Environmental Concerns in the Fashion Industry. An Approach to Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR)

Bachelor Thesis from the year 2020 in the subject Business economics - Business Management, Corporate Governance, grade: 1,5, Pforzheim University, language: English, abstract: The fashion industry is one of the most profitable industries in the world. Significant impacts on the environment arise throughout the overall value chain. Reasons for this are new fashion phenomena such as 'Fast Fashion' which includes cheap production, large purchase quantities and garments with short life cycles. The aim of this bachelor thesis is to analyse the environmental impacts of the fashion industry and examine the extent of which these impacts are known by consumers. It is intended to provide information about possible alternatives to Fast Fashion in form of a shift in consumer behavior as well as possible actions for companies such as Corporate Social Responsibility strategies. To acquire a profounder knowledge about consumer behavior in terms of clothing, the following research question guides this paper: To what extent do environmental impacts caused by the fashion industry influence consumer behavior? To find an explanation, an online survey is conducted, aimed at students aged 17 to 30 years. The responses to the survey show that there is less awareness and little knowledge of the environmental impacts of clothing, illustrating that there are no signs of a radical change towards slow and sustainable fashion. The results confirm that alternative options are only accepted to a very limited extent and that a perceived too high price is an essential criterion for rejection. In the future it will be necessary to create awareness and consciousness about current and future fashion models to initiate a comprehensive change in thinking. Further research could focus on encouraging consumers to change their consumption habits as well as on developing strategies for fundamental changes in the fashion business.