Marketing and Sustainable Management in the Garment and Textile Industry in Europe

This report focuses on marketing and sustainable development in the garment and textile industry in Europe according to EU's Circular Economy Package. It discusses the strategies and models that fashion brands can use to manage resources and realize sustainability.

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Marketing and Sustainable Management
In April 2018, the European Union (EU) passed the Circular Economy Package to
promote sustainable production to reduce the stress on the limited human resources (Stahel,
2017, pp 41). The EU's Circular Economy Package makes it mandatory for most of the
companies in Europe to reuse the products they create. It is not only the EU encouraging
sustainability in European companies but also the US. Chamber of Commerce supports circular
economies. China has also followed the same trajectory to develop legislation and policies for
circular economies (CEs). Sustainability ensures that the limited resources are efficiently and
effectively utilized not only to meet our present demands but also provide the requirements and
needs of future generations is not put at jeopardy. Sustainability is the famous global framework
that global organizations must align according to the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development
and its Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) (Lieder, and Rashid, 2016, pp50). The
sustainable goals and target apply universally; thus, all countries in the world should strive to
achieve the objectives. Sustainability requires corporation from all the stakeholders, namely the
government, civil societies, business organizations, technology experts and society.
Resources Management and Utilization in Business
In this report, we are going to focus on marketing and sustainable development in the
garment and textile industry in Europe according to EU's Circular Economy Package. We are
going to use the six brand Addidas, PRIMARK, NANUSHKA, Ajos, Nike and Gap Inc. The
garment and textile industry is among the significant business sector with considerable annual
revenues. Clothing is a basic need, and the demand for clothes will always be there as long as
people exist. The garment and textile industry have not been left behind with the Make Fashion
Circular launched in May 2017 as the Circular Fibre Initiative (Geissdoerfer , Savaget, Bocken,

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and Hultink, 2017, pp758). Make Fashion circulars brings together stakeholders in the fashion
industry, including major brands, philanthropist, innovators and NGOs to establish a textile
industry aligned to the circular economy principles.
Sustainability in the textile industry does not only involve the use of organic cotton and
fostering right working conditions. Sustainability is, also, concerned with energy consumption,
water consumption and the chemicals used in the production process (Franco, 2017). For fashion
brands to survive and even strive in the industry, it is essential to redesign the operating model to
align the circular economy principles (Balanay, and Halog, 2019 pp 49). This requires that the
organizations recycle their products, such as the water used in the production process. Several
water recycling techniques exist in the world today, which can be adopted but the organizations
for recycling and reusing water as long as possible- thus reducing the pressure on water sources
under sustainability principles. Secondly, the brands mainly use electricity to run their day to day
operation. Power comes from various sources. It is recommended that the brands should move
away from electricity produced through fossil fuels and embrace cleaner energy sources. Nuclear
and solar energy are among the recommended energy sources, and the government plays a
critical role in establishing the infrastructure required for cleaner energy sources.
The availability of sustainable raw material is a challenge faced by the fashion brand in
ensuring the circular economy (Mulrow, J. and Santos, 2017.pp 345). The production of the
cotton and wool used in producing the final product should be sustainable through generations to
come. Also, the production process provides' waste products. The circular economy principle
requires that most of the waste generated should be recycled and reused before it is disposed off
safely (Stahel, 2016). Waste disposal is a crucial element of sustainability. For instance, the
fumes produced in the production should have minimum carbon content to reduce pollution and

