Case Study: Exploratory Assessment of Sustainability Capability of Textile and Apparel Corporations in China
This study explores the highly polluting and resource and labor-intensive features of the textile and apparel industry. It reveals four key areas or goals in corporate sustainability: environmental protection, labor relations, operation improvement, and public welfare involvement. Only 22% of Chinese textile and apparel corporations can be considered "Truly Sustainable Corporations", leaving ample opportunity for improvement.
What moral responsibility do corporations have when producing goods? What factors determine the degree to which a corporation takes on social and environmental responsibilities? What factors would account for lack of consistent, long-term commitment to sustainability by a company?
Methods
Content analysis
To achieve the research objectives, content analysis of self-reported documents of Chinese T&A corporations was conducted. Content analysis is used to convert qualitative textual materials (e.g., the reports described below) into quantitative data and thereby evaluate the materials in a manner that allows researchers to make systematic, replicable inferences. In applying content analysis in the present study, the researchers identified and interpreted words, phrases, and sentences in the examined reports that reflected or related to the sustainability perceptions, propositions, behaviors, and performance of Chinese T&A corporations.
Chinese corporations are encouraged to follow international practices to disclose their social and environmental actions and achievements to their stakeholders through publishing sustainability-related reports, and these reports provide the main source of information regarding companies' engagement in sustainability in China. Chinese T&A companies conform mainly to the following standards and guidelines issued by different institutions to compile their sustainability reports: Sustainability Reporting Guidelines (G4) of Global Reporting Initiative (GRI), CASS-CSR [中国企业社会责任报告编写指南] of Chinese Academy of Social Sciences (CASS), CSC9000 [中国纺织企业社会责任管理体系] of CNTAC, and report guides of stock exchanges (Shanghai Stock Exchange, Shenzhen Stock Exchange, and The Stock Exchange of Hong Kong). Thus, the reports are deemed authoritative sources for the comprehensive and quality contents.