Making Sustainability Visible - A qualitative study on how circularity initiatives are translated into retail communication within Swedish fashion companies

Sammanfattning

The fashion industry faces increasing pressure to address sustainability challenges related to production and consumption. At the same time, the transition toward more sustainable business models remains complex, as fashion continues to rely on high sales volumes and rapid product turnover. This study explores how circularity initiatives are translated from corporate strategies into retail communication within Swedish fashion companies. Drawing on translation theory and the concept of decoupling, the study adopts a qualitative multi-level research design consisting of interviews with respondents from different organizational levels, in-store observations and qualitative document analysis.The findings show that circularity initiatives become progressively reconstructed as they move closer to customer-facing retail environments. While managers describe circularity as a broad organizational ambition connected to reduced consumption, recycling and resale, these ambitions become increasingly simplified and selectively materialized within retail communication. In practice, circularity becomes visible primarily through commercially compatible and product-connected elements such as recycled materials and second-hand initiatives, while broader ambitions related to systemic transformation become increasingly marginalized. The study highlights how retail environments actively shape what circularity can become within fashion retail. Ultimately, the findings point toward a central paradox: the more circularity becomes adapted to fit the practical realities of retail environments, the more difficult it becomes to challenge the consumption model it was originally intended to transform.