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the global warming impact. Again, the chemical used in the production process should not have
devastating effects on people and the environment.
Resources Management Approaches
To manage resources well, fashion brands have to implement circular product design
strategies (Kirchherr, Reike, and Hekkert, 2017). The narrowing, slowing, and closing loop
approach is applied in the establishment of circular product design. The slowing loop is the use
of product life-extension strategies and producing long-life products to prolong the use and reuse
of good. Narrowing loop involves reducing the resources in the production while closing
entirely involve the reuse of material used in the production (Geissdoerfer, Morioka, de
Carvalho, and Evans, 2018, pp 721). The combination of these strategies can enable a fashion
brand to realize sustainability per circular economy principles.
Slowing Resource Loops
If the product utilization period extended, the use of resources can be reduced
significantly. This strategy can be very useful in making the textile industry a circular economy.
Slowing resource loops involves extending and intensifying the utilization period of products to
slow down the flow of resources (Bocken, De Pauw, Bakker and van der Grinten, 2016). This is
achieved through product-life extension and the design of long-life products. Designing long-life
products strategy is to ensure that the products of the fashion brands have a long utilization
period. Therefore, the organization should not only design textile products that will be liked by
the customers, but they should also last longer. This mainly has to do with improving the design
durability of the products to withstand wear and tear (Valkokari, Hanski, and Ahonen, 2017).
Extension of the product life can be achieved through repair and maintenance of the product.
Therefore, the products should be reliable to the users for an extended period to reduce the need

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for producing other products. This will reduce stress on the resources required thus promoting
circular economy.
Closing the Resource Loop
The closing the loop strategies involve the use and reuse of the products to achieve a
cyclical flow of resources (Lüdeke‐Freund, Gold and Bocken, 2019). The first strategy for the
fashion brand is to design a technological cycle. A technical circle design ensures that the
developed product allows continuous recycling of materials. The waste materials should be
converted into the equivalent of their original product to establish a constant resource flow. The
second strategy is the design of a biological cycle. This would ensure that fashion brands
produce products that safe and healthy for the natural system. Providing biodegradable products
enables recycling thus promoting a circular economy. Therefore, the textile industry should
move towards producing biodegradable products.
Narrowing the Resource Loop
Narrowing the resource loop involves reducing the amount of material required to
produce the product (Jørgensen and Remmen, 2018). The fashion brands have to ensure that they
adopt efficient and effective design and production technologies. This will provide minimum
waste and energy is conserved throughout the production process

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Value Dimension and the corresponding question
Value dimensions include the value proposition, value creation and value capture.
Several models can be analyzed based on these concerns. For the access and performance
model, the value proposition involves the value proposed and to whom is it recommended.
Value proposition focuses on delivering services and products rather than ownership (Bocken,
De Pauw, Bakker and van der Grinten, B., 2016 pp 310). The value of the products is offered to
the customers and partners of the fashion brand. This model ensures that the product meets the
customer needs as well as has a minimum impact on the environment. Extending product value is
done by exploiting the residual value. The value creation is taken over by the manufactures,
which in this case is the fashion brands. Value is captured through the pricing of each product
unit. This model would allow fashion brands to obtain financial benefits by offsetting the
additional costs of sustainability through product pricing.
The extending product value model focuses on exploiting the residual value of products.
For this case, the business organization can recall all products that have ceased to function and
use the residual value. The value proposition is offered by the residual value of the product and
how it can help in producing new products to the market. The value creation is obtained through
the creation of consistent product returns. Once returned the organization can capture value
through the reduction of the material costs. For instance, the fashion brand may collect disposed
products and add value to them, then sell them to the customers at a reduced price. This will
reduce the resources used in the production of products.
The final model is the classical long life model which encourages sufficiency. The value
proposition is offered to customers through long-lasting and high-quality products that provide a
high level of service. The value creation is obtained through the high customer service and

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durable product design. Consequently, value capture is realized through the premium pricing of
the products. High quality and sustainable products usually come at high prices; therefore,
fashion brands can offset the sustainability costs incurred.
Conclusion
Sustainability ensures that the limited resources are efficiently and effectively utilized not
only to meet our present demands but also ensure the demands and needs of future generations is
not put at jeopardy. The EU's Circular Economy Package makes it mandatory for most of the
companies in Europe to reuse the products they create. The garment and textile industry is
striving to align its operation to the circular economy principles. There are several strategies and
models that fashion brands can use to manage resources and realize sustainability.

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References
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