Sustainable renovation of the cotton industry

Diplomsko delo vključuje teorijo o tradicionalnem in trajnostnem pridelovanju bombažnih vlaken in praktični del, kjer smo z anketiranjem širšega občinstva pridobili informacije o miselnosti in znanju kupcev, z dvema intervjujema pa miselnost in trajnostno delovanje v tekstilni in modni industriji. V teoretskem delu so izpostavljene pozitivne in negativne strani tako tradicionalne pridelave kot trajnostnih principov pridelave bombažnih vlaken in podane možnosti drugačnega načina pridelovanja vlakna. Rezultati ankete, v kateri je sodelovalo 130 ljudi, so pokazali, da so ljudje dovzetni za pozitivne spremembe, želijo si bolj trajnostne tekstilne izdelke in so celo pripravljeni plačati več zanje. Vendar pa skoraj 33 % vprašanih ne pozna niti ene ekološke oznake in le 11 % vprašanih pozna oznako BCI (»The Better Cotton Initiative«), medtem ko jih kar 51 % ne bi kupilo izdelka, ki vsebuje gensko spremenjeni bombaž. Iz rezultatov lahko zaključimo, da kupci niso dovolj informirani o izdelkih, ki jih kupujejo. G. Zabret in ga. Benedetti, s katerima smo opravili intervjuja sta poudarila, da je trajnost zelo pomembna in razložila, kako je industrija že naredila in še dela spremembe tudi na tem področju. V obeh intervjujih je bilo poudarjeno, da večje povpraševanje kupcev po trajnostnih izdelkih vodi do takšnih sprememb.The thesis includes a theoretical part on traditional and sustainable cotton fibre production and a practical part, where we gathered information on customer mindsets and knowledge by surveying a wider audience and performing two interviews to get an insight into the mindsets and sustainable practices in the textile and fashion industry. The theoretical part highlights the positive and negative sides of both traditional production and sustainable cotton fibre production principles, and presents options for alternative ways of growing the fibre. The results of the survey of 130 people showed that people are receptive to positive change, would like to see more sustainable textiles, and are even willing to pay more for them. However, almost 33 % of respondents do not know of any organic label and only 11 % know of the BCI label ("The Better Cotton Initiative"), while 51 % would not buy a product containing GM cotton. The results suggest that customers are not sufficiently informed about the products they buy. Mr. Zabret and Ms. Benedetti, whom we interviewed, highlighted that sustainability is very important and explained how the industry has already made and is still making changes in this field. Both interviews emphasized that increased customer demand for sustainable products leads to such changes