.
• Consumer safety
Consumers are sensitive not only to the safety of the textile products they buy
but also to the conditions under which a product has been manufactured.
Therefore, consumer safety has to include both the promise of high-quality
textile products without health risks, as well as assurance that sustainability was
implemented in each step of the production process. Bluesign promotes “pro-
active manufacturers” that are able to meet the requirements of their customers
for sustainable and reliable products—even before legal obligations force them
to act.
• Water emission
Water emission control includes returning purified water into the water cycle
and reducing the aquatic environment impact to a minimum. Effective ways
include the use of sustainable components, the optimization of production, and
the use of wastewater treatment technology. An intelligent selection of process
components helps to minimize the amount of harmful substances in wastewater.
186 L. Almeida

As a consequence, the basic contamination of sewage can be reduced. Manu-

facturers are also requested to install well-functioning wastewater treatment.
• Air emission
Each process step of textile production causes air emissions. The Bluesign
system effects all areas and process steps by directly targeting the basis: the
selection of raw materials and chemical products. It specifies strict selection
criteria for substances and components having an emission impact. The aim is to
reduce CO2 emissions within the company’s sphere of influence as well as
during the subsequent process steps. Exhaust air has to be cleaned and recycled
by adequate environmental technology. This is the essential condition in order to
reduce greenhouse gas emissions and to make an active contribution to climate
protection.
• Occupational Health and Safety
The health and safety of employees in the textile industry have to be safe-
guarded by strict guidelines. Localized problems have to be detected. Safety
measures, according to the risk potential of deployed chemical substances, are
mandatory. Occupational health and safety also includes protection against
environmental pollution, such as dust and noise.
In fact, the basic principle of the Bluesign system is to eliminate harmful sub-
stances from the very beginning, guaranteeing the application of sustainable
ingredients in a clean process, at which end stands a safely manufactured product,
irrespective of the number of process steps or manufacturers involved. The pro-
ducers must take into account the positive list of accepted chemical inputs.
Bluesign has a rating system for each applied chemical component based on the
criteria described above. Chemicals are categorized as follows:

“Blue” category components meet all of the Bluesign criteria and requirements.
“Grey” category components can only be used under certain appropriate
conditions.
“Black” category components do not meet the Bluesign criteria.

Web applications are available, for chemicals, manufacturers, and brands/

retailers.

6 Organic Certification

The trend for buying organic products is mainly related to food. Organic certifi-
cation is a certification process for producers of organic food and other organic
agricultural products based on several requirements—the most important of which
are related to avoiding synthetic chemical inputs, such as fertilizers, pesticides,
antibiotics, and food additives. Genetically modified organisms (GMOs),
Ecolabels and Organic Certification for Textile Products 187

irradiation, and the use of sewage sludge are also forbidden. This trend has also
emerged in textile fibers.
People from around the world are becoming more and more aware of issues such
as global warming, pollution, protection of the environment, and social responsi-
bility. The use of organic fibers, especially organic cotton, is one of the answers to
this trend. There is a growing interest in exploring this niche market, which is
attracting more and more consumers. Organic cotton is produced in a sustainable
way through the management and protection of natural resources, without the use of
agricultural chemicals (pesticides and chemical fertilizers) or other products that are
harmful to humans, animals, and the environment, while maintaining and restoring
the fertility of the soil and assuring biodiversity. It also is softer and less likely to
cause allergic skin reactions.
The year 2007 marked a real “boom” in terms of the growth rate of organic
cotton: 152 % compared to 2006. Although this rate of increase is now much lower,
the fact that 2009 was declared by the United Nations to be the “Year of Natural
Fibers” also lead to a large number of initiatives promoting natural fibers, partic-
ularly organic cotton.
Conventionally grown cotton consumes more than 10 % of the pesticides used in
the world. Organic cotton cultivation is being promoted by several NGOs as a way
to have a better environment, higher income for farmers, and better working con-
ditions for laborers (Wakelyn and Chaudhry 2009).
At present, the European Commission is in the final stages of a review of the
current EU organic legislation. It has decided that the legal basis of its organic
regulation should not be extended to cover textiles (or cosmetics) because the
regulation only concerns farming and organic food. Nevertheless, the principles of
organic farming can be applied to natural textile fibers, both vegetable (cotton and
flax) and animal (wool and silk).
The first European legislation was published in 1992 (Council regulation EEC
2092/91). The present legislation is Regulation EC 834/2007, which is used by
certifying bodies for organic certification. Worldwide, the National Organic Pro-
gram of the US Department of Agriculture is also used.
There are presently many textile consumer products marketed as “organic” (in
most of the cases, made with “organic cotton”). Market estimation of organic
textiles in the European Union in 2011 was about 1 billion Euro (Matrix Insight Ltd
2012). According to this study, organic is responsible for more than 90 % of this
figure, although that represents only approximately 0.7 % of the total cotton world
production.
Because the European regulation is not clearly applicable to textiles, there is no
official system to avoid misleading claims.
188 L. Almeida

