This handbook is a compilation of comprehensive reference sources that
provide state-of-the-art findings on both theoretical and applied
research on sustainable fashion supply chain management. It contains
three parts, organized under the headings of "Reviews and Discussions,"
"Analytical Research," and "Empirical Research," featuring peer-reviewed
papers contributed by researchers from Asia, Europe, and the US. This
book is the first to focus on sustainable supply chain management in the
fashion industry and is therefore a pioneering text on this topic.
In the fashion industry, disposable fashion under the fast fashion
concept has become a trend. In this trend, fashion supply chains must be
highly responsive to market changes and able to produce fashion products
in very small quantities to satisfy changing consumer needs. As a
result, new styles will appear in the market within a very short time
and fashion brands such as Zara can reduce the whole process cycle from
conceptual design to a final ready-to-sell "well-produced and packaged"
product on the retail sales floor within a few weeks. From the supply
chain's perspective, the fast fashion concept helps to match supply and
demand and lowers inventory. Moreover, since many fast fashion
companies, e.g., Zara, H&M, and Topshop, adopt a local sourcing approach
and obtain supply from local manufacturers (to cut lead time), the
corresponding carbon footprint is much reduced. Thus, this local
sourcing scheme under fast fashion would enhance the level of
environmental friendliness compared with the more traditional offshore
sourcing. Furthermore, since the fashion supply chain is notorious for
generating high volumes of pollutants, involving hazardous materials in
the production processes, and producing products by companies with low
social responsibility, new management principles and theories,
especially those that take into account consumer behaviours and
preferences, need to be developed to address many of these issues in
order to achieve the goal of sustainable fashion supply chain
management.
The topics covered include Reverse Logistics of US Carpet Recycling;
Green Brand Strategies in the Fashion Industry; Impacts of Social Media
on Consumers' Disposals of Apparel; Fashion Supply Chain Network
Competition with Eco-labelling; Reverse Logistics as a Sustainable
Supply Chain Practice for the Fashion Industry; Apparel Manufacturers'
Path to World-class Corporate Social Responsibility; Sustainable Supply
Chain Management in the Slow-Fashion Industry; Mass Market Second-hand
Clothing Retail Operations in Hong Kong; Constraints and Drivers of
Growth in the Ethical Fashion Sector: The case of France; and Effects of
Used Garment Collection Programmes in Fast Fashion Brands.
