Fashioning a Just Future: Analysing the Role of Sustainability Due Diligence Reporting in Enabling a Just Transition in the Fashion Industry

Abstract

Research problem and aim: The need for a just transition (JT) in the fashion industry is undisputed due to its adverse impacts on the environment and people. Meanwhile, sustainability due diligence (SDD) is considered a viable approach to conduct responsible business. However, academic understanding of how SDD could enable a JT is still underexplored and these fields have rarely been combined before. Therefore, this research examines the dimensions of justice that are being pursued in the European Sustainability Reporting Standards (ESRS) under the Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive (CSRD) to enable a JT in the fashion industry. As such, this research aims to define what a JT entails in the fashion industry to provide insights into the role of SDD in JTs.

Theory: This research combined the equity framework from McDermott et al. (2013) and literature on SDD to operationalise four parameters of what a JT entails in relation to SDD.

Methodology: A qualitative embedded research design utilising multiple research methods and units of analysis has been employed. The parameters of a JT have been determined based on interviews with Dutch fashion industry stakeholders, which were supplemented with desk research. An open axial coding strategy was used to analyse the data. The CSRD and ESRS documents were analysed based on a thematic coding strategy.

Results: Findings suggest that meaningful SDD evolves around stakeholder dialogue to identify and manage adverse impacts and therefore largely reflects procedural and recognition justice. This is pursued in the CSRD and ESRS as the core of their SDD. However, the dimensions of contextual and restorative justice are not pursued because the CSRD and ESRS lack reflection on roles, power relationships, and causes of existing disparities. Regarding distributive justice, the results of this research endorse that the integration of social adverse impacts into ambitions on lowering environmental impacts and the discussion regarding trade-offs between impacts are needed to make ESRS a meaningful way to enable a JT in the fashion industry.

Discussion and conclusion: This research contributes a novel perspective to literature on JT, fashion justice, and SDD by taking an interdisciplinary approach and turning attention to the social justice implications of transition strategies that rely on SDD. It provides critical examinations of power relations amongst stakeholders and shines new light on the dimension of distributive justice. Overall, this research recommends that the EU should pin down its meaning of justice because it currently remains too broad and non-explicit to enable a JT through the CSRD and ESRS.