Slowing resource loops in the Circular Economy: an experimentation approach in fashion retail

Research output: Contributions to collected editions/worksArticle in conference proceedingsResearchpeer-review

Authors

The Circular Economy is viewed as an important driver for resolving resource issues and tackling sustainability issues more broadly. The fashion industry operates in a largely linear way and suffers from various environmental, societal and economic challenges. In a Circular Economy, first and foremost, products need to be retained at the highest level, thus slowing resource loops. Slowing resource loops goes against current fast fashion trends and therefore appears the most difficult approach to pursue. This paper investigates how a large established retailer aims to slow resource loops as part of a broader project targeted to significantly reduce textile waste to landfill. The retailer collaborated with a university partner to pursue circular business model experiments. This paper reports on the approach for a slowing resource loops experiment around building sewing capabilities. Suggestions for future research and practice on circular business model experimentation are included.
Original languageEnglish
Title of host publicationSustainable Design and Manufacturing 2018 : Proceedings of the 5th International Conference on Sustainable Design and Manufacturing (KES-SDM-18)
EditorsDzung Dao, Robert James Howlett, Rossi Setchi, Ljubo Vlacic
Number of pages10
Place of PublicationCham
PublisherSpringer Nature AG
Publication date2019
Pages164-173
ISBN (print)978-3-030-04289-9
ISBN (electronic)978-3-030-04290-5
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 2019
Event5th International Conference on Sustainable Design and Manufacturing - SDM 2018 - Gold Coast, Australia
Duration: 24.06.201827.06.2018
Conference number: 5
http://sdm-18.kesinternational.org/