Exploring sustainability approach of the fashion brands in Turkey

There has been an increasing interest in enhancing sustainability measures in fashion industry triggered by concerns on the depletion of the earth resources. The fashion industry is recently held to be responsible for at least 2.1 billion metric tons (4%) of global greenhouse-gas emissions. This comes along with other major impacts including higher rates of water and energy consumption. With this sizable impact on the environment, embracing sustainable actions in production and consumption stages become necessary for the industry. This study explores sustainable approach in the fashion industry of Turkey by focusing on three prominent fashion brands, and discusses the challenges and opportunities that they face. The results are important since Turkey is a key market player in international fashion industry and the fashion industry significantly contributes to the national economy. Employing a qualitative approach, we conducted six in-depth, semi-structured interviews with sustainability directors from three Turkish fashion brands along with some industry experts. We examined the data using a latent thematic analysis. The preliminary findings show that sustainability activities are still in the infant stage in the Turkish fashion industry. Most of the Turkish fashion brands are motivated by reasons other than just concerns about environment. The results indicate that companies are inclined to be sustainable mainly to follow international brands and improve brand image. Even though brands face challenges such as higher production cost, lack of government support, and supply chain problems in sustainability matters they are still optimistic about the future given the increasing awareness of young generation and the strategic vision of the country