6.1 Global Organic Textile Standard

The major certifying system for organic textiles is the Global Organic Textile
Standard (GOTS). This standard was developed following an initiative in 2002. A
working group formed in 2004 involves the following four organizations that
certify and promote organic textiles:
• International Association Natural Textile Industry, Germany
• Soil Association, England
• Organic Trade Association, USA
• Japan Organic Cotton Association, Japan.
The first edition of GOTS was launched in 2006. The most recent version of
GOTS (version 4.0) has been valid since March 2014.
The aim of GOTS is to define globally recognized requirements that ensure the
organic status of textiles, from the harvesting of the raw materials, through envi-
ronmentally and socially responsible manufacturing up to labeling, in order to
provide credible assurance to the consumer.
Although this label is based on certified organic fibers, GOTS has very strict
demands, not only in terms of the use of cotton fibers (or other natural fibers)
produced according to organic agriculture rules, but also for the rules concerning all
stages of textile and clothing production, from the fiber to the final product.
If the product is marketed as “organic” or “organic—in conversion,” at least
95 % of the fiber content of the products (excluding accessories) must be of certified
organic origin or from “in conversion.” If the product is marketed as “made with
X % organic materials” or “made with X % organic—in conversion materials,” then
70 % of the fiber content of the products (excluding accessories) must be of certified
organic origin or from “in conversion.”
There are several requirements for chemical inputs in all processing stages,
banning several inputs, including the following:
• Aromatic and/or halogenated solvents
• Brominated and chlorinated flame retardants
• Chlorinated benzenes
• Chlorophenols (including their salts and esters)
• Complexing agents and surfactants (prohibited are all APs and APEOs (i.e. NP,
OP, NPEO, OPEO, APEOs terminated with functional groups, APEO-polymers,
EDTA, DTPA, NTA, LAS, α-MES)
• Endocrine disruptors
• Inputs that contain or generate formaldehyde and other short-chain aldehydes
• GMOs and their derivatives (including enzymes derived from GMOs) or made
from GMO raw materials (e.g. starch, surfactants, or oils from genetically
modified plants)
• Heavy metals (all inputs must be ‘heavy metal free,’ although certain limits are
allowed for impurities)
Ecolabels and Organic Certification for Textile Products 189

