Abstract

[This abstract is based on the authors' abstract.] Globalized markets allow retailers to provide consumers with inexpensive garments, creating a reinforcing supply and demand dynamic. Buyers trade off traceability for low prices, resulting in opaque supply chains where natural biogeochemical cycles, social ethics, and principles of economic prudence are systematically transgressed—making textiles an unsustainable industry. Blockchain as a new technology provides an opportunity to increase traceability and, subsequently, sustainability. This study examines the feasibility of using blockchain in textile supply chain management to increase traceability and sustainability by examining the requirements for this kind of system from multiple stakeholder perspectives. It integrates different bodies of knowledge into a framework that stakeholders can use to holistically address sustainability issues in textile supply chains. Results demonstrate how innovative industry leadership, consumer behavior, policy, and technology all can converge to support a new paradigm of collaborative and sustainable textile supply chain management. This research is important because industrial blockchain use cases only solve traceability issues up to the product use phase—missing circular economy opportunities to recapture material value at the end of consumer use. The proposed framework can help stakeholders proactively design traceability and sustainability into systems by specifying appropriate requirements.