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Case Study

Trendy fashion company: Sustainability in supply chain operations

By Ralf W. Seifert and Yara Kayyali El Alem

2 pages

July 2023

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Reference: IMD-7-2481

The newly appointed Senior Vice President of Trendy needs to put its supply chain on a more sustainable footing for the future. Trendy is an imaginary fast fashion company with a market base in Europe and a global supply chain. Core themes and actions that improve both sustainability targets and/or operational performance are discussed in the case. For sustainability, these include waste reduction, sustainability accounting, and partnerships with suppliers and eco-labels. For operational improvements, these include changing the manufacturing footprint, digitalizing the supply chain, and reducing the product portfolio. The case examines improving sustainability on Scopes 1, 2, and 3. While the case setting is in the fast fashion industry, lessons provided by this case are applicable to many industries seeking to improve their operational sustainability. The case challenges students to bring together different elements of the supply chain course to meet the objective of having more sustainable practices and achieving better operational performance.

Learning Objective

Identify core themes that improve sustainability performance of a firm
Identify core themes that improve operational performance of a firm
Account for all firm emissions including those of Scope 3
Understand the roles of third parties (suppliers, partnerships, …) in the sustainability performance of a firm

Keywords

Operations, Sustainability, Green Operations, Accounting, Emission Reduction, Portfolio Analysis, Responsible Consumption, Responsible Production, Climate Action, Goal Partnerships

Settings

World/global
Trendy (fictional), Consumer Goods, Apparel and Fashion

Type

Generalized Experience

Available Languages

English

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Teaching note

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