Assessing the Reporting of Human Right Responsibilities in the Fashion Industry
Huttunen, Sonja (2022)
2022
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Julkaisun pysyvä osoite on
https://urn.fi/URN:NBN:fi:amk-202204296535
https://urn.fi/URN:NBN:fi:amk-202204296535
Tiivistelmä
Sustainability has gained more attention in the recent years and not without reason, the world is facing several severe challenges such as the climate crisis, a global pandemic, and extreme violations against human rights. This thesis aims to understand the challenges in the interpretation of corporate human rights responsibilities and how the communication of them could be improved in companies’ sustainability reporting, especially in the fashion industry.
This thesis theoretical framework studies literature related to sustainability, corporate social responsibility, sustainability reporting, human rights, and the fashion industry. This creates an understanding of the challenges related to the topic but also gives the needed knowledge to understand why sustainable development is so important to achieve.
The empirical part of the research was conducted as a systematic literature review using qualitative meta-synthesis research methods and document analyses. The data was collected from four companies’, in the fashion industry, sustainability reports published year 2020 and from 10 different sustainability ratings. The ratings used have rated these four companies’ sustainability performance between 2019-2022, and hence can be considered a great source in finding a comprehensive understanding of the challenges occurring in the reporting of human right responsibilities. The data from the primary-level studies has been collected into tables and analysed thematically with the help of prior set investigative and data collection questions.
The key finding of this study was that the biggest challenges in respecting corporate human rights in the fashion industry is to ensure that it happens through the whole supply chain. All four companies analysed scored relatively high on commitment to respect human rights and on transparency of their supply chain, but low on implementation of due diligence and proper human right policies.
The findings indicates that companies in the fashion industry have taken a step in the right direction by committing to respect human rights but still need improvement in implementing the needed policies and procedures to ensure this happens. Their sustainability reporting shouldnot only consist of their goals and supplier lists, but plans on how to reach the goals, true operational risks they are facing, and proof of what have been established so far.
This thesis theoretical framework studies literature related to sustainability, corporate social responsibility, sustainability reporting, human rights, and the fashion industry. This creates an understanding of the challenges related to the topic but also gives the needed knowledge to understand why sustainable development is so important to achieve.
The empirical part of the research was conducted as a systematic literature review using qualitative meta-synthesis research methods and document analyses. The data was collected from four companies’, in the fashion industry, sustainability reports published year 2020 and from 10 different sustainability ratings. The ratings used have rated these four companies’ sustainability performance between 2019-2022, and hence can be considered a great source in finding a comprehensive understanding of the challenges occurring in the reporting of human right responsibilities. The data from the primary-level studies has been collected into tables and analysed thematically with the help of prior set investigative and data collection questions.
The key finding of this study was that the biggest challenges in respecting corporate human rights in the fashion industry is to ensure that it happens through the whole supply chain. All four companies analysed scored relatively high on commitment to respect human rights and on transparency of their supply chain, but low on implementation of due diligence and proper human right policies.
The findings indicates that companies in the fashion industry have taken a step in the right direction by committing to respect human rights but still need improvement in implementing the needed policies and procedures to ensure this happens. Their sustainability reporting shouldnot only consist of their goals and supplier lists, but plans on how to reach the goals, true operational risks they are facing, and proof of what have been established so far.