Towards Sustainable Fashion: The Role of Artificial Intelligence --- H&M, Stella McCartney, Farfetch, Moosejaw: A Multiple Case Study
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.6092/issn.2611-0563/11837Parole chiave:
Sustainable, Fashion, Artificial Intelligence, Technology, Case StudyAbstract
Throughout history, technology has undoubtedly changed many aspects of humanity, and more recently, artificial intelligence has certainly created a significant impact on people, industry and planet.
Parallelly, there is another factor which affects Earth and people lives: the harmful footprint that is generated within the whole fashion system. From production to consumption, fashion creates a vicious cycle where unsustainable behaviours are repeatedly practised. On the other hand, an increasing concern is rising about these kinds of damaging approaches, demanding for a more sustainable fashion system.
In this scenario, could artificial intelligence have a role in building a sustainable fashion system? This essay tries to answer this question examining how artificial intelligence can be implemented to gain sustainable solutions within the fashion production and consumption.
More specifically, the research is developed through the multiple case study methodology.For this reason, four fashion brand cases are analysed in order to underline the sustainable benefits gained from each strategy: H&M, Stella McCartney, Farfetch, Moosejaw.
Riferimenti bibliografici
Bennis, Hatim. “A Deep Learning Approach to Develop Your EP&L, Inspired by Kering”. (October 01, 2019), https://medium.com/@hatimbennis1/a-deep-learning-approach-to-develop-your-ep-l-inspired-by-kering-533a0d84bb17.
Baraniuk, Chris. “Will fashion firms stop burning clothes?”. (March 04, 2019), https://www.bbcearth.com/blog/?article=will-fashion-firms-stop-burning-clothes.
Bertram, Rose Francoise and TingChi. “A Study of Companies’ Business Responses to Apparel E-commerce’s Environmental Impact”. International Journal of Fashion Design, Technology and Education, vol.11, issue2 (2018): 254–264, doi: 10.1080/17543266.2017.140654.
BBC. “Burberry burns bags, clothes and perfume worth millions”. (July 19, 2018), https://www.bbc.com/news/business-44885983.
Chung Kwok-pan, HuifengZhang and PatWoo. “Sustainable fashion-A survey on global perspectives”. KPMG (January 2019) :1- 34. Publication number: CN-ESG19-0001.
Clements, Alison. “H&M puts AI forecasting at the heart of its supply chain sustainability”. (January 31, 2020), https://www.retailconnections.co.uk/articles/hm-puts-ai-forecasting-at-the-heart-of-its-supply-chain-sustainability/.
Connell, Kim Y. Hiller. “Exploring consumers’ perceptions of eco‐conscious apparel acquisition behaviors”. Social Responsibility Journal, vol.7, issue 1 (March, 2011): 61–73. doi:10.1108/17471111111114549
Connell, Kim Y. Hiller and Joy M. Kozar. “Environmentally Sustainable Clothing Consumption: Knowledge, Attitudes, and Behavior”. In Roadmap to Sustainable Textiles and Clothing. Textile Science and Clothing Technology, edited by Muthu Subramanian Senthilkannan, 41-61. Singapore: Springer, 2014, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-287-110-7_.
Constable, Harriet. “Your brand new returns end up in landfill”. (February 15, 2019), https://www.bbcearth.com/blog/?article=your-brand-new-returns-end-up-in-landfill%2F
Coyle, James and EstherThorson. “The Effects of Progressive Levels of Interactivity and Vividness in Web Marketing Sites”. Journal of Advertising, vol.30, issue 3, (October, 2001): 65-77.
Donnelly, Caroline. “Stella McCartney and Google Cloud start machine learning and fashion-focused sustainability push”. (May 15, 2019), https://www.computerweekly.com/news/252463377/Stella-McCartney-and-Google-Cloud-embark-on-machine-learning-and-fashion-focused-sustainability-push.
Farfetch. “Understanding the environmental saving buying pre-owned fashion, Farfetch Displacement Research — Report”. (2019).
Farmbrough, Heather. “H&M Is Pushing Sustainability Hard, But Not Everyone Is Convinced”. (April 14, 2018), https://www.forbes.com/sites/heatherfarmbrough/2018/04/14/hm-is-pushing-sustainability-hard-but-not-everyone-is-convinced/.
Frost, Rosie. “Is our obsession with online returns damaging the environment?”. (April 09, 2020), https://www.euronews.com/living/2019/11/13/is-our-obsession-with-online-returns-damaging-the-environment.
Giri, Chandadevi, Sheenam Jain, Xianyi Zeng and Pascal Bruniaux. “A Detailed Review of Artificial Intelligence Applied in the Fashion and Apparel Industry”. IEEE Access, vol. 7, (July, 2019), doi:10.1109/access.2019.2928979.
Martin, Nick. “Google’s new pilot aiming to measure the environmental impact of the fashion industry”. (May 15, 2019), https://cloud.google.com/blog/topics/inside-google-cloud/googles-new-pilot-aiming-to-measure-the-environmental-impact-of-the-fashion-industry.
