Topic One
GOODID
Li (from China) and Ahmed (from Pakistan) met at the University of Huddersfield in
2008 where both were doing fashion courses. They talked about setting up a
fashion business but were uneasy about some of the ethical and environmental
issues relating to the industry. Two million tonnes of clothes are sold annually in
the UK, of which one million will end up in landfill sites when half of it is reusable. It
was while at a nightclub in 2010 that they came up with the idea of ‘GOODID’. The
idea was to design and produce innovative, quality, one-off clothing, which was
made from hand-picked, locally sourced, recycled fabrics. They called it ‘up-
cycling’, ‘innovatively combining new British and sustainable fabrics with reclaimed
textiles. They wanted to change perceptions of what recycled clothing can be by
creating garments that did not look recycled. Starting with only £2,500, in 2014
they made a deal with a local charity shop that allowed them to go through all the
bags of textiles that were being sent to the rag factory at the cost of £10 a bag.
They also acquired a car showroom in Brighton, a large open space into which
they put two makeshift beds and a couple of second-hand sewing machines and
started their business:
Li did the design work and Ahmed looked after the business side, both working on
the manufacturing. Within a few months they decided to go on a three-day
‘Creative Business’ start-up course run by the National Council for Graduate
Entrepreneurship (NCGE) and registered ‘GOODID’ as a company. After a year in
the car showroom, they relocated to Hackney in London so as to be in the ‘fashion
hub’ of the UK. They also set up their own online shop. In 2016 they won a
£15,000 prize from NCGE, much of which was spent on repairing the sewing

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machines. However, the prize also generated free PR, and articles about the
company appeared in the national press. These stimulated sales on one hand and
on the other hand, some critics towards their business responsibility concerns was
questioned by the local community.
In January 2017, the business started facing backlashing from their local
community being accused of ‘what other business are doing’ and not really
focusing on responsible business practice for the benefit of the society.
As a result, Li and Ahmed, approach you as their CSR/sustainability consultant
asking you to critically examine their SME business strategy, focusing specifically
on its integration of sustainability criteria.
More specifically:
• Discuss 'why' businesses are held accountable for unsustainable
behaviour, focusing on the impacts arising from social, political, and environmental
domains.
• What should GOODID do to strengthen their obligations in the fashion
industry by using relevant theories reviewed in class to support your arguments.

Topic two
GREENWASHING
Public concerns regarding the environment are greater than ever before. These
sentiments have seen a significant increase in recent years. Thus, consumers are
increasingly receptive to businesses doing their part in the climate crisis. Most are
willing to switch to purchasing from these businesses and also pay more for their
products if they believe it will benefit the environment (Knight, 2020). In order to
meet this rising demand for sustainability concerns, businesses are rapidly
pledging to environmental causes. This is an act of corporate social responsibility,
which is associated with the reputation and consumer loyalty towards a business.
There is a clear incentive for businesses to adopt more environmentally
sustainable practices. However, many businesses attempt to capitalise on the
benefits of going green without matching their actions to the high environmental
performance they present. This phenomenon is called greenwashing. Whilst
businesses lying to or misleading consumers is not new, greenwashing is a unique
case due to the permanent damage it causes the environment. This is especially
concerning given the planet is in danger of crossing several climates 'tipping
points' (Marshall, 2020), after which it will be difficult to recover. Thus, it is
imperative that greenwashing is brought under control to reduce the devastating
impacts of business actions upon climate change.
Your task:
Select a company of your choice that has been accused of engaging in
greenwashing actions and critically evaluate their engagement in ‘greenwashing’
by examining the disparities between the ‘rhetoric’ of their CSR/Sustainability and
their ‘actual CSR/Sustainability practices’.

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Conclude your assignment by providing relevant recommendations to address the
company’s greenwashing concerns.
Duration N/A Word Count 2500 words
Task specific guidance:
The assignment should be written in an essay format and should contain the
following:
A brief overview of no more than 100 words which highlights the topic selected
(these 100 words in the ‘overview’ are not counted towards the 2500-word limit)
Critical review of topic (see guidance below)
A reference list (A minimum of 10 references have to be used – ranging from
journal articles, practitioner articles, text books and online materials) – the words in
the list of references are not counted towards the 2500-word limit).