This Master’s thesis explores environmental corporate social responsibility (ECSR) in the alpine sport industry. A mixed methods case with a single alpine sport provider in Quebec was performed. The first study is a qualitative examination of how and why ECSR is employed and communicated. Results indicate ECSR is strategically motivated, and as such, the focal organization runs the risk of using several greenwashing techniques in communications that could jeopardize gaining competitive advantage. The second study quantitatively investigates alpine sport consumers’ environmental expectations, engagement with environmental products, and perceptions of the focal organization’s environmental reputation. The results show the focal organization’s customers do indeed have environmental expectations, but believe the focal organization’s environmental reputation remains neutral. The thesis supports arguments of corporate social responsibility (CSR) being strategically motivated and other findings of skiers having conflicting environmental values. Lastly, the thesis provides insight regarding greenwashing, a phenomenon that remains unexplored in sport management.

In the societies of today there is a commercial requirement that companies take social responsibility. Companies that does not market their sustainability initiatives risk losing their competitiveness and thereby lose market shares. Many companies are therefore engaged in environmental- and societal issues and use them in their marketing. Problems arise when this kind of requirement on companies makes some actor takes shortcuts to appear more environmentally friendly than they really are, by using embellished and empty claims, which leads to a diminishing trust in green and sustainable products. A company portraying their CSR-work as better than it is called Greenwashing, which is what is underlying this paper. This study means to examine how companies communicate their environmental responsibility, how the communication is received by external stakeholders and if Greenwashing can be perceived. Guidelines for how to communicate green marketing will also be discussed.

This study focuses on sustainability information and consumers’ attitude and perception of sustainability information in the footwear industry. Sustainability has become increasingly important in the fashion industry; thus, the footwear industry has not reached the same level of interest and attention. In addition, companies do not know how to communicate sustainability and sustainability information and therefore, green marketing has evolved as an opportunity for companies to communicate sustainability. However, the downside of green marketing is that it can be perceived as untrustworthy and mistaken for greenwashing. Therefore, the purpose of this paper is to understand consumers’ attitude and perception of sustainability and sustainability information in the footwear industry. To reach a suitable customer segment, a collaboration with Vagabond Shoemakers was initiated. This enabled the data collection to be held in the Vagabond Store in Gothenburg via a selfcompletion questionnaire. The data was analysed quantitatively via regression analysis in IBM SPSS Statistics. The regression analysis shows several significant correlations between dependent and independent variables such as the consumers’ attitude towards sustainability in general and their attitude towards sustainability information in the footwear industry. The result proves that the consumers are interested in receiving sustainability information when purchasing footwear. However, the consumers do not believe they receive enough sustainability information in either brick-and-mortar retail stores or online. Despite that the consumers of this study tend to believe that sustainability information in general is trustworthy, they do not believe that sustainability information in the footwear industry is trustworthy. This is unfortunate as the consumers of this study show interest in and value sustainability information and believe it is an important aspect when purchasing footwear. The result of this study contributes to anunderstanding of consumers’ perception and attitude towards sustainability information in thefootwear industry. This can be a foundation for developing green marketing strategies that companies can utilise so as to educate and inform consumers about sustainability and sustainable development. By utilising green marketing as a communication tool, companies have the possibility to affect consumers’ attitude, intention and behaviour towards sustainable consumption.

Flera undersökningar de senaste åren tyder på att den ekologiska trenden är här för att stanna. Konsumenter har blivit alltmer kräsna i valet av produkter och vill få information om produkternas innehåll och tillverkning. Samtidigt väljer många företag att kommunicera sitt hållbarhetsarbete tyst eller ibland inte alls.   Uppsatsens undersökning har utformats för att om möjligt överkomma detta kommunikationsglapp mellan konsument och företag genom att studera hur ett mer miljövänligt textilt material kommuniceras idag. Syftet med studien har alltså varit att undersöka hur konfektionsföretag kan kommunicera återvunnen polyester så att det gröna budskapet når konsumenten och skapar kunskap/kännedom.   I den inledande delen av studien undersöks konsumenternas kunskap/kännedom och attityd till återvunnen polyester genom en kvantitativ enkätundersökning. Resultatet visade att det råder osäkerhet kring återvunnen polyester och hur miljövänligt materialet är. Ändå uppgav 75 procent av de tillfrågade respondenterna att de ibland eller alltid tänker på hur miljön påverkas vid tillverkning och konsumtion av kläder.   För att kartlägga hur företagens kommunikation kan förbättras genomfördes intervjuer via mail med tre svenska konfektionsföretag. Företagen uppgav att miljöengagemanget hos deras konsumenter varierar och att de var osäkra kring konsumenters kunskapsnivå om återvunnen polyester. Företagen var överens om att ingående information är bra.   Svaren från enkäten och konfektionsföretagen pekar på att kommunikationen på hängetiketter och hemsidornas produktsidor behöver vara mer ingående, tydlig och transparent. För att möjliggöra att fler kundgrupper nås av budskapet kan kommunikationen av återvunnen polyester på hängetiketter framställas i tre steg så att konsumenten 1. förstår varför den ska göra något, 2. kollektivet belönar agerandet och 3. ser de personliga fördelarna.   Avslutningsvis indikerar studien på att kunskap leder till ökat intresse och agerande vilket skulle kunna innebära en stärkt ekotrend. Kommunicera mera!

