IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/gam/jsusta/v15y2023i19p14170-d1247290.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

A Framework to Navigate Eco-Labels in the Textile and Clothing Industry

Author

Listed:
  • Paula Ziyeh

    (Decision Engineering for Sustainability and Resilience Laboratory, Leiden University College, Leiden University, 2595DG The Hague, The Netherlands)

  • Marco Cinelli

    (Decision Engineering for Sustainability and Resilience Laboratory, Leiden University College, Leiden University, 2595DG The Hague, The Netherlands)

Abstract

Considering the increasing demand for more sustainable products across many industries, eco-labels are a useful tool for communicating the sustainability-related performance of a product to the eco-conscious consumer. However, the abundance of different eco-labels and a lack of harmonization concerning their assessment methods can hamper their effectiveness. To address these shortcomings, this paper considers the methods employed by eco-labels in the textile and clothing industry to assess the sustainability-based performance of products. Using a sample of 10 eco-labels from the Ecolabel Index, a new framework for classifying eco-labels based on their assessment methods is developed. The framework includes two categories of label assignments ((i) binary and (ii) different levels of performance) and six types of assessment methods. These types are characterized according to the decision support features employed by the labels, such as lists of mandatory criteria, minimum (average) scores, percentage scores, and the weighting of sub-categories. The proposed framework shows the benefits of cascading decision science notions in the eco-labeling domain. It provides a harmonized vocabulary of components (i.e., a roadmap) to perform a consistent and traceable advancement of eco-labels. Consequently, it can be expanded at present to allow for the classification of other eco-labels in the textile and clothing industry and beyond.