Google Cloud. “WWF and Google Partner”. (June 10, 2020), https://cloud.google.com/press-releases/2020/0610/wwfandgoogle.
Gustafsson, Johanna. “Single Case Studies vs. Multiple Case Studies: A Comparative Study”. Academy of Business, Engineering and Science. Halmstad, Sweden: Halmstad University, 2017.
H&M. “Sustainability Report”, 2018.
H&M. “Sustainability Report”, 2019.
Farfetch. “How Sustainable Is Your Closet?” (n.d.), https://www.farfetch.com/uk/fashionfootprinttool.
Kok, Joost Nico, Egbert J. Boers, Walter A. Kosters and PeterVan der Putten. “Artificial intelligence: definition, trends, techniques, and cases”. In Artificial intelligence, edited by Joost Nico Kok , 1–21. Oxford, UK: Eolss, 2009.
House of Commons Environmental Audit Committee. “Fixing Fashion: Clothing consumption and sustainability”. UK, London, 2019.
Leonard-Barton, Dorothy. “A Dual Methodology for Case Studies: Synergistic Use of a Longitudinal Single Site with Replicated Multiple Sites”. Organization Science, vol.1, issue 3, (August, 1990) :248-266, doi:10.1287/orsc.1.3.248.
McKinsey. “The State of Fashion”, 2018.
McKinsey. “The State of Fashion”, 2020.
Stella McCartney. “Measuring our impact”. (n.d.), https://www.stellamccartney.com/experience/it/sustainability/themes/measuring-our-impact/.
Merrilees, Bill. “Interactivity Design as the Key to Managing Customer Relations in E-Commerce”. Journal of Relationship Marketing, vol.1, issue 4, (2002): 111–127.
Noor, Kahirul and Baharein Mohd. “Case Study: A Strategic Research Methodology”. American Journal of Applied Sciences, vol. 5, issue 11, (2008): 1602-1604, doi:10.3844/ajassp.2008.1602.1604.
Optoro. “2018 Optoro Impact Report”, 2018.
Paton, Elizabeth. “Burberry to Stop Burning Clothing and Other Goods It Can’t Sell”. (September 06, 2018), https://www.nytimes.com/2018/09/06/business/burberry-burning-unsold-stock.html:
Pookulangara, Sanjukta and Arlesa Shephard. “Slow fashion movement: Understanding consumer perceptions — An exploratory study”. Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services, vol. 20, issue 2, (March, 2013): 200-206, doi:10.1016/j.jretconser.2012.12.002.
EU Science Hub - European Commission. “Sustainable Product Policy”. (December 13, 2018), https://ec.europa.eu/jrc/en/research-topic/sustainable-product-policy
Roberts-Islam, Brooke. “Social Sustainability, Overstock And ‘Greenwashing’: How COVID-19 Is Changing The Fashion Industry”. ( July 06, 2020), https://www.forbes.com/sites/brookerobertsislam/2020/04/21/social-sustainability-overstock-and-greenwashing-how-covid-19-is-changing-the-fashion-industry/.
Sachs, Jeffrey. “From Millennium Development Goals to Sustainable Development Goals”. Lancet, vol. 379, issue 9832, (June, 2012) :2206-2211.
Thomasson, Emma and AnnaRingstrom. “Back on-trend? H&M makes AI, loyalty drive to ride fashion cycle”. (April 17, 2019), https://www.reuters.com/article/us-h-m-strategy-ai/back-on-trend-hm-makes-ai-loyalty-drive-to-ride-fashion-cycle-idUSKCN1RT1U7.
True Fit. “The State of Returns — Foot & Apparel — A special Report”, 2018.
True Fit. “Case Study — Moosejaw”, London, UK, (n.d.).
True Fit. “True Fit®: Consumer Fit & Style Data Platform for Fashion Retail”. (n.d.), https://www.truefit.com/products/genome.
UN Environment Programme. “UN Alliance For Sustainable Fashion addresses damage of ‘fast fashion’”. (March 14, 2019), https://www.unenvironment.org/news-and-stories/press-release/un-alliance-sustainable-fashion-addresses-damage-fast-fashion.
UN. “UN launches drive to highlight environmental cost of staying fashionable”. (March 25, 2019), https://news.un.org/en/story/2019/03/1035161.
Weber, Christopher, Chris Hendrickson, Scott Matthews, Amy Nagengast, Rachael Nealer and Paulina Jaramillo, “Life cycle comparison of traditional retail and e-commerce logistics for electronic products: A case study of buy.com”. 2009 IEEE International Symposium on Sustainable Systems and Technology, (June, 2009): 1–6, doi: 10.1109/issst.2009.5156681.
Downloads
Pubblicato
Come citare
Fascicolo
Sezione
Licenza
Copyright (c) 2020 Daniela Candeloro
Questo lavoro è fornito con la licenza Creative Commons Attribuzione 4.0 Internazionale.
