The environmental debate is one of the most discussed topics today. The textile industry is one of the most polluting industries in the world. Nowadays, there are many different sustainably certified garments on the market. As a consumer, it can be challenging to understand what is behind the different certifications, which ones are trustworthy and what they stand for, and how reliability can be ensured. Many consumers are aware and want to be green, but their final actions are not always green. People do not trust the fashion industry; they are skeptical and claim that there are many greenwashing intentions among fashion companies. This study aimed to analyze the reasons why consumers chose to include or exclude sustainable material when buying clothes.  To answer our purpose, we chose to ask the following questions:  How crucial are environmentally friendly attitudes when it comes to sustainable clothing purchases?  What are the main reasons and external influences for people to think green and buy or not buy green?  People aware of the environmental debate chose not to contribute to sustainability. Instead of choosing a sustainable garment over a non-sustainable item, they put other factors first. These customers mistrust the textile industry. Therefore, sustainable factors have a low impact on their decision to buy a piece of clothing. A qualitative study was made based on semi-structured interviews with people aware of the sustainability debate. We can draw from this study that due to the people's lack of trust; the environmental aspects are set aside. Instead, the willingness to pay plays a more significant role in the final buying decision. We believe that our research provides a new angle to understanding today's consumer behavior as a whole and explains why there is a gap between people's environmental awareness and their buying behaviors and what could be done to address it.

The thesis deals with selected global problems and their inclusion in civic education with a focus on the topic of fast fashion. The theoretical part presents the phenomenon of fast fashion and its negative impacts on the environment and human health, approaches issues in the world of work and violations of human rights and freedoms. These global issues are considered in the context of educational areas, cross-cutting themes and also as part of the global education. The second part of the work is a concept of a didactic project of lessons with the theme of fast fashion inspired by the educational program of the ARPOK organization. The aim of the work is to increase awareness of the issues arising from fast fashion and the realization that the individual can influence the world by their actions and vice versa, how the current world affects the life of the individual. KEYWORDS fast fashion, slow fashion, greenwashing, environment, decent wages

The study aims to investigate whether there is a discrepancy between how Swedish fast fashion- companies communicate their CSR (Corporate Social Responsibility) work and how their CSR work is reported in the Swedish news. If differences do occur, we will analyze and discuss what this discrepancy may be due to. The study is limited to only studying one of the world's largest fast fashion companies H&M and examining how H&M choose to highlight their CSR work in their sustainability report and at the website, compared with what is reported in the Swedish news. The study has a qualitative approach with a total study of 13 news articles, H&M's latest sustainability report and H&M's. CSR communication and agenda setting theory have formed the basis of the study's analysis to identify differences and why they may occur. The results of the study shows that there is a discrepancy between the channels depending on whether the customer receives information from H&M's own channels or if they receive information from news media. Moreover, the study shows that H&M communicates their CSR work to their advantage, while the agenda setting theory confirms that news media cover and form the topics that are in the public interest. The question of which information consumers should believe in will continue to remain, and the study can only inform and draw the consumer's attention to the fact that there are differences in the reporting and hope to contribute to future research.

