CIRCULAR ECONOMY: THE CASE OF THE APPAREL INDUSTRY
5. Conclusion and discussion
The analysis in this chapter was triggered by an increasing sense of urgency for transitioning from linearly organized economic systems towards circularly organized economic systems. Therefore, the basic notions underlying circularity are described and the potential benefits are explored from a sustainability perspective. Furthermore, the complexity of the transition process has been elaborated and illustrated with the case of the apparel industry.
Based on these analyses, it becomes clear that indeed the linear economy is reaching its limits, or in the case of the clothing industry in certain aspects has already passed the limits. The concept of circularity has clear theoretical, economic, social and environmental benefits. However, an appealing concept alone is not sufficient to bring about large-scale changes. Supported by the analysis of the clothing industry practice, it must be recognized that transformation towards a circular economy is a normatively justifiable as well as practically messy challenge: the discrepancy between the actual and the desired state of the system is enormous.
Public and private decision makers, taking up this challenge and trying to influence the structure and performance of the system, must learn to cope with serious uncertainties due to the complexity of the system and its dynamics: they decide on events and situations where impact and probability of occurrence of various effects are both unknown (Marchau, 2014). Marchau summarizes these in terms of (a) uncertainties related to different demographic, socio-economic, geopolitical and technological scenarios, (b) uncertainties about the non-linear interactions and feedback effects between key elements within the system, occurring time delays as well as accelerations, determining the partly unpredictable behaviour of stakeholders and the impacts of interventions, and (c) uncertainties about the valuation of outcomes by different stakeholders. These types of uncertainty are very recognizable with regard to the presented exploration of the apparel industry.
Marchau adds to this classification of uncertainties so called ‘deep uncertainties’, occurring when analysts and decision makers do not know or do not agree upon what model and probability distributions should be used to describe the system or how to evaluate the desirability of alternative outcomes (see also Kwakkel et al., 2016). With respect to interventions for circularity, such evaluations largely depend upon the weights attached to the triple bottom line (economic, social, environmental) impacts of alternative circular supply chain activities.
So far, limited multi-disciplinary, system-encompassing, research has been conducted in this domain, and consequently our awareness and knowledge are limited on what combinations of actions should be implemented, and when, to optimize the multiple value creation process. The illustrative analysis of the situation and developments in the clothing industry showed however, that serious options exist for sustainable improvements. Moreover, the sense of urgency for change is arguably high. Multiple value creation, i.e., value creation in multiple domains, by implementing more circularity-enhancing measures and concepts is within reach when all stakeholders take their
33
responsibility and work together for a successful integration and alignment of transition initiatives in the industry.
It was mentioned that knowledge-related factors, among other things, can impede this collaboration. Dissemination of new knowledge is often hindered by the separation between (scientific) research and (hands-on) practice into two different worlds, with little interaction and cross-fertilization. Dissemination of newly generated knowledge consequently often remains limited to the world of scientific researchers. In the Netherlands, this problem has been recognized and has stimulated various initiatives to bridge these two worlds, such as creating knowledge networks regarding the circular economy, subsidies from the National Science Foundation for initiating collaboration between companies in research aimed at circular innovation and business models, and the organization of local ‘living labs’ for circular initiatives.
For academic researchers, such as the authors of this paper, these collaborations provide opportunities to intensify the study of the apparel or any other industry, dynamic, non-linear and re-enforcing interactions within these industries, to explore the possibilities and potential impact of circularity-based interventions. Participative intervention methods, such as serious gaming and participative group model building (see e.g., Vennix, 1996; Sterman, 2000; Rouwette, 2003), in combination with organizing small scale transition processes may provide an interesting approach for stimulating and facilitating real-world changes considering complexity and deep uncertainty.
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