Abstract
The purpose of this chapter is to discuss the Circular Economy (CE) model as applied to the case study of the Fashion industry in Tuscany. More specifically, we try to find out to what extent the potentials for environmental upgrading are channelled through the supply chain and we suggest that the CE perspective is intrinsically connected to the global manufacturing production and consumption.
To achieve this purpose, we perform a multiple correspondence analysis (MCA) using data stemming from a survey on Tuscan manufacturing firms about their initiatives of sustainability upgrading. Although in terms of fixed investments the fashion industry lags slightly behind, our analysis shows that firms are getting more conscious about the need for preserving resources and saving inputs. However, the paradigmatic shift towards CE requires more profound changes in their business model. Indeed, it confirms that the value chain is a relevant channel for environmental upgrading, albeit the activation of such a channel requires to have adopted specific environmental innovations.
This chapter is organised as follows: Section “Circular Economy, Firms Behaviour and Value Chains” introduces a review of the literature. Section “Fashion Industry in Tuscany: Specialisations, Value Chain Structure and Carbon Footprint” presents the main characteristics of the Tuscan Fashion. Section “Descriptive Analysis” sketches some descriptive results from the MCA. Section “Concluding Remarks” concludes.
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Notes
- 1.
In 1987 the Brundtland Report, “Our Common Future”, already stated that “industries and industrial operations should be encouraged that are more efficient in terms of resource use, that generate less pollution and waste, that are based on the use of renewable rather than non-renewable resources, and that minimise irreversible adverse impacts on human health and the environment”. See www.un-document.net/our-common-future.pdf.
- 2.
For instance, think of the linkages between life-cycle assessment (LCA) and input-output analysis (e.g. Wood, 2017).
- 3.
The jewellery sector is not included in the analysis for reasons concerning the consistency of the statistical sources used.
- 4.
Prato and Santa Croce sull’Arno also constitute examples of the local systems which have experienced forms of self-government of environmental externalities stemming from production activities. In this sense, there are very interesting cases of management of environmental problems that emerged within communities of residents and producers, of which a typical example is represented by industrial districts (e.g. Da Ronch et al., 2013; Daddi, De Giacomo, & Testa, 2012).
- 5.
In particular, we estimate weights through the estimation of a logit model with the response as a function of the economic sector, size, geographical localisation, legal form, the share of blue collars, the share of managers, a flag for the exporter status and a flag for headquarters.
- 6.
The Agenda 2030 was signed in 2015 by the member states of the United Nations. It is composed of 17 sustainable development goals and 169 targets meant to widespread economic, social and environmental development all over the world.
- 7.
In this regard, Santa Croce sull’Arno industrial district has a long tradition of shared wastewater treatment and several research projects on the closed cycle of water. For further information about the research projects of the Polo Tecnologico Conciario (PO.TE.CO), visit their website: https://www.polotecnologico.com/index.php?c=3.
- 8.
One of the most visible effects of the strong environmental impact of the tanning industry has been the global campaign reporting both the low environmental sustainability of their activities and the unfair conditions of the workers. See for example: https://www.abitipuliti.org/news/2017-report-guarda-dove-metti-i-piedi-nuovo-rapporto-sulle-concerie-della-pelle/.
- 9.
We have run MCA over the whole set of manufacturing firms and then restricted the analysis to the group of fashion firms.
- 10.
The second dimension, contributing with a 2.8% to the principal inertia, seems instead to disentangle energy-saving initiatives from the circular economy measures aiming at improving the efficiency in the use of water, the reuse and recycling of production waste, the saving of input materials and the use of secondary raw materials.
- 11.
Eighteen percentage of firms are engaged in a broad set of specific circular economy initiatives while not having undertaken a more general shift in their business model. Only 4% of firms have redesigned their business model so as to make more environmentally sustainable without undertaking a sufficiently large set of specific circular economy initiatives.
- 12.
Notice that coordinates for investing in different dimensions enter with a negative sign, so that sustainable firms are characterised by scores below 0.
- 13.
Not shown, firms of the more evolved group are also significantly more involved in cooperation with universities and research centres.
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Faraoni, N., Ferraresi, T., Turchetti, S. (2021). The Circular Economy in the Tuscan Fashion Industry: A Value Chain Approach. In: Sedita, S.R., Blasi, S. (eds) Rethinking Clusters. Sustainable Development Goals Series. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-61923-7_10
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