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?
Results
Perceptions of sustainability from a moral responsibility perspective
After examining sustainability reports of 86 Chinese T&A corporations in the sample for evidence of sustainability perceptions, the researchers classified 66 (76.7%) of the firms as "perfect duty" companies and 11 (12.8%) as "imperfect duty" companies. Out of the 86, 9 (10.5%) were classified as "no description" companies due to their indicating no views on sustainability from the moral duty perspective. These results suggest that most companies in the sample believed in and had a strong sense of moral responsibility toward sustainability - this was not a surprise given all samples are top performing T&A companies in China. However, the results indicate that about a third of the firms in the sample might only assume social and environmental responsibility under some circumstances or would not assume these responsibilities.