The textile and fashion industry is one of the most extensive and unsustainable industries in the world. Fast fashion companies, and the consumers purchasing, using and disposing the items, have an especially negative impact on the environment. Previous research does not provide deep knowledge of how environmentally sustainable clothing disposal is performed in word and deed as a part of consumers everyday life. However, this is needed to improve environmental sustainability. This research study aims to contribute to and deepen the existing body of research regarding this, investigating female members of Generation Z in a fast fashion context. Thus, the purpose of the study is to contribute with a current understanding of the practice of sustainable clothing disposal by developing knowledge about how consumers perform disposal activities post-consumption, as well as revealing the meanings driving the behaviour. In order to fulfill the purpose, a qualitative research strategy was used. Empirical material was collected through ten semi-structured interviews with female Generation Z participants. The study uses a practice theory approach, viewing a practice as a complex interaction between what consumers say and do in a specific context. A practice consists of several different activities and is dependent on three elements: competence, material and meaning. Furthermore, the theoretical framework consists of previous research on sustainable clothing disposal behaviour. The findings reveal that the practice of sustainable clothing disposal includes a number of activities performed by the participants in the context in question. Several central tendencies are distinguished; showing how female Generation Z consumers perform the activities under different circumstances, through routinised actions and communication in their everyday lives. In addition, the findings identify five different forms of meaning driving the behaviour. Accordingly, both theoretical and practical contributions are generated. The findings build on the existing body of research, adding deep and current understanding of sustainable clothing disposal behaviour. Furthermore, actors in the textile and fashion industry can interpret the findings of the behaviour and meaning-making, and hence improve their adaptation to the consumer. Ultimately, this can cause a positive impact on environmental sustainability.

Consumers have changed their behaviour from passive roles to active ones, demanding their beloved brands to be integrated into long-lasting customer-brand relationships. With this ideology, which is the basis for the S-D logic, there is an on-going scientific debate on the value co-creation phenomenon and its effects on sustaining long-term brand-customer relationships in the context of the fashion industry. These effects are considered to have the potential to sustain a competitive advantage and affect not only the marketing of the fashion brands, but also other facets of such enterprises, including their value and supply chains. Additionally, the world has been experiencing a steep increase in technological innovation under the name of Industry 4.0, where machinery and human labour become integrated into smart systems and consumers have the ability to influence parts of brands which were not available before. Within this context, the interest of this research is to explore the value co-creation phenomenon in relation to the I4.0 dimension in the setting of two generic business models characteristic of the fashion industry (luxury vs. fast-fashion). In exploring the interconnectivity of these two phenomena, this study takes on the digital strategies of Burberry, Louis Vuitton, UNIQLO and Zalando, and assesses their co-creative processes targeted towards their consumers. In doing so, this study is also aiming at identifying the approaches of the chosen brands towards the I4.0 dimension and its relevance towards the process of value co-creation. In order to illuminate the co-creative processes within the digital strategies of the selected brands and to accomplish the research goal, this study takes on a comparative cross-case study methodology synthesising secondary data on both value co-creation and I4.0 as separate phenomena. The secondary data on the digital strategies of the selected brands is used within an existing model called “the Co-creation mix” which assesses the co-creative processes of the brands based on six different criteria: co-creator, purpose, locus, intimacy, time, and incentives. Interpreting the secondary data through such a model resulted in the identification of two different approaches to co-creation and I4.0. The findings indicate that the luxury case companies approach co-creation from a traditional marketing perspective where digital consumer engagement is the main co-creative process, whereas the fast-fashion case companies initiate co-creative processes designed to accomplish goals that are more supply-chain related. This result also brings several intriguing implications. First, the fast-fashion case companies are more technology-driven and are more open towards the implementation of innovative I4.0 technologies within the co-creative processes than the luxury case companies. Second, the consumer role in the co-creation process seems to become less central the more the I4.0 dimension is involved. Third, the model shows that the fast-fashion examples outperform the luxury examples at the dimensions where the latter perform the weakest, such as intimacy and time. And fourth, the study findings confirm the new research opinion that both industry segments have weak areas which can be handled by taking on a mix of the two identified approaches, rather than focus on the traditional one alone. Yet, these findings are not generalizable but only illustrative, meaning that the study provides plausible hypothesis and future research directions concerning value co-creation and I4.0 within the fashion industry context.