• Inputs (e.g. azo dyes and pigments) releasing carcinogenic arylamine com-
pounds (MAK III, categories 1–4)
• Inputs containing functional nanoparticles (including all nanofinishes, namely
nanosilver, structured nanosurfaces, nano-TiO2, etc.)
• Inputs with halogen-containing compounds (if they contain >1 % permanent
AOX)
• Organotin compounds
• Plasticizers (polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons, phthalates, bisphenol A, and all
other plasticizers with endocrine-disrupting potential)
• Per- and polyfluorinated compounds, such as perfluorinated carboxylic acid
(including perfluorooctanoic acid), perfluorooctane sulfonate (including perflu-
orosulfonic acid) and fluorotelomer alcohol
• Quaternary ammonium compounds (DTDMAC, DSDMAC and DHTDMAC)
• Short-chain chlorinated paraffins (SCCPs, C10–13)
• Substances and preparations that are prohibited for application in textiles with a
recognized internationally or a nationally valid legal character
• Substances and preparations having restrictions in usage for application in
textiles with a recognized internationally or a nationally valid legal character.
This concerns substances that are in the list or candidate list of substances of
very high concern for authorization (REACH Regulation EC 1907/2006 and
further amendments)
• In general, all Inputs that are classified with specific hazard statements (risk
phrases) related to a list of health hazards and environmental hazards
• Inputs that are bioaccumulative and not rapidly degradable
• All preparations applied must further comply with requirements concerning oral
toxicity, aquatic toxicity, and the relationship of biodegradability/eliminability.
Although all the above inputs are forbidden, certain amounts of residues are
accepted (e.g. due to unavoidable contamination).
All chemical inputs intended to be used to process GOTS goods are subject to
approval by a GOTS-approved certifier prior to their usage. Preparations must have
been evaluated and their trade names registered on approved lists prior to their
usage. GOTS issues a positive list of textile auxiliary agents (chemical inputs)
containing the trade names of applied preparations that have been found to be
compliant with the criteria of this standard.
For all chemical inputs (substances and preparations), a Material Safety Data
Sheet (MSDS) prepared according to an applicable recognized norm or directive
must be available. All stages through the supply chain (from spinning to retail) must
be established so as to ensure that organic and conventional fibers are not com-
mingled and that organic fibers and GOTS goods are not contaminated by contact
with prohibited substances.
GOTS has restrictions concerning all textile processes. This includes oils in
spinning, weaving and knitting, and sizing agents. The most demanding restrictions
concern the wet processing stages. In terms of pretreatment, apart from the use of
allowed chemical auxiliaries, only oxygen-based bleaches are allowed and
190 L. Almeida

mercerization is only accepted if alkali baths are recycled. Ammonia treatment and
chlorination of wool are prohibited. For dyeing and printing, there are many
restrictions on dyes and pigments, as well as printing processes.
For finishing, apart from all the restrictions mentioned above, prohibited in
general is the use of synthetic inputs for antimicrobial finishing (including bio-
cides), coating, filling and stiffening, lustering and matting, as well as weighting.
Garment finishing methods that are considered to be harmful to the workers (e.g.
sandblasting of denim) are prohibited.
GOTS includes specific requirements for additional fiber materials and acces-
sories present in the final product. GOTS also established additional specific
requirements for textile personal care products.
Although GOTS does not specifically require that the companies have an
environmental management certified system, a written environmental policy is
required, as well all procedures and data, especially in terms of wet processing
units. Full records must be kept on the use of chemicals, energy, water consump-
tion, and wastewater treatment, including the disposal of sludge. In particular,
companies must continuously measure and monitor wastewater temperature,
wastewater pH, and sediment quantities. There are specific requirements concerning
water discharges (chemical oxygen demand, pH, and temperature). There are also
requirements for storage, packaging, and transport, namely in terms of the pre-
vention of contamination and restrictions concerning packaging materials.
One of the main requirements that are taken into account by GOTS auditors are
recordkeeping and internal quality assurance. Companies must have effective
documented control systems and records that enable the following to be traced:
• The origin, nature, and quantities of organic and additional (raw) materials,
accessories, and inputs that have been delivered to the unit, including transac-
tion certificates for organic fibers
• The flow of goods within the unit (processing/manufacturing steps performed,
recipes used, and stock quantities)
• The composition of manufactured products
• The nature, quantities, and consignees of GOTS goods that have left the unit
• Any other information that may be required for the purposes of proper
inspection of the operation
Records relevant to the inspection must be kept for at least 5 years.
GOTS also includes some technical quality parameters, such as the following:
• Color fastness: rubbing (dry ad wet), perspiration (alkaline and acid), light,
washing (in general at 60 °C, at 30 °C for animal fibers) and saliva (for baby and
children’s clothing)
• Dimensional changes after washing (in general at 60 °C, at 30 °C for animal
fibers)
Social criteria are also very important for GOTS. These criteria are nearly as
strict as those in the SA 8000 standard. They must be respected in the entire textile
supply chain.
Ecolabels and Organic Certification for Textile Products 191

In terms of a quality assurance system, processors, manufacturers, and traders of

