University of Leeds academic argues UK government needs plan to fight clothing waste

By

Cajsa Lykke Carlson

Published
Apr 23, 2015

A new paper by University of Leeds academic Elizabeth Morgan, published in the The Journal of Corporate Citizenship, argues that more government support for retailers and their customers is needed to address growing concerns at environmentally unsustainable clothing consumption.

Morgan looked at UK retailer Marks & Spencer's Plan A and found that while M&S has encouraged more sustainable consumption of clothes, "such successes are unlikely to be replicated on a larger scale without more government stimulation for innovation in the way we make, buy, use and dispose of our clothes."

After analysing the outcome of Plan A, Morgan found evidence for positive outcomes from "learning by doing", rather than planning outcomes from the start. "NGOs and activists expect big companies to get it right from the start, but the M&S approach refreshingly shows they were prepared to learn by doing and by experiment, and could be given credit for doing so transparently," she said.

However, Morgan questions how much individual businesses can do to drive sustainability on their own, stating: "Perhaps the role of government is to recognise when businesses have created a new business model for more sustainable consumption and to support continuing development for such innovation by finding ways to make it attractive for other businesses to adopt."

"There is only so much that even the biggest clothes retailers can do on their own."