Practices For Environmental Sustainability In The Italian Fashion Clothing and Leather Sectors: Outcomes Of An Empirical Research

The fashion supply chain, which represents one of the most important industries of the European industry, is one of the most polluting industries in the world, as it consumes large amount of water, electricity, and chemicals and discharges massive quantities of wastes on land. Despite this fact, analysis of the practices adopted by fashion companies to reduce their environmental impact has been few. In this paper, an empirical study is presented on the adoption of sustainability practices by Italian companies in the fashion clothing and leather industries. The research was conducted through an online survey sent to a sample of 192 Italian companies having, respectively, ATECO (Classification of Economic Activity) 2007 code 14 and 15 in the AIDA database; the response rate was 13%. Results have been analyzed through statistical software to conduct a cluster analysis; six clusters have been identified. The results show that companies that belong to cluster 1 do not follow any sustainability practices even if they are coherent with what they declare on their Web site. Companies in cluster 2 adopt some practices, but sustainability is not integrated into their culture. Cluster 3 is composed of companies that declare a high interest in the environment, mainly for marketing reasons. Companies in this group represent those more misaligned and inconsistent with practices declared on their Web site and those implemented. Cluster 5 consists of companies that endorse environmental sustainability as part of company values and report the implementation of practices to a high degree. Last, companies belonging to Cluster 6 have environmental sustainability as a strategic objective and implement sustainability practices in a consistent and coordinated manner.