Miljøprojekt, 973 – Virkemidler til fremme af Blomstmærkede tekstiler i detailhandlen

Promotion of Flower-labelled Textiles in the Retail Trade

2 Summary

About 800 shops in Denmark sell environmentally friendly textiles with the EU ecolabel - The Flower. Nevertheless, the sale of environmentally friendly textiles only accounts for a few percent of total textile sales. The retail shops rarely get demands or questions related to environmental aspects of the textiles, which is why the shops mainly focus on price and fashion.

The purpose of this study is to describe knowledge about and attitudes towards environmentally friendly textiles in the retail trade. Furthermore, the relationship between shop assistants and the retail chain as well as their exchange of knowledge are assessed. In this respect the purpose was to analyse the possibilities of influencing the textile market, and, thus, making it move in a more environmentally acceptable direction.

55 shop assistants were contacted personally or by phone. The shop assistants were interviewed about their knowledge about and interest in selling environmentally friendly textiles. In addition, ten purchasers from the retail chains were interviewed about key initiatives for promoting environmentally friendly textiles.

PlanMiljø furthermore carried out surveys of consumer preferences and made a characterisation of the Danish suppliers of ecolabelled textiles and their experiences with the retail trade.

Generally, the retail trade meets small interest and demand for environmentally friendly textiles and make no efforts to increase the sale through campaigns or other marketing measures. Actually, only shops selling baby and childwear periodically meet an interest in ecolabelled textiles. This is generally seen when the media focus on environment or health problems connected to textiles.

The consumer surveys confirm this trend. In daily life the consumers do not relate the ecolabel to quality, but emphasise quality, strength and durability when buying textiles. Neither the retail chains nor the shops focus on the aspects of environmentally friendly textiles that might interest the consumers.

When the shop assistants sell textiles, very few inform the consumers of environmentally friendly alternatives. Most of the assistants have a limited or no knowledge about ecolabelled textiles. They avoid bringing themselves in a situation in which they are not able to answer the questions from the consumer. At the same time the shop assistants express a wish to get more knowledge about environmentally friendly textiles. They want the information to be clear, accessible and useful in a concrete sales situation.

The shop assistants typically get most new information from the sales consultants visiting the shops. The shop assistants cooperate well with the sales consultants and consider them as trustworthy sources of information. The survey of the suppliers and their sales consultants confirms this picture – the shop assistants have a limited knowledge of environmentally friendly textiles, but they are willing to get more information.

The experiences of the shop assistants and the relationship between shops and sales consultants have served as the basis for making a CD-rom. The CD-rom “Flower on trousers, diapers and coats” contains information such as:

Slides about the advantages of marketing ecolabelled textiles, which parameters are important to the consumers, facts, and the trustworthiness of the ecolabel.
A pamphlet with frequently asked questions about environmentally friendly textiles. On the back page the reader will find an explanation of the most common terms in textile manufacture and ecolabelling.
Background material describing a life cycle analysis of a common garment, and the differences between ecolabelled and non-ecolabelled textiles.
A checklist for testing knowledge about environmentally friendly textiles.

The CD-rom is distributed by the Centre for Environmentally Friendly Textiles. The main target group is suppliers holding an ecolabel license.

The purpose of the CD-rom is that the sales consultants use it, in preparation to his visit to the shops. The sales consultant will, thus, upgrade his knowledge about ecolabelled textiles, and he will be able to pass on information to the different shops.