Using eco-labels to promote sustainable fashion: A study using costly signalling theory

Sustainability in fashion is a concern of utmost significance as the industry is under spotlight due the high carbon footprint, vast amounts of natural resources used and pollution on waterways due to dyes and chemicals used. To overcome the environmental impact of fashion to a certain extent, so-called green/eco-friendly products made from sustainable, recycled materials are being manufactured and marketed. Unfortunately, sustainable approaches applied to related business practices (e.g. using sustainable materials and dyes, recycling, upcycling practices etc.) are limited and their sales constitute only a very limited part of the overall fashion market that is mainly driven by fast-fashion companies. To increase the demand for such eco-friendly products is not straightforward as they usually cost more to make, thus are more expensive than common alternatives produced by such fast-fashion companies. The current literature suggests that there may be links between environmentally conscious behaviour and displaying social status (Guo et al. 2020, Braun Kohlová and Urban 2018). Conspicuous environmentally friendly behaviour such as wearing green/eco-friendly garments and brands is considered as an instance of conspicuous prosocial behaviour, thus can be explained within the framework of the Costly Signalling Theory (Griskevicius et al. 2010; Whitfield, 2011). Traditional approaches associate status with luxury consumption, yet several studies argue that activating status motives can lead people to shy away from luxury and instead choose green alternatives and self-sacrifice (Maynard, 2007; Griskevicius et al. 2010; Groening et al. 2018). Using the social status display tendencies of consumers, relevant fashion products, labels and communication campaigns may be designed. Eco-labels in the fashion industry emerge as a viable and important tool to improve sustainability practices within this context. Despite wide applications of eco-labels in a variety of industries, most studies carried out in the literature so far have focused on understanding the impact of eco-label use on creating credibility, assurance, branding, and willingness to pay more (Chekima et al., 2016). Conversely, eco-labels’ role in motivating green purchase intention has been commonly overlooked especially within the fashion context.