The consumption has increased by 40% in just a few decades, which has given a negative impact on the environment. At the same time, millennials also called generation X, have a huge purchasing power compared to other generations. A major problem of unsustainable clothing consumption is fast fashion. Millenials are the biggest target group for fast fashion companies and are those who buy more products than any other target group. Through this thesis, we want to provide with motivation, attitude and values for both sustainable consumption and unsustainable consumption. The aim is to investigate the target group of millennials and their attitudes towards environmentally consciousness and what motivates them in their purchase decision when it comes to clothing consumption. This should, among other things, make it easier for marketers to know how to best reach out to the group who has the highest purchasing power. Through 20 qualitative in-depth interviews with as many men as women, they have been interviewed regarding their views, attitudes and behavior regarding clothing consumption and sustainable clothing consumption. The study's results show that many millenials are not ready to buy green clothing for various reasons such as pricing and trust in companies. Other interesting discoveries about norms and self-image is also emerged. / Konsumtionen har ökat med 40 % på enbart några decennier vilket har en negativ påverkan på miljön. Samtidigt så har millennials alltså generation X, har en enorm köpkraft jämförelse med de andra generationerna. Ett stort problem av ohållbar klädkonsumtion är fast fashion där millenials är de som är den största målgruppen för företag och de som köper mer produkter än några målgrupper. Genom detta arbetet vill vi förstå millennials motivation, attityd och värderingar till både hållbar konsumtion och ohållbar konsumtion. Syftet är att undersöka målgruppen millennials attityd till miljömedvetet konsumerande, samt vad som motiverar dem i köpbeslutet när det gäller klädkonsumtion. Detta ska bland annat underlätta för marknadsförare att veta hur de på bästa sätt kan nå ut till en av de mest köpbenägna samhällsgrupperna. Genom 20 kvalitativa djupintervjuer med lika stor del män som kvinnor har de intervjuats angående deras åsikter, attityder och beteende kring klädkonsumtion och hållbar klädkonsumtion. Studiens resultat visar att många inte är redo att handla hållbara kläder av olika anledningar så som prissättning och tilltro till företag. Även andra intressanta upptäckter kring normer och självbild framkom.

In today’s society the question about consumption are a real problem. With focus on clothing brands it can be seen as a possibility to expand due to the increased demand from customers. With new ways of marketing and easier ways of shopping creates opportunities for customers to shop without any problems. The trend of “fast fashion” have influenced clothing brands to keep a constant flow of new clothes. Which tends to affect brands to choose a way to maximize their profit, and therefore look for cheaper ways of producing. But because of the higher set demand on sustainability, clothing brands has put more focus on sustainability throughout the company. This leads to the question about the responsibility that clothing brands has for the grown consumption patterns together with making profit. How does clothing brands handle the high set demand from customers while influencing a more sustainable consumption. This study is focusing on four Swedish clothing companies that are currently international active. The empirical material consists of the sustainability communication on their website. A critical discourse analysis is used to determine patterns in the different marketing discourses to answer the purpose of this of this study and provide a recommendation for companies which are in line with the work towards sustainable consumption. In conclusion in this study we highlight the importance of well thought through market communication. With focus on sustainability it helps the company to make decisions and communicate more clearly and creates opportunities to influence consumers to make choices towards sustainable consumption. With a company stance towards educating customers also affect more than consumers. It affects the industry views to change and creates opportunities to change towards more sustainable choices. The website can be seen as the main stage for the clothing brands to influence consumers towards more sustainable consumption. Mainly with showing the great extent the companies goes to with their work with sustainability in all working part of the company. But also by showing the value it creates. With a focus on the value of the products, the company are able guide consumers to make sustainable choices and be more aware of their consumption patterns, in all aspects of their life.

Corporate social responsibility is a well-discussed phenomenon where existing researchers within the field of MNEs have found an increased interest in the CSR topic. Existing research between the two topics is still at an early stage where the main reason is the complexity of defining the CSR concept, as well as the MNEs cross-border operations in multiple contexts. Further, the fast fashion industry is generally characterized by frequent production and squeezed margins to maximize profit. CSR is significantly important for MNEs operating in the fast fashion industry due to their environmental and social impact, where they have to reconsider the impact of their actions. This thesis will examine two MNEs originated from Sweden and Spain to understand the differences and similarities of the selected MNEs strategic CSR focus and actions. Further, a qualitative research method has been conducted in order to fulfill the purpose of this thesis, where the empirical data has been conducted through secondary data. The common findings of this thesis indicate that both MNEs engage in multiple CSR activities, where the strategy mainly focus on environmental and social aspects. Further, the findings illustrated a clear connection to Carroll’s Pyramid of CSR where all responsibilities were included in the strategies. The outcome of the thesis indicates that both MNEs strategies involves actions to take responsibility for global and local issues.

