The effect of environmental sustainability practices on supply chain resilience in the fashion industry

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School of Business | Bachelor's thesis
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Date

2023

Department

Tieto- ja palvelujohtamisen laitos

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Mcode

Degree programme

Tieto- ja palvelujohtaminen

Language

en

Pages

26+9

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Abstract

Climate change, one of the most pressing concerns of today and the future, is constantly progressing as a result of the growing economy. This has made sustainability efforts undeniably important and visible in all areas of business, including supply chain management. Consequently, an increasing number of companies try to keep up with the transformation and retain customer demand by taking action through environmental practices. This change is especially crucial in carbon and water sensitive, waste producing industries such as fashion. The attempt of fashion companies to improve their operations and supply chains ecologically affects the external environment directly in a positive way, but simultaneously it must have some internal effects. There exists a gap in previous literature on how this sustainable transformation affects the resilience and risk tolerance of fashion supply chains. This thesis studies how environmental sustainability and resilience are related and how resilience can be developed through concrete ecological practices in the fashion industry. The results of this contextual literature review indicate that the relationship between sustainability and resilience is somewhat unclear with contrasting views. However, there is evidence that sustainability does affect resilience both positively and negatively. This shifts the point of concentration to how resilience can be developed sustainably. The results suggest that the most vital methods are supplier engagement and environmental cooperation. These propositions are to be viewed slightly differently in the context of fashion supply chains since they have inherently unique characteristics such as volatile demand. The study proposes that sustainably resilient fashion supply chains can be built especially by fostering collaboration and emphasizing ecological design.

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Thesis advisor

Kim, Seongtae

Keywords

environmental sustainability, resilience, fashion supply chain, green supply chain management

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https://urn.fi/URN:NBN:fi:aalto-202306254275

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[kand] Kauppakorkeakoulu / BIZ (Open Access)