Suggested Citation

  • Paula Ziyeh & Marco Cinelli, 2023. "A Framework to Navigate Eco-Labels in the Textile and Clothing Industry," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 15(19), pages 1-29, September.
    • Handle: RePEc:gam:jsusta:v:15:y:2023:i:19:p:14170-:d:1247290
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/15/19/14170/pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/15/19/14170/
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Michele Andreotti & Carlo Brondi & Davide Micillo & Ron Zevenhoven & Johannes Rieger & Ayoung Jo & Anne-Laure Hettinger & Jan Bollen & Enrico Malfa & Claudio Trevisan & Klaus Peters & Delphine Snaet &, 2023. "SDGs in the EU Steel Sector: A Critical Review of Sustainability Initiatives and Approaches," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 15(9), pages 1-23, May.
    2. Cinelli, Marco & Kadziński, Miłosz & Miebs, Grzegorz & Gonzalez, Michael & Słowiński, Roman, 2022. "Recommending multiple criteria decision analysis methods with a new taxonomy-based decision support system," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 302(2), pages 633-651.
    3. Hannibal, Claire & Kauppi, Katri, 2019. "Third party social sustainability assessment: Is it a multi-tier supply chain solution?," International Journal of Production Economics, Elsevier, vol. 217(C), pages 78-87.
    4. Malin Jonell & Beatrice Crona & Kelsey Brown & Patrik Rönnbäck & Max Troell, 2016. "Eco-Labeled Seafood: Determinants for (Blue) Green Consumption," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 8(9), pages 1-19, September.
    5. Patrizia Gazzola & Enrica Pavione & Roberta Pezzetti & Daniele Grechi, 2020. "Trends in the Fashion Industry. The Perception of Sustainability and Circular Economy: A Gender/Generation Quantitative Approach," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 12(7), pages 1-19, April.
    6. Chloe Satinet & François Fouss, 2022. "A Supervised Machine Learning Classification Framework for Clothing Products’ Sustainability," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 14(3), pages 1-26, January.
    7. Meital Peleg Mizrachi & Alon Tal, 2022. "Regulation for Promoting Sustainable, Fair and Circular Fashion," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 14(1), pages 1-28, January.
    8. Esben Rahbek Gjerdrum Pedersen & Wencke Gwozdz & Kerli Kant Hvass, 2018. "Exploring the Relationship Between Business Model Innovation, Corporate Sustainability, and Organisational Values within the Fashion Industry," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 149(2), pages 267-284, May.
    9. Jelena Demko-Rihter & Claudio Sassanelli & Marija Pantelic & Zoran Anisic, 2023. "A Framework to Assess Manufacturers’ Circular Economy Readiness Level in Developing Countries: An Application Case in a Serbian Packaging Company," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 15(8), pages 1-25, April.
    10. Deniz Köksal & Jochen Strähle & Martin Müller & Matthias Freise, 2017. "Social Sustainable Supply Chain Management in the Textile and Apparel Industry—A Literature Review," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 9(1), pages 1-32, January.
    11. Gabriele Jahn & Matthias Schramm & Achim Spiller, 2005. "The Reliability of Certification: Quality Labels as a Consumer Policy Tool," Journal of Consumer Policy, Springer, vol. 28(1), pages 53-73, December.
    12. Guillaume Gruère, 2015. "An Analysis of the Growth in Environmental Labelling and Information Schemes," Journal of Consumer Policy, Springer, vol. 38(1), pages 1-18, March.
    13. Cinelli, Marco & Kadziński, Miłosz & Gonzalez, Michael & Słowiński, Roman, 2020. "How to support the application of multiple criteria decision analysis? Let us start with a comprehensive taxonomy," Omega, Elsevier, vol. 96(C).
    14. Cathy A. Roheim & Frank Asche & Julie Insignares Santos, 2011. "The Elusive Price Premium for Ecolabelled Products: Evidence from Seafood in the UK Market," Journal of Agricultural Economics, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 62(3), pages 655-668, September.
    15. Shuai Yang & Yiping Song & Siliang Tong, 2017. "Sustainable Retailing in the Fashion Industry: A Systematic Literature Review," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 9(7), pages 1-19, July.
    16. Ralph L. Keeney, 1982. "Feature Article—Decision Analysis: An Overview," Operations Research, INFORMS, vol. 30(5), pages 803-838, October.
    17. Giulia Maesano & Giuseppe Di Vita & Gaetano Chinnici & Gioacchino Pappalardo & Mario D'Amico, 2020. "The Role of Credence Attributes in Consumer Choices of Sustainable Fish Products: A Review," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 12(23), pages 1-18, November.
    18. F. Testa & F. Iraldo & A Vaccari & E. Ferrari, 2015. "Why Eco‐labels can be Effective Marketing Tools: Evidence from a Study on Italian Consumers," Business Strategy and the Environment, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 24(4), pages 252-265, May.
    19. Magnus Boström & Michele Micheletti, 2016. "Introducing the Sustainability Challenge of Textiles and Clothing," Journal of Consumer Policy, Springer, vol. 39(4), pages 367-375, December.
    20. Rizal Taufiq Fauzi & Patrick Lavoie & Luca Sorelli & Mohammad Davoud Heidari & Ben Amor, 2019. "Exploring the Current Challenges and Opportunities of Life Cycle Sustainability Assessment," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 11(3), pages 1-17, January.
    21. Anabela Gonçalves & Carla Silva, 2021. "Looking for Sustainability Scoring in Apparel: A Review on Environmental Footprint, Social Impacts and Transparency," Energies, MDPI, vol. 14(11), pages 1-33, May.
    22. Leandro Pereira & Rita Carvalho & Álvaro Dias & Renato Costa & Nelson António, 2021. "How Does Sustainability Affect Consumer Choices in the Fashion Industry?," Resources, MDPI, vol. 10(4), pages 1-30, April.
