Author: Tess van Basten Batenburg
- Gemeente Amsterdam Cluster Ruimte en Economie,
- Gemeente Amsterdam Cluster Digitalisering, Innovatie en Informatie,
- AMS Institute,
- External knowledge institution
Increasing sustainability of the denim jeans life cycle with policy interventions
A case study of Amsterdam
The textile industry is the second most polluting industry in the world (Ellen McArthur Foundation, 2017a). It is known for its increasing resource and energy consumption as a result of fast fashion culture, resource-intensity and wasteful practices (Dissanayake & Sinha, 2013). Due to their pressing nature, negative environmental and social pressures of the textile industry have entered political discourse.
This research assesses what types of policy interventions could stimulate system wide sustainability improvements of the jeans life cycle, and what additional criteria would complement the environmental criterium. To this end, it applies a mixed method approach, using qualitative and quantitative data to assess the current state of sustainability of Amsterdam’s denim jeans system. To inform public decision makers, the policy analysis process as described by Patton et al. (2015) is applied. This method allows for the integration of different policy interventions in the analysis.
Image credits
Header image: Denim.jpg
Icon image: Denim.jpg