Evaluation of Sustainable Investments in the Fashion Industry, a Triple Bottom Line & Stakeholder Approach

In recent years, mass consumption has dominated the fashion industry with negative social and ecological impacts. To counteract these issues, academic literature focuses on optimizing processes along the company’s supply chain, maintaining high outputs. However, consumer behaviour demands for more sustainable business practices, requiring modifications across the supply chain through precise investments as a major strategic lever. Due to the long-term orientation and high capital commitment of investments, it is crucial to identify monetary and sustainability potentials of investment opportunities and evaluate investment alternatives for adequate decision-making. Thus, an investment appraisal approach based on stakeholder engagement and the triple bottom line is applied to the fashion industry. This enables evaluating an investment outcome beyond the company’s boundaries, by including the social and environmental dimensions.