GOTS goods must participate in the GOTS certification procedure, which is based
on an on-site annual inspection cycle (including possible additional unannounced
inspections based on a risk assessment of the operations). They must hold a valid
certificate of compliance listing the certified products/product categories and the
processing, manufacturing, and trading activities that are qualified under the scope
of certification (including the names of subcontractors assigned and their relevant
processing and manufacturing steps).
The companies must perform a risk assessment, and the quantity of residues and
technical quality parameters must be tested. The testing frequency, type, and
number of samples are to be established according to the risk assessment. Samples
for residue testing may also be taken by the inspector during the required on-site
inspection, either as a back-up to the inspection process or for suspicion of con-
tamination or noncompliance. Additional samples of goods may be taken from the
supply chain at any time without advance notice. Tests must be conducted in
laboratories that are accredited according to ISO/IEC 17025 and that have appro-
priate experience in residue testing for textiles.
GOTS-certifying organizations must be accredited by the GOTS International
Working Group, in accordance with the document ‘Approval Procedure and
Requirements for Certification Bodies.’ According to a survey of Portuguese textile
companies, GOTS is considered to be the most demanding certification scheme
(Almeida and Tristram 2012).

6.2 Organic Content Standard

In 2007, the international organization Organic Exchange (OE) developed the

OE 100 and OE Blended standards, to verify the organic cotton content claims on
products. The standards established a system for tracking and documenting the
purchase, handling, and use of certified organic cotton fiber.
Since then, there has been a need for a broader organic standard that would
support content claims for all organic inputs, not just cotton. To meet this need,
Textile Exchange (the new name of the Organic Exchange) developed the Organic
Content Standard (OCS), based on the generic chain-of-custody requirements of the
Content Claim Standard.
The first version of the OCS Standard was published in 2013. OCS applies to
any nonfood product containing from 5 to 100 % organic material. It verifies the
presence and amount of organic material in a final product. It tracks the flow of a
raw material from the source to the final product, and this process is certified by an
accredited third party. It allows for transparent, consistent, and comprehensive
independent evaluation and verification of organic material content claims on
products. It also can be used as a business-to-business tool to give companies the
means to ensure that they are getting what they are paying for and selling.
192 L. Almeida

The OCS standard is still mainly used to certify textile consumer products made
with organic cotton. Unlike GOTS, the only requirements relate to the organic
origin of the material and can be applied to a product containing just 5 % organic
material.

7 Fairtrade

Fairtrade is an alternative approach to conventional trade that is based on a part-

nership between producers and consumers. Fairtrade offers producers a better deal
and improved terms of trade. This allows them the opportunity to improve their
lives and plan for their future. For consumers, Fairtrade offers a powerful way to
reduce poverty through their everyday shopping.
When a product carries the Fairtrade mark, it means that the producers and traders
have met Fairtrade standards. The standards are designed to address the imbalance of
power in trading relationships, unstable markets, and the injustices of conventional trade.
Fairtrade, unlike other labels mentioned in the previous sections, is not in itself
an eco-label, but it is committed to protecting small producers in major markets.
Indeed, it helps them escape poverty and improve their living conditions, while
transmitting social, environmental, and management knowledge. Fairtrade and
organic products are often associated with each other (Bassett 2010).
The Fairtrade minimum price is the minimum price that a buyer of Fairtrade
products has to pay to a Producer Organization for their product. It is not a fixed price.
It is set at a level to ensure that Producer Organizations receive a price that covers the
cost of sustainable production for their product and permits them to develop the social
criteria in their organization. However, when the market price is higher than the
Fairtrade minimum, the buyer has to pay the market price. Producers and traders can
also negotiate a higher price—for instance, depending on quality of products.
Fairtrade publishes a series of standards that are designed to tackle poverty and
empower producers in the poorest countries in the world. The standards apply to
both producers and traders. There are standards for small producer organizations,
hired labor, contract production, and trade standards. One of the standards relates to
fiber crops—namely, to cotton seeds.
Fairtrade certified cotton was launched in 2004. At present, some retailers are
asking to their suppliers to implement the requirements of Fairtrade, namely by
using certified cotton along the textile chain.
Fairtrade has also launched a project that aims to develop a specific textile stan-
dard. The Fairtrade Textile Standard will set the requirements for operators at dif-
ferent levels of the textile supply chain processing Fairtrade certified cotton, with the
intent of leading to greater worker empowerment, ensuring decent working condi-
tions and wages, improved livelihoods for workers, increased market access for
Fairtrade cotton producers, and more sustainable supply chains for all operators. The
textile standard will be guided by the Fairtrade Hired Labor Strategy and other
Ecolabels and Organic Certification for Textile Products 193

leading social standards and approaches in the textile industry. The target is to publish
the standard in 2016.

