Ethical issues in the fashion industry

Essay from the year 2021 in the subject Business economics - Business Ethics, Corporate Ethics, grade: 1,0, University of Applied Sciences Landshut, language: English, abstract: Since the last decades have been a significant strengthening in ethical concern among consumers, which has led to an increase in demand for “ethical” choices in the marketplace. The textile and clothing (T&C) industry is one of the industries with a significant impact on ecological and social footprints on our planet, mainly driven by resource, and labour-intensive practices and driving the largest carbon footprint throughout the value chains. This study contributes to current knowledge of sustainability in the textile and clothing industry. This study first portrays the importance of sustainability and business ethics in the fashion industry based on the extant literature. Second, it seeks to provide a current status of the problematic on sustainable and ethical practices in the fashion industry taking as an example the Swedish multinational clothing retail company, H&M, well-known for its wide controversies. The analysis research is aligned to international organisations’ standards and principles, and it is mainly divided into four dimensions implemented by the United Nations: respect for human rights, labour, environmental protection, and anti-corruption.