Abstract

Indirectly, consumer choice has been a driving force of industrialization in the Global South, and with it of environmental degradation. Social disruptions have been a burden on social sustainability, too. This paper investigates opportunities for a reversal of this trend: can consumers drive greening of production processes in the Global South? The answer provided in this paper is a qualified yes. Present literature and our survey results point in this direction. In order for consumers to make educated, sustainably responsible buying choices, they need information on the sustainability embodied in products. This paper contributes to solving the information problem of both consumers and firms by designing a tool to measure the sustainability of international supply chains.