Unveiling Sustainability Reports : A multi-method research of sustainable issues raised in sustainability reports in the fast fashion industry.

Sammanfattning: Sustainability has over the years been of interest and not least to the fast fashion industry. The phenomenon of sustainability reports has therefore occurred by small and large companies produced for society today. Companies present a list of past, present and future sustainable activities to suppliers, competitors, shareholders and customers. Furthermore, the fast fashion industry has grown and consumption tends to be higher than ten years ago. The information shared is therefore important to see how these activities are communicated to society, not at least to customers. Sustainability awareness is today a valuable tool for sustainable trust in companies. Thus, the purpose of this thesis was to investigate which sustainability issues are presented  in sustainability reports by companies and by customers. Empirical results were obtained using a qualitative multi-method, where Critical Discourse Analysis was adopted by the authors to interpret sustainability reports from seven Swedish companies interpreted as fast fashion. The authors then analysed the results of CDA of sustainability reports with the aim to find out how the sustainable issues are presented to society in variants, differences, images and language. In addition, semi-structured interviews with questions based on CDA and literature review were conducted to gain perspectives and a deeper understanding of the customers.The conclusion of this thesis showed that customers can be involved in companies' sustainable activities, although it tends to differ. Customers perceived sustainability reports in today's situation as low transparency and the trust is not as high as it could be. The GIOIA method was therefore conducted to see how these first concepts from customer interviews relate to the second theme of CDA. Furthermore, four dimensions could be constructed with further suggestions for companies that produce sustainability reports to customers on the issues of trust, transparency, customer awareness and important sustainable issues. The thesis further identified both general factors and problems within sustainability reports that can be used for future guidance and implementation of sustainable awareness for customers in the fast fashion industry.