13. Sustainability Certifications and Labels for the Fashion Industry: Selection Guidelines

In recent years, bigger and bigger attention is addressed towards the sustainability concept at all levels of the fashion supply chain. One of the main triggers of this trend is the increased awareness of the final consumers whose needs and wishes are translated in new requirements for the supply chain actors, from downstream to upstream, in a life cycle perspective. At the same time, there is a flourishing of certifications and labels related to different sustainability aspects and, often, it could be difficult to perceive the peculiarities of each instrument. In order to adopt them as a strategic lever in the sustainability management, it would be useful to have some support to make informed decisions about which instruments meet at the best the needs of customers, whilst reflecting the actual performance of a company. This paper develops a set of guidelines that could support companies belonging to the fashion supply chain in identifying which tool, certification or label, is the most appropriate considering the specific context. Available tools have been first identified and, then, classified mapping and assessing them against a set of criteria that resulted to be relevant in the fashion environment. Though the research takes advantage of the authors’ experience in the field, the paper is mainly of a conceptual nature. Empirical validation of the guidelines is the necessary next step to refine and complete the proposed guidelines.