Abstract
Melawear develops and produces organic cotton textiles such as garments, bags and sneakers within Indian supply chains based on a fair trade, cradle to cradle (C2C) approach.
The chapter describes Melawear’s outstanding effort as a C2C driven business and it reflects upon challenges and opportunities that go along with such a business model. The chapter further demonstrates how MELAWEAR’s C2C inspired business model is an opportunity to achieve a competitive advantage leading to a successful growth of the business. With the launch of the first backpacks and sneakers in the world certified by both Fairtrade and GOTS, MELAWEAR marks a key milestone in the field of sustainable textiles, not yet achieved by any other fashion company. For its success, MELAWEAR was awarded several times and became a flagship project for a sustainable textile industry.
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Notes
- 1.
Cradle to Cradle Certified™ Product Standard, Version 3.1 (2014).
- 2.
Fairtrade Standard for Fibre Crops for Small Producer Organizations (2011).
- 3.
- 4.
An unpublished Master-Thesis from the author of this article focuses on the comparison of the Fairtrade, GOTS and C2C standard and acts as a guideline for this article.
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Siedentopp, H. (2018). Melawear: Inspired by Cradle to Cradle. In: Jastram, S., Schneider, AM. (eds) Sustainable Fashion . Management for Professionals. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-74367-7_10
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