End-consumers’ influence on the sustainability agenda

The data collection revealed that all eight companies considered their end-consumers as one of the most important stakeholders among all possible stakeholder groups. The end-consumer is the actor who will buy the product in the end, and must believe the product provides value and quality for money. Additionally, three of the interviewed companies mentioned the purchasing power of the end-consumer in terms of monetary measures. End-consumers do not have unlimited cash flow, and therefore, companies must match the monetary limitations derived from

the end-consumers. Consequently, end-consumers influence sustainability practices in Swedish apparel companies due to their ability to pay for sustainable products. This is visible because the companies must prioritize among sustainability actions due to the monetary limitations. This is an issue since several sustainability choices are more expensive than non-sustainability alternatives in today’s market place.

Companies in general are dependent on their revenues and costs. The revenue is derived from end-consumers’ purchase of products, and the cost is a total sum of administration, marketing, cost for manufacture and other additional costs related to the selling of products. Therefore, the end-consumers set the boundaries indirectly for the organizations’ costs, and in turn, the organizations’ sustainability choices. Marfelt (2017) at Rodebjer discussed how the price of products influences the margin and in turn the possibility for sustainable practices. As a premium brand, Rodebjer can charge higher prices for its products and in that way minimize the risk of the supplier taking the burden of any potential downward pressure on prices.

Discussions regarding sustainability often refer to either the environmental aspect of sustainability, or the social aspect of sustainability. The TBL philosophy argues that the economical perspective is as important as the other two aspects. The internal emphasis of the economic part of the TBL philosophy refers to the creation of financial wins in the long-term, rather than maximizing any short-term gains. (Savitz, 2013) The idea of the TBL is relevant when discussing end-consumers’ influence on sustainability practices. End-consumers’ ability to pay for products have an impact on how much resources garment companies may place on sustainability operations. As a result, the economic perspective of the philosophy sets the standards for the environmental and social aspect, both in theory and in practice.

Friedman (1970) argues that corporations do not possess any responsibilities, except generating as much money as possible to the owners of the business. Even if the article is rather old and Friedman’s views are considered as extreme, his main point may be related to what Mullins (2017) stated in her interview. Companies cannot survive and continue their business without any revenue. In turn, without any business, companies cannot perform any kind of sustainability work either. This indicates that the core business of garment companies is still the primary focus, and

this focus cannot be depressed by the sustainability aspect. However, Porter and Kramer (2011) argue that the sustainability focus and the core business do not have to contradict each other.

Instead, it is possible for garment companies to create economic values while creating value for society at the same time.

End-consumers’ increased sustainability awareness

Another influence affecting garment companies is the increased end-consumer awareness. Six out of eight companies highlighted an emerging trend among their end-consumers. They witnessed an increased awareness in sustainability topics as they have received more questions regarding different sustainability matters over the last period of time. The questions vary from issues concerning chemicals to social aspects of sustainability. Regardless the number of questions, the garment companies must recognize this stakeholder and respond to their claim, as end-consumers’ are considered as one of the most important stakeholder groups. This end-consumer awareness has pushed companies to provide traceable information regarding their products, and to become further transparent regarding their operations. Seven out of eight companies participating in this study offer sustainability information at their websites, which is an influence from the increased end-consumer awareness.

In accordance to the traceability and transparency subject, Nudie Jenas has initiated an online production guide where the company presents all its suppliers with addresses of the factories (Nudie Jeans, 2017a) and it has started to publish summaries of audit results in its sustainability report (Nudie Jeans Co., 2016). Furthermore, Brinkberg (2017), the sustainability manager at Nudie Jeans, mentioned that Nudie Jeans will start to push communication towards the end-consumers more in the future since she experiences that end-end-consumers are ready to understand the sustainability operations conducted by the company. In addition, Stauffer (2017) reports that there is a growing trend of garment companies adopting supply chain transparency. Further, he continues that this exposure of production factories has been a sensitive topic in the past, and it has been hidden from the eyes of end-consumers for a long time.

End-consumers’ influence on the traceability and transparency initiatives can be explained by Pedersen’s (2006) framework. The companies have kept a stakeholder dialogue with the

end-consumers and interpreted their expectations through the interpretation filter. The companies decided to response to the expectations through the response filter. This process has resulted in the implementation of corresponding actions and it is, for example, visible through sustainability information at the apparel companies’ websites.

The reason why the last company that does not offer any sustainability information at its website, could be result of several factors. The company is the smallest company participating in this study in terms of turnover, and therefore it might be a matter of resources. Moreover, this company has not appointed a sustainability manager or a department working actively with sustainability issues. Another factor might be that this company has not been pushed by its end-consumers to the same extent as the rest of the investigated companies. However, even though this research is shaped by an interpretive perspective, it could be discussed if sustainability is truly incorporated in the company’s culture as the interview revealed, due to the lack to sustainability information and reports.

End-consumers’ increased engagement in the product life cycle

The last identified influence from end-consumers in this research is their role in the garment life cycle. Garment companies must include end-consumers in the product life cycle in order to close the loop completely. By definition, Brismar (2015) explains the “closed loop system” as “a societal system where products and their components are designed, manufactured, used and handled so as to circulate within society for as long as possible, with maximum usability, minimum adverse environmental impacts, minimum waste generation, and with the most efficient use of water, energy and other resources throughout their lifecycles”. The analysis implied that garment companies have increased their attention to the closing the loop.

Seven out of eight garment companies explicitly stated the importance of the end-consumers’

responsibility in the product life cycle during the interviews. The product life cycle starts in the design and planning phase and ends in the user phase. In this phase, the end-consumers play a significant role as garment companies have to rely on the end-consumers’ participation in closing the loop. In this context, it is possible to identify a stakeholder dominant relationship, as companies are dependent on active participation of end-consumers in the end phase. As a result,

the apparel companies are reversely influenced by the end-consumers’ responsibility in the end phase of the product life cycle in order to close the loop.

An example of an apparel company actively working with closing the loop is Houdini. At its website (Houdini, 2017b), the company states how it works with recycling, repairs, rentals and second-hand. These are all examples of actions to close the loop or extend the lifetime of a clothing product. Houdini has no direct control over the garments after these have been purchased by the end-consumer. Instead, the company facilitates this process by establishing the above-mentioned actions in order for end-consumers to treat their products in a sustainable way in the end phase of the product life cycle. On the other hand, Mullins (2017) at Haglöfs stated that recycling initiatives based on multi-brand or store-specific schemes might be more efficient rather than recycling initiatives from from one single brand.

When discussing the end-phase of the product life cycle, it is essential to address the issue of responsibility of each actor at the market place. It could be argued that the responsibility in the end-phase belongs to the individual end-consumer, on the other hand, it could be considered to be the responsibility of apparel companies. Besides the issue regarding the responsibility in closing the loop approach, it receives an additional dimension of complexity since collecting used textiles in Sweden is not supported by any legislation (Region Gotland, 2017). In case of Sweden, used clothes and textiles are treated as bulky waste. Due to the lack of regulation to tackle this issue, garment companies can only encourage their end-consumer to actively participate in the circular product life cycle.