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- All Subjects: Sustainability
- Status: Published
Within the last decade, it has become increasingly apparent that the effects of climate change are getting harder and harder to ignore. This fact has led to increased interest in sustainability and an increased pressure from consumers to have these ideals implemented into a variety of global industries. The fashion industry, in particular, has been facing this pressure toward the desire for sustainable products is the fashion industry. Over the last five years, sustainability has become a main focus within the fashion industry. Countless brands now include sustainability within their marketing tactics and a variety of fashion organizations release reports on the unsustainable practices that currently dominate fashion production. These misleading marketing tactics and enigmatic intensive reports lead to confusion on what sustainable fashion actually looks like for both consumers and suppliers alike.<br/> This report attempts to help tackle this problem by using sustainable fashion certifications as a tactic to prove sustainability within business procedures. To compare eight of the most common fashion certifications, this paper assumes a systems thinking approach to creating an assessment framework, which is then applied to said certifications. To back up the importance of the topic, this paper presents key points of the current issues related to this case, which then contribute to the integration of basic sustainability assessment criteria and case-specific factors into overarching core criteria. The application of this framework is utilized to determine which certifications cover certain aspects of the curated core criteria. This is then used to present consumers and manufacturers with a more accurate understanding of each of these certifications. This information is then followed up with a recommendation of certifications that align most within researched-based consumer and supplier desires.
This thesis project has been conducted in accordance with The Founder’s Lab initiative which is sponsored by the W. P. Carey School of Business. This program groups three students together and tasks them with creating a business idea, conducting the necessary research to bring the concept to life, and exploring different aspects of business, with the end goal of gaining traction. The product we were given to work through this process with was Hot Head, an engineering capstone project concept. The Hot Head product is a sustainable and innovative solution to the water waste issue we find is very prominent in the United States. In order to bring the Hot Head idea to life, we were tasked with doing research on topics ranging from the Hot Head life cycle to finding plausible personas who may have an interest in the Hot Head product. This paper outlines the journey to gaining traction via a marketing campaign and exposure of our brand on several platforms, with a specific interest in website traffic. Our research scope comes from mainly primary sources like gathering opinions of potential buyers by sending out surveys and hosting focus groups. The paper concludes with some possible future steps that could be taken if this project were to be continued.
The process of producing enormous amounts of ephemeral clothing at accelerated rates, known as fast fashion, creates significant environmental and societal issues. The phenomenon of fast fashion rose due to globalization, economic factors, lack of legislation, and the advancement of technology. Governments, companies, and consumers must work together to create more sustainable retail supply chains. I have gathered information from interviews with individuals in the sustainable fashion industry, books, case studies, online reports, and newspaper articles. Based on my research, I recommend that companies should target wealthier consumers, develop a common language concerning sustainability, invest in sustainable fibers, and listen to factory employees for solutions to improve their working conditions. I also advise that the U.S governments should revise fashion copyright laws and international governments should emphasize regulations concerning the fashion industry. Lastly, consumers should adopt a price-per-wear mindset and utilize resale options. Overall, while perfect sustainability is improbable, consumers, governments, and companies should not use this as an excuse to avoid responsibility.
In the current age of global climate crisis, corporations must confront the rising pressure to mitigate their environmental impacts. The goal of this research paper is to provide corporations with a resource to manage waste through the implementation of a circular economy and by increasing Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR). Navigating this large and complex system required the use of various methodologies including: the investigation of the relationships between waste management systems and sustainable development across major companies; literature reviews of scholarly articles about CSR, circular economies, recycling, and releases of company reports on sustainable development and financials. Lastly, interviews and a survey were conducted to gain deeper insight into the problems that make circular economies so difficult to achieve at scale.
New Leaf was founded with the mission to address the environmental, health, and sustainability consequences of paper production today. We explored the sourcing and foundations of paper needs, supporting our assumption that paper can be created from agricultural waste. We solidified a business plan using agricultural waste after considerable sourcing research and expert and consumerism input. We determined that using forest foliage that is a potential fire hazard from a national forest could be used as a source to make alternative paper as well as contribute to sustainability efforts.
Information was examined using thirteen indicators of sustainability. Eight indicators were chosen that represented environmental sustainability, plus five indicators that represent social and economic sustainability. Based on the information analyzed, each company received a score for each indicator according to the level of information disclosed. This created a sustainability scorecard, with Marriott and Hilton scoring the highest, Wyndham and Best Western scoring the lowest, and Choice Hotels falling in the middle .In summary, it was determined that Hilton is reporting at the highest level, based on the measured indicators in addition to receiving external assurance on their disclosed results from implemented practices, The other four companies have further steps they should take to better communicate their sustainable practices and overall commitment to sustainability.
This trans-disciplinary thesis questions how theories of generification are useful in clarifying misunderstood literature and the role of similar, f¬¬ormulaic narratives in literary business. It attempts to answer the question through four parts: defining generification and related business marketing topics; a literary case study centering on Frankenstein; a second case study on the poem “The Road Not Taken”; and, an application of the demonstrated ideas to Young Adult (YA) publishing trends of 2005-2015. The first section concludes that the presence of a formula, created through the theories of heroic journeys and archetypes, lends itself to generification in literary marketing as publishing houses attempt to find the next virally successful narrative. The first case study, focused on Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein, establishes the existence of generification throughout the work’s life, attributing the generification to her characterization of both Doctor and Creature as antiheroes, a purposeful overlap leading to centuries of misinterpretation. The second case study centers around Robert Frost’s poem “The Road Not Taken”, concluding that in this situation generification greatly impacted both the legacy of the work and the image of the author. The section examines the role of Americanization in the confabulation of both the poem and the author, proving that the butchered interpretation greatly damages the reading of the poem. Finally, this paper takes the established concept of generification, along with related ideas such as narrative economics and formula fiction, and applies these ideas to an analysis of the YA publishing industry. It concludes that the simple existence of fandom culture creates a paradox: the fandom demands a constant stream of quality narratives, both inciting and rejecting any purposeful generification attempted on the part of the publishers.