Sustainability in fashion and textiles: A survey from developing country

The manufacturing of fashion and textiles involves many processes, which has high detrimental impact on the environment. The production of fashion and textile has been found to be one of the widely environmental polluting sectors. Environmental problems such as water and air pollution, generation of large amount of waste, use of a large amount of toxic chemicals and generation of large amount of wastewater are some of the problems associated with the fashion and textile production. Due to the increased global awareness to save the planet earth, many leading fashion brands have focused to reduce the pollution caused by the production of fashion and textiles. This chapter reviews the concepts of sustainability in fashion and textile production starting from fiber to the garment manufacturing, which can reduce pollution and achieve environmental sustainability. Furthermore, among different approaches taken to achieve environmental sustainability in the most impacting step, fabric chemical processing has been illustrated. The findings of a survey based on Vietnam's fashion and textile industries are also included in this chapter. We found that the large fashion enterprises are adopting fashion sustainability due to global competition, consumer awareness, and management policy, whereas the small- and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) are struggling to survive in the global market due to limited access to funding, lack of skilled people, and lack of consumer awareness