Towards More Sustainability in Clothing Production and Consumption: Options, Opportunities, and Constraints

Clothing represents an especially challenging field of action for achieving the Sustainable Development Goal 12 due to the large volume of the mass throughput, the globalized and highly branched production and trade chains, the strong dependence of national economies especially in least developed and threshold countries on the clothing production sector, and the serious social and environmental problems going along with the provision of raw materials for and the manufacturing of clothes. After some introductory remarks as to the importance of clothing in the context of the SDG 12 this chapter starts with an outline of the economic importance of the textile industry and their social and environmental impacts. Then, some results of a representative population survey are presented that allow the identification of drivers of clothing consumption and conclusions as regards the social acceptability of more sustainable alternatives. Subsequently, options for action to reach more sustainability in clothing production and consumption and the probabilities for their implementation are discussed on the basis of the results of an expert survey. The chapter ends with conclusions as regards opportunities and constraints for a shift towards more sustainability in clothing production and consumption.