Evaluating the business case for strong sustainability in Bangladesh’s export-oriented garment factories

Abstract

This thesis investigates how Bangladesh's export-oriented garment factories are transitioning from mere compliance or "weak sustainability" to more substantive and enduring forms of sustainability, or "strong sustainability." It considers how managers in two large garment factories interpret, adopt, and implement sustainability practices in response to the demands of global buyers and local challenges. It finds that while most initiatives remain framed by compliance, cost savings, and reputation-so yielding incremental gains in energy efficiency, pollution control, and worker welfare-there are signs of a nascent ethical commitment to sustainability and strategic integration of it into long-term strategy.

This research contributes to the greater understanding of sustainability transitions within global supply chains by showing how external pressures and internal motivations together influence the factories' pathways toward sustainability. Practically, this research calls for increased financial and technical support, enhanced buyer-supplier collaboration, and policies supporting deeper, transformative investments that can help move the Bangladesh garment industry beyond compliance to one of genuine sustainability.