Chapter 5 — full chapter
5.5 Plan Responsible Business Strategies
Even before a product is designed or manufactured, businesses make strategic decisions that shape its environmental and social impacts. Responsible business strategies aim to align production with actual demand, optimize resource use, and create long-term value rather than short-term sales. By improving forecasting, reducing overproduction, integrating circular business models and increasing transparency, companies can minimise waste, improve supply chain resilience and support more sustainable consumption. These decisions influence not only how products are developed and sold, but also how they are used, recovered and reintegrated into the value chain, contributing to a more circular and resource-efficient fashion industry.
Key Actions
- Forecast demand using market data and analytics.
- Plan production volumes to minimise overproduction.
- Adopt on-demand or small-batch production where appropriate.
- Set sustainability objectives and measurable business KPIs.
- Use Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) and environmental data to support strategic decisions.
- Prepare for regulatory compliance through Digital Product Passports and sustainability reporting.
Case Study: Son of a Tailor, Denmark and Portugal
Danish fashion firm Son of a Tailor adopts a demand-driven, made-to-order system, producing garments only once purchased. Most manufacturing occurs in Portugal, reducing the need for forecasts, eliminating finished-goods inventory, and avoiding overproduction typical of seasonal fashion. The brand emphasises durable, mono-material garments to prolong lifespan and facilitate recycling.
Son of a Tailor – Production
A third-party-verified ISO 14040/44 Life Cycle Assessment comparing its cotton T-shirt with a made-to-stock equivalent found a 25% lower carbon footprint—2.83 kg CO₂e versus 3.79 kg CO₂e—alongside significant reductions in water use, ecotoxicity, and land impact.
Son of a Tailor – T-shirt footprint
The company has set measurable climate goals covering energy, waste, Scope 1–3 emissions, supplier metrics, and logistics. Its Re-Spun programme reuses production waste, creating garments with 50% recycled Supima cotton, showcasing circular product development informed by production data. Climate Action Plan · Re-Spun initiative
This case exemplifies demand-led production, waste prevention, quantifiable sustainability targets, LCA-informed insights, and waste reintegration. While it lacks documented Digital Product Passports, developing one should be a next strategic step.
Reality check: made-to-order removes finished-goods inventory, but it lengthens lead times, shifts cost into production and logistics, and depends on reliable demand signals. The reported LCA compares one T-shirt model, and the Re-Spun styles contain 50% recycled cotton rather than being fully recycled. The case shows a specific production model with its own trade-offs, not a general argument that small batches are automatically lower-impact.
RESOURCE INSIGHT: Circular Fashion Business Toolkit — European Creative Hubs Network (S4Fashion project), 2022. An EU COSME-funded toolkit that walks fashion entrepreneurs through the building blocks of a circular business - from lifecycle thinking and circular value propositions to revenue models and partnerships. It is designed for creative hubs and incubators to run hands-on workshops with early-stage fashion businesses. Source: https://creativehubs.net/images/upload/CIRCULAR-FASHION-BUSINESS-TOOLKIT_A4_4final-with-links_lowres_EM_corrected.pdf. (ID CDS011, T3.1 Mapping Knowledge Resources)
- PARTNER CASE STUDY: ISTO. — Portugal. Topic: Sustainable Fashion. ISTO. is a Portuguese fashion brand built on a slow, responsible business model: small-batch production, natural materials, and transparent pricing and supply chains. It is a working example of the responsible business strategies in this section — how an SME aligns strategy, sourcing and communication around sustainability. See PARTNERS CASE STUDIES_MAPPED.xlsx.