8 Labels from Retailer Chains

Many retailers have developed their own labels to demonstrate to buyers that
textiles are sustainable, but with special emphasis on the safety of the consumers.
These labels or certifying schemes impose very strict requirements on the suppliers.
These labels have recently become stricter in terms of product safety, due partly
to the action of the nongovernmental environmental organization Greenpeace
International. The campaign DETOX (toxic-free fashion), directed to major fashion
leader retailers, and a study about the presence of toxic substances in children’s
clothing induced a reaction in retailers, which was passed on to their suppliers.

8.1 Clear to Wear

Clear to Wear is a product health standard developed by Inditex group, in col-

laboration with the University of Santiago de Compostela (Spain), in conformity
with the most stringent legislation on product health and safety. Clear to Wear is of
general application and obligatory for all the clothing products, footwear, acces-
sories, and/or textiles supplied to Inditex.
In addition to composition, pH, and color fastness, this standard regulates
“substances whose use is legally limited” that, if present in the product above
certain levels, could be hazardous for human health, including Formaldehyde,
arylamines, phenols Pentachlorophenol (PCP) and Tetrachlorophenol (TeCP),
cadmium, lead, mercury, chromium, chromium (VI), nickel, phthalates, polybro-
minated flame retardants, pesticides, short chain chlorinated paraffins, perfluoro-
octane sulfonates, dimethyl fumarate, organotin compounds, and allergenic dyes.
Additionally, Clear to Wear sets limits to the use of two parameters not contem-
plated by the legislation in effect: organochlorinated compounds and isocyanates.
Clear to Wear includes REACH as the EU regulation of mandatory compliance
for all Inditex suppliers. This standard is of general and mandatory application for
all clothing products, footwear, accessories, and/or fabrics supplied to Inditex.
The supplier is the only party responsible for the compliance of the products
supplied to Inditex with Clear to Wear. Regardless of the commitment accepted by
the supplier to control the parameters regulated in Clear to Wear, Inditex will verify
its correct implementation at any phase of the manufacturing process of those
products that are manufactured, commercialized, and/or distributed by it by carrying
out routine and random sample analyses on determined models/quality at any point of
their production cycle. The corresponding costs are to be supported by the suppliers.
194 L. Almeida

Clear to Wear defines 10 families of products, according to article type, degree

of contact with the skin, and age of the end user:
• Products for users younger than 3 years old (babies)
• Clothing in direct and prolonged contact with the skin
• Clothing not directly in contact with the skin
• Parts of footwear in direct and prolonged contact with the skin
• Parts of footwear not directly in contact with the skin
• Accessories in direct and prolonged contact with the skin
• Accessories not directly in contact with the skin
• Metallic-only accessories
• Home textiles in direct and prolonged contact with the skin
• Home textiles not directly in contact with the skin.
For each product family, Clear to Wear defines limit values to be respected.
These limit values are similar to those specified by the label Oeko-Tex 100.
The Clear to Wear reference manual published by Inditex presents detailed
information for each substance of limited use. This information includes where the
substance can be found, the international or different national regulations, the test
methods, acceptable or detection limits, and the ways to avoid or limit the presence
of the harmful substance.

