Fashion redefined: climate action and social justice in supply chains

FReSCH (Fashion’s Responsible Supply Chain Hub)

Delving deeper into this research area, Dr Karaosman tells us about FReSCH (Fashion’s Responsible Supply Chain Hub)…

“Not only does the fashion industry harm the planet but it also creates dire social and psychological consequences for the workers across globally dispersed and fragmented supply chains. Despite some ongoing sustainability attempts, most practice and research focuses on incremental environmental actions with social issues largely ignored. It is important to acknowledge that there are trade-offs between operational goals and sustainability and between environmental and social sustainability.

FReSCH is an EU-awarded and UN-recognised action research project, set up in January 2020, that I conduct in partnership with Professor Donna Marshall from University College Dublin. We bring an integrated, interdisciplinary, multi-stakeholder, and original view of a just transition to supply chain management.

We create theoretical, practical, and policy implications on how to orchestrate inclusive, holistic, and equitable actions led by people and communities to disrupt and transform market-based, capitalist systems that perpetuate social and environmental problems.

Our research contributes to the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals. It also tackles the public value grand challenges such as decent working conditions, building a fair and social industry, and sustainable fashion chains. We research strategies for a just, fair, and inclusive transition to a low-carbon circular fashion industry.

Brand and supplier levels

FReSCH examines multiple supply chain levels. At the brand level, we understand the development of strategies and resources to cascade environmental and social sustainability practices throughout supply chains. At supplier and sub-supplier levels, we uncover the lived realities of small and medium-sized (SME) suppliers, and the outcomes of economic and environmental demands on working conditions across multiple tiers.

FReSCH stands for inclusion and representation

We ensure diversity and representation in terms of different stakeholders and academic disciplines. This helps us gain a more complete, realistic, and original perspective to create interventions, including technical and relational models, social and environmental practices, and awareness among multiple stakeholders to develop effective means for a just transition.