Communicating actionable sustainability information to consumers: The Shades of Green instrument for fashion

Loading...
Thumbnail Image

Access rights

openAccess
publishedVersion

URL

Journal Title

Journal ISSN

Volume Title

A1 Alkuperäisartikkeli tieteellisessä aikakauslehdessä

Date

2021-05-15

Major/Subject

Mcode

Degree programme

Language

en

Pages

10

Series

Journal of Cleaner Production, Volume 297

Abstract

There is growing information about sustainability and growing consumer awareness about these issues, but none of these are readily translating into action. In this paper we look at why the information provided to consumers on sustainability issues and their solutions are not sufficiently actionable, and propose an alternative method of communicating product-related sustainability information to consumers. Our Shades of Green (SoG) instrument is designed to help and support consumers in their decision-making by providing simple yet comprehensive information about the environmental and social sustainability impacts of products. It brings clarity to sustainability communication on the consumer-company interface by incorporating a set of key sustainability issues over the product's life-cycle by dividing these issues into three levels from minimum through advanced integration of sustainability to innovation for sustainability. Additionally, the SoG instrument makes it easier for companies to structure their sustainability communication into a more actionable form. We illustrate the operationalization of the SoG instrument for the textile domain.

Description

Funding Information: The Authors acknowledge the funding from the Strategic Research Council under Academy of Finland . Grant ID: 327296 / The FINIX Project." Publisher Copyright: © 2021 The Author(s) Copyright: Copyright 2021 Elsevier B.V., All rights reserved.

Keywords

Consumer decision making, Eco-labels, Fashion, Instrument, Sustainable consumer behavior

Other note

Citation

Turunen, L L M & Halme, M 2021, ' Communicating actionable sustainability information to consumers : The Shades of Green instrument for fashion ', Journal of Cleaner Production, vol. 297, 126605 . https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jclepro.2021.126605