9 Eco Safe

Eco Safe is a mark of the ICQ group (based in Italy) to be used by companies who
believe in adherence to increasingly higher standards of quality and safety. This
label is mainly used by the Benetton Group.
The Italian ICQ group, founded in 1982, works at international level as a cer-
tification institute for quality and safety of consumer products. The textile division
was founded in 1995. ICQ is now part of Underwriter Laboratories, a global
independent safety science company with more than a century of expertise inno-
vating safety solutions.
The Eco Safe mark is applied to all products in the children’s range (United
Colors of Benetton, Undercolors of Benetton, Sisley Young). The presence of the
brand Eco Safe mark on the garment indicates that the products have been designed
in compliance with chemical and mechanical safety standards, including the
following:
• Small parts Small parts, such as buttons, zipper pulls, studs and eyelets, present
a potential hazard to children if they are not well secured to the garment
(choking hazard).
• Dangerous strings and drawstrings Often clothes have cords and drawstrings
that can have either a functional or a purely decorative purpose. On children’s
clothing, they can become potentially dangerous, causing serious accidents
Ecolabels and Organic Certification for Textile Products 195

(strangulation hazard). Cords and drawstrings are restricted in Europe by the

standard EN 14682 (clothing for children up to 14 years old).
• Carcinogenic dyestuffs (damage to health, including carcinogenic effects).
• Allergenic dyestuff (possible sensitization, possible dermatitis, itching, redness
of skin).
• Phthalates (possible allergic reactions and/or irritation in case of skin contact,
possible harmful effects on the reproductive system, liver or kidney damage or
damage to the nervous system). The problems are greater for children, especially
younger ones, who have a habit of putting objects in their mouths.
• Formaldehyde (possible allergic reactions and/or irritation in case of skin con-
tact; potentially carcinogenic).
• Heavy metals (possible allergic reactions and/or irritation in case of skin contact,
possible nerve damage, possibly carcinogenic).
Benetton’s entire network of suppliers is involved in achieving the goal of final
consumer safety. Materials, semi-finished products, and production phases are sub-
jected to strict controls and screening through comprehensive statistical sampling.
Benetton and Inditex are just two examples of the efforts made by major retailers
and brands to demonstrate to their customers that their products are safe and eco-
friendly.
For instance, in 2013, Marks & Spencer reported that significant progress had
been made in increasing the amount of sustainable cotton; in fact, the company
claimed that nearly 11 % of their cotton products were Fairtrade, recycled, organic,
or sourced from the Better Cotton Initiative, compared with 3.8 % in 2011–12.
The Swedish fashion retailer H&M, according to Textile Exchange, leads the list
of the biggest users of certified organic cotton in the world. H&M claims that its plans
are to source 100 percent of its cotton from “more sustainable” sources by 2020.
The Dutch chain C&A also has a strategy of increasing organic cotton, as a key
role for sustainability. In 2013, organic cotton represented 38 % of its total cotton
sales. The retailer also publishes an updated list of restricted substances, very
similar to the Oeko-Tex 100 limits.
Many other major retailers have also defined their sustainability strategies, which
often include commitments related to the restrictions imposed by major ecolabels.

10 Other Labels and Certification Systems

Many other labels can be applied to textile products to demonstrate ecological

aspects. In fact, worldwide there are about 450 ecolabels, of which more than 100
can be applied to textiles, according to the Ecolabel Index (see http://www.
ecolabelindex.com).
It is not possible to provide a complete review of all these labels here. Never-
theless, it is worth mentioning some of them (in alphabetical order):
196 L. Almeida

Blue Angel, Carbon Free, Cradle to Cradle, Global Recycling Standard,

Gemeinschaft Umweltfreundlicher Teppichboden (Society for environmentally
friendly carpets) (GUT) (carpets), Medically Tested (skin-tolerant textiles), Natur
Textile, the Nordic Swan, and SKAL.

11 Conclusion

Sustainable textile production is now an important marketing tool to address the

awareness of more demanding consumers. Ecolabeling systems are a good tool for
this purpose. In this chapter, an overview of the major ecolabeling schemes specific
to textiles was presented.
In general, it is normally expected that—independent of the country where
textiles are produced—ecolabeled products should respect restrictions that go
beyond the legislation in more developed countries.
The trend for “organic textiles” corresponds with this tendency. Specific labels
have been developed to answer the demands of the market, imposing severe
restrictions throughout the textile chain.
The large retailer chains are more and more forced on offering their customers
“sustainable textiles.” These companies often prefer to not use any of the existing
ecolabels but instead are developing their own sustainability policies, imposing
strict demands on their suppliers to assure that the textile products they sell are safe
for the consumer, use environmentally friendly techniques, and consider social
responsibility.

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