    23. Laura Virta & Riikka Räisänen, 2021. "Three Futures Scenarios of Policy Instruments for Sustainable Textile Production and Consumption as Portrayed in the Finnish News Media," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(2), pages 1-16, January.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Fung, Yi-Ning & Chan, Hau-Ling & Choi, Tsan-Ming & Liu, Rong, 2021. "Sustainable product development processes in fashion: Supply chains structures and classifications," International Journal of Production Economics, Elsevier, vol. 231(C).
    2. Kay H. Hofmann & Axel Jacob & Massimo Pizzingrilli, 2022. "Overcoming Growth Challenges of Sustainable Ventures in the Fashion Industry: A Multinational Exploration," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 14(16), pages 1-22, August.
    3. Kuo-Kuang Fan & Yi-Ting Chang, 2023. "Exploring the Key Elements of Sustainable Design from a Social Responsibility Perspective: A Case Study of Fast Fashion Consumers’ Evaluation of Green Projects," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 15(2), pages 1-20, January.
    4. Bin Shen & Qingying Li & Ciwei Dong & Patsy Perry, 2017. "Sustainability Issues in Textile and Apparel Supply Chains," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 9(9), pages 1-6, September.
    5. Şirin Gizem KÖSE & Kenan AYDIN, 2020. "Sürdürülebilir Moda Perakendeciliği: Tüketici Algıları Üzerine Bir Araştırma," Istanbul Business Research, Istanbul University Business School, vol. 49(1), pages 86-116, May.
    6. Juliane Peters & Ana Simaens, 2020. "Integrating Sustainability into Corporate Strategy: A Case Study of the Textile and Clothing Industry," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 12(15), pages 1-35, July.
    7. Ronak Warasthe & Finja Schulz & Ralf Enneking & Marcus Brandenburg, 2020. "Sustainability Prerequisites and Practices in Textile and Apparel Supply Chains," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 12(23), pages 1-18, November.
    8. Thorey S Thorisdottir & Lara Johannsdottir, 2020. "Corporate Social Responsibility Influencing Sustainability within the Fashion Industry. A Systematic Review," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 12(21), pages 1-64, November.
    9. Hailan Guo & Ming Dong & Christos Tsinopoulos & Mengyuan Xu, 2024. "The influential capacity of carbon neutrality environmental orientation in modulating stakeholder engagement toward green manufacturing," Corporate Social Responsibility and Environmental Management, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 31(1), pages 292-310, January.
    10. Jiapeng Liu & Miłosz Kadziński & Xiuwu Liao, 2023. "Modeling Contingent Decision Behavior: A Bayesian Nonparametric Preference-Learning Approach," INFORMS Journal on Computing, INFORMS, vol. 35(4), pages 764-785, July.
    11. Susmaga, Robert & Szczȩch, Izabela & Zielniewicz, Piotr & Brzezinski, Dariusz, 2023. "MSD-space: Visualizing the inner-workings of TOPSIS aggregations," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 308(1), pages 229-242.
    12. Katrin Zander & Doreen Bürgelt & Inken Christoph-Schulz & Petra Salamon & Daniela Weible, 2015. "Consumers’ Response to Sustainability Labeling in Wild Caught Fish," 2015 EAFE (European Association of Fisheries Economists) Conference Papers 004, Nisea.
    13. Nelly Oelze & Tim Gruchmann & Marcus Brandenburg, 2020. "Motivating Factors for Implementing Apparel Certification Schemes—A Sustainable Supply Chain Management Perspective," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 12(12), pages 1-15, June.
    14. Olson, Erik L., 2022. "‘Sustainable’ marketing mixes and the paradoxical consequences of good intentions," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 150(C), pages 389-398.
    15. Shashi & Piera Centobelli & Roberto Cerchione & Amit Mittal, 2021. "Managing sustainability in luxury industry to pursue circular economy strategies," Business Strategy and the Environment, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 30(1), pages 432-462, January.
    16. Rasa Bartkutė & Dalia Streimikiene & Tomas Kačerauskas, 2023. "Between Fast and Sustainable Fashion: The Attitude of Young Lithuanian Designers to the Circular Economy," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 15(13), pages 1-21, June.
    17. Chan, Hau-Ling & Wei, Xiaoyong & Guo, Shu & Leung, Wing-Hong, 2020. "Corporate social responsibility (CSR) in fashion supply chains: A multi-methodological study," Transportation Research Part E: Logistics and Transportation Review, Elsevier, vol. 142(C).
    18. Alessandro Brun & Hakan Karaosman & Teodosio Barresi, 2020. "Supply Chain Collaboration for Transparency," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 12(11), pages 1-21, May.
    19. Nornajihah Nadia Hasbullah & Zuraidah Sulaiman & Adaviah Mas’od & Hanis Syuhada Ahmad Sugiran, 2022. "Drivers of Sustainable Apparel Purchase Intention: An Empirical Study of Malaysian Millennial Consumers," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 14(4), pages 1-24, February.
    20. Sergio Vitale & Federica Biondo & Cristina Giosuè & Gioacchino Bono & Charles Odilichukwu R. Okpala & Ignazio Piazza & Mario Sprovieri & Vito Pipitone, 2020. "Consumers’ Perception and Willingness to Pay for Eco-Labeled Seafood in Italian Hypermarkets," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 12(4), pages 1-13, February.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:gam:jsusta:v:15:y:2023:i:19:p:14170-:d:1247290. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: MDPI Indexing Manager (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://www.mdpi.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.