Responsible sourcing and transparency in the home textile industry
the case of cotton
Code of conductCorporate social responsibilityCSREthical sourcingMulti-stakeholder initiativeProcurementSSCMStandardSupply chainValue chain
CSR, Corporate Social Responsibility, has become increasingly important in a globalised world where the responsibilities of companies and governments are somewhat blurry. The textile industry is an industry where long supply chains and raw material production in developing countries are factors adding to the complexity and difficulties of solving ethical issues. Cotton production faces many environmental, social and financial challenges in the value chain. Therefore this case study takes a closer look at five Nordic home textile companies, Ikea, Hemtex, S Group, Moko and Finlayson, and how these companies choose their cotton related CSR tools and communicate their work on this area. These companies are of various sizes and therefore the resources for CSR work are also different, as well as the perceived values for working with CSR. The results show that there are a variety of approaches to CSR in the companies? value chain but each company is taking steps towards CSR. However, the supplier relationships, in the case companies, are more often based on compliance with a Code of Conduct or similar rather than a commitment approach. Additionally, some of the ?tools? identified were multi-stakeholder initiatives, eco-labels and innovations. In the end, this study reflects that the solutions are mostly instrumental so there would be room for more collaboration in taking steps towards significant change in the industry.