Sostenibilità e benessere animale nella regolamentazione delle catene di fornitura. Riflessioni a partire dall’industria della moda

The fashion industry, highly impactful on environment, human rights and animal welfare, and articulated in global supply chains, exemplifies the urgent need for stronger sustainability regulation within these contexts. Considering the evolution of the notion of sustainability, the research first shows that its definition has acquired a broad meaning, encompassing both issues related to environmental protection, economic development and social justice as well as animal welfare concerns, in line with the “One Health” approach under which human, animal, and environmental well-being are intertwined. Consequently, the research highlights that regulating fashion’s fragmented supply chains – by identifying the sources of environmental harms, human rights abuses, and animal suffering, by preventing and mitigating these adverse impacts, by defining liabilities across the chain – must also integrate animal welfare alongside environmental and social concerns, acknowledging that sustainability-related goals cannot be achieved without considering animal welfare as