Truly sustainable or not? An assessment on China’s textile and apparel corporations’ sustainability performance from the moral responsibility perspective

Abstract

<p>This study reviewed Chinese textile and apparel corporations’ sustainability efforts and classified them into one of the six categories proposed by Ha-Brookshire’s (2015) Moral Responsibility Theory of Corporate Sustainability (MRCS). Content analysis of self-reported corporate documents was applied.Among 86 companies that were found to have “Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) Report” or “Environmental, Social and Governance (ESG) Report” available in public domain,19 expressed themselves as truly sustainable corporations,while 43 were categorized intooccasionally sustainable corporations. Other companies appeared as occasionally unsustainable (4), consistently sustainable in selective areas (4), and occasionally sustainable in selective areas (7). 9 companies did not indicate their views on sustainability from the moral duty perspective. This study implied that if Chinese textile and apparel manufacturers wanted to be truly sustainable, they must establish clear goals and structures to implement their visions.</p>