Syftet med uppsatsen är att studera affärsmodeller hos ekoprenöriella företag, det vill säga företag grundade och baserade på hållbara principer, för att utveckla en större förståelse för hur dess delar kan leda till värdeskapande för kunder. Halla Halla har valts som fallföretag för att de har kunder som köpt från dem flera gånger, och kan därmed anses skapa värde för dessa, samt för att grundarna är ekoprenörer som bedriver produktion av badkläder gjorda av återvunnet material. Företaget verkar inom modebranschen där ​fast fashion​ är ett vanligt fenomen som innebär att mode och trender bidrar till snabb konsumtion, i många fall på bekostnad av miljön. I teoriavsnittet kombineras nio underkategorier ifrån Osterwalders et al. (2010) Business model canvas, översatt kanvasmodellen, tillsammans med Jung Choos et al. (2012) fyra faktorer för värdeskapande för kund, i en framtagen analysmodell. De fyra faktorerna för värdeskapande utgörs av pris, kvalitet, fördelar kontra kostnader och subjektivt värde. Analysmodellen används som ett verktyg för undersökning av fallföretagets affärsmodell och därigenom skapande av kundvärde. Det empiriska materialet i uppsatsen har främst baserats på två mailintervjuer med Halla Hallas grundare samt kundintervjuer med tio av deras kunder. Resultatet tyder på att affärsmodellen hos ekoprenöriella företag leder till värdeskapande för kunder på olika sätt. För företag vars målgrupp är unga kvinnor kan Instagram vara en lämplig plattform för att sprida sitt budskap. Det kan också vara av betydelse för företag att ha fungerande samarbeten med nyckelpartners, med vilka man tillsammans kan se till att produkter håller hög kvalitet. I dagens samhälle, där fast fashion är ett växande problem, är det även viktigt för företag att ha god förståelse för hållbarhetsproblemen vi står inför och skapa unika produktidéer motiverade av detta.

Background: Corporate Social Responsibility has been studied since the 1970s, but was originally controversial and met opposition from e.g. Milton Friedman who viewed a company’s responsibility as being strictly economic. Since then, CSR has grown in scope and importance, especially within the fast fashion industry, and is now a central part of academia and business operations. However, the debate whether companies’ responsibilities are only economic or also include responsibilities such as social, environmental, and transparency- related is still ongoing, and it is therefore interesting to study how companies view their own responsibilities. Purpose: Our research aims to fill the existing research gap regarding how companies view their responsibilities by providing an overview of how the CSR work has changed over time in fast fashion companies. Research Question: How has the focus of the CSR work changed over time in large, international, fast-fashion companies? Methods: A qualitative content analysis inspired by grounded theory was used to answer the research question. The data material consisted of H&M’s sustainability reports from 2002, 2005, 2008, 2011, 2014, 2017 and 2019. The material was categorized into social, environmental or transparency dimensions, along with several under-categories. A simpler analysis of news articles regarding sustainability during the period 2002-2019 was also performed. Results: The results suggest that the fast fashion industry has increased their sense of responsibility as the expectations of stakeholders in the area has grown, and that CSR work increasingly is seen as a possible competitive advantage. The results also show that the most difficult parts to fulfill is the ethical level of the CSR pyramid, due to the difficulty of comprehending and fulfilling the stakeholders’ different expectations and demands, and the social dimension, because of its profound complexity, especially within fast-fashion.