A comparison between consumer and industry perspectives on sustainable practices throughout the apparel product life cycle

Cao, HuantianThe apparel and textile industry creates a significant environmental footprint at each stage of the product life cycle. As environmental awareness has expanded, different practices have been adopted to reduce the negative impacts on the environment and to maximize the benefits to humans and society. Accordingly, it calls for more discussion on consumer perception towards the apparel industry’s sustainable practices. The purpose of this study is to investigate consumer perceptions of the apparel industry’s sustainable practices throughout the product life cycle and whether consumers are willing to pay a premium for these practices. The industry’s perspective on sustainable practices was obtained from the Higg Index, which is a tool widely used by industry to measure environmental performance throughout the six stages of the product life cycle, i.e., materials, manufacturing, packaging, transportation, product care and repair service, and end of use. An online survey was conducted to collect data on consumer perceptions on different sustainable practices. It was found that the apparel industry and consumers have different perspectives on the importance of sustainable practices in different stages of the apparel product life cycle, as well as within the stage of materials, manufacturing and end of use. Furthermore, consumers’ willingness to pay a premium on the apparel industry’s sustainable practices does not match with the industry’s perspective, as reflected by the Higg Index. This study makes recommendations for reallocating the weight/point distributions for the Higg Index and for revising current sustainable performance for apparel companies.University of Delaware, Department of Fashion and Apparel StudiesM.S