The thesis includes a theoretical part on traditional and sustainable cotton fibre production and a practical part, where we gathered information on customer mindsets and knowledge by surveying a wider audience and performing two interviews to get an insight into the mindsets and sustainable practices in the textile and fashion industry. The theoretical part highlights the positive and negative sides of both traditional production and sustainable cotton fibre production principles, and presents options for alternative ways of growing the fibre. The results of the survey of 130 people showed that people are receptive to positive change, would like to see more sustainable textiles, and are even willing to pay more for them. However, almost 33 % of respondents do not know of any organic label and only 11 % know of the BCI label ("The Better Cotton Initiative"), while 51 % would not buy a product containing GM cotton. The results suggest that customers are not sufficiently informed about the products they buy. Mr. Zabret and Ms. Benedetti, whom we interviewed, highlighted that sustainability is very important and explained how the industry has already made and is still making changes in this field. Both interviews emphasized that increased customer demand for sustainable products leads to such changes.
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