A economia circular na indústria da moda: um índice de circularidade para a cadeia de suprimentos

Abstract

The fashion industry suffers from environmental and social criticism, as it is considered one of the most polluting in the world and many of its workers are subject to precarious working conditions and low wages. This situation is a reflection of the high consumerism originated from the fashion supply chain, which imposes mass production and a high volume of products at low prices. Most of the time, this industry works in the sense of linear economy, mainly driven by the emergence of fast fashion. Because of these factors, sustainability has become a hotly debated topic in fashion, especially the transition to a circular production model. Soon, several circular economy (CE) initiatives became part of some fashion companies and businesses that were born sustainable and businesses that are seeking to become ethically and ecologically correct can be found. However, there are several barriers that can make circular fashion difficult and among them is the consumer's suspicion regarding the veracity of the activities practiced by these sustainable organizations. In this sense, it is important that the sustainability of these companies is verified, through methods and/or models that measure their circularity. So, the purpose of this work is to develop the Circular Fashion Index (CFI), generated from the construction of a tool to assess the circularity of the green fashion supply chain. For the development of the CFI, it was essential to identify and develop specific CE indicators for the fashion supply chain. These indicators were ranked and divided into the dimensions of the triple bottom line (TBL), environmental, social and economic, and will be prioritized using the method of Multi-criteria Decision Analysis, Analytic Hierarchy Process (AHP). The evaluation was carried out by sending a questionnaire to pre-selected fashion companies. Seven responses were received from companies that were born sustainable. In addition, indirect evaluations were also carried out with two fast fashion companies, major fashion retailers, through the analysis of their sustainability reports. The CFIs’s results indicate that the majority of companies are classified as medium circularity, as none of them achieved an index greater than or equal to 0.8 (on a scale of 0 to 1). However, three brands received CFIs with values close to ideal (0.73, 0.72 e 0.71), which indicates few changes to improve circularity. Furthermore, even though they did not obtain a satisfactory CFI, the majority of companies investigated are suitable with the social issue of the triple bottom line, since their indicators were well evaluated in this regard. Thus, the main contributions of this thesis are the creation of the CFI, which, in addition to showing if the evaluated fashion supply chain can be considered circular, will also present an unprecedented selection of CE indicators specific to this sector. These indicators can also be used to identify the points of greatest weakness in the supply chain and of greater attention to improving the circularity of fashion.