This study investigates the underlying rationale of environmentally and socially conscious young Swedish consumers for their continued consumption of fast fashion. Furthermore this study assesses influential factors that shape young Swedish consumers’ attitudes and beliefs towards fast fashion. The fast fashion business model is largely based on the exploitation of poor working conditions and lack of environmental protection laws in the production countries. However, consumers are becoming increasingly aware of this dark side of fast fashion and the retailers are addressing their concerns with selective organic clothing collections. In order to gain in debt understanding of young Swedish consumers rationalizations, I applied an inductive research approach based on the philosophy of interpretive social science. More specifically I conducted semi-structured interviews with 12 Swedish participants between the ages of 18 and 25. The findings of this study show that the participants prioritize price, quality and how the clothes look over where they have been produced and under what circumstances. Furthermore, the interviewees indicate a high dependency on the Swedish government to punish misconducts of fast fashion retailers. Greenwashing, the Swedish school system as well as a green trend in contemporary Swedish society seem to shape young consumers attitudes and beliefs towards fast fashion. Future research could investigate how the Swedish government and the Swedish school system can take a more pro-active role in educating their citizens and students about the actual negative impacts caused by the overconsumption of fast and disposable fashion towards society and environment.

This Master’s thesis explores environmental corporate social responsibility (ECSR) in the alpine sport industry. A mixed methods case with a single alpine sport provider in Quebec was performed. The first study is a qualitative examination of how and why ECSR is employed and communicated. Results indicate ECSR is strategically motivated, and as such, the focal organization runs the risk of using several greenwashing techniques in communications that could jeopardize gaining competitive advantage. The second study quantitatively investigates alpine sport consumers’ environmental expectations, engagement with environmental products, and perceptions of the focal organization’s environmental reputation. The results show the focal organization’s customers do indeed have environmental expectations, but believe the focal organization’s environmental reputation remains neutral. The thesis supports arguments of corporate social responsibility (CSR) being strategically motivated and other findings of skiers having conflicting environmental values. Lastly, the thesis provides insight regarding greenwashing, a phenomenon that remains unexplored in sport management.

Syfte: Syftet med denna studie är att undersöka vilken inverkan grön marknadsföring har påkonsumenter i deras val av produkt gällande livsmedel. Genom att undersöka fem olika aspekter inomgrön marknadsföring ämnar studien att ge mer insikt i hur konsumenter kan påverkas i både positivoch negativ riktning. Detta för att utöka förståelsen inom ämnet, vilket i sin tur kan vara till hjälp förmarknadsförare inom livsmedelsindustrin. Frågeställning: Vilken inverkan har grön marknadsföring på konsumenters val avlivsmedelsprodukter? Metod: Studien är utformad med en deduktiv ansats där fem hypoteser inom fem olika kategorierinom grön marknadsföring tagits fram. Gemensamt för hypoteserna är att respondenternas attitydoch köpbeteenden gentemot de fem aspekterna undersöks. Det kan alltså sägas att attityd ochköpbeteende fungerar som beroende variabler och de fem kategorierna inom grön marknadsföringsom oberoende variabler. Insamlingen av data har skett genom ett fiktivt fältexperiment genomförtmed hjälp av scenarion i form av cases. Tre olika enkäter har skickats ut till författarnas nätverk, därsvaren i de tre grupperna har jämförts mot varandra för att se hur konsumenter påverkas annorlundaberoende hur kommunikationen är utformad. Data analyseras sedan med hjälp av att mäta sambandoch variationer i form av ANOVA-analys och regressionsanalys. Slutsats: Studien har lyckats fastställa 5 hypoteser, där 3 hypoteser kunnat bekräftas fullt ut medan 2hypoteser kunnat bekräftas till viss del. Till att börja med har det bevisats att miljömärkningar har enpositiv effekt på konsumenter, oavsett om de känner igen miljömärkningen eller inte. Däremot synsen stor risk kopplad till att nyttja icke genuina miljömärkningar, vilket med hjälp av den starkaspridningskraft som finns med word of mouth kan skada ett varumärkes legitimitet. På samma sättkan även positiva budskap stärka ett varumärke, dels genom word of mouth, men även genom attanvända sig av så kallade influencers där det påvisas att dennes miljökoppling är av stor vikt för attstärka trovärdigheten. Till sist konstateras det även att konsumentens engagemang till att konsumeramiljövänligt spelar stor roll för hur de påverkas av emotionella och rationellamarknadsföringsbudskap, där högt miljöengagerade konsumenter tenderar att påverkas i hög grad avrationella budskap, medan lågt miljöengagerade konsumenter saknar motivation för att bearbetarationella budskap. Istället kan kombinerade budskap användas väl för större populationer där gradenav miljöengagemang varierar.

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 topic of ecology has resonated more and more in society in recent years, and the concept of sustainability in many forms is an integral part of this. Companies set out to fight for a green future with their product offerings and marketing strategies. But greenwashing practices can often be part of this company communication and the product or a brand could look more ecological than it is and the truth about the impact on the environment often remains hidden. Although the practices are considered misleading advertising, which is regulated by the state, in practice we may still find about half of the products that do not provide sufficient information to assess the accuracy of the claim. The aim of this work is to reflect on the issue of greenwashing and map the awareness of this phenomenon in Czech society with a closer focus on the young generation because it was the young generation that has been the focus of attention in connection with the Fridays For Future movement in recent years. The work is divided into theoretical, methodological, and research parts. In the research part is using quantitative research, the hypothesis is examined according to which the young generation is more ecological, and thus their awareness of greenwashing is greater. Research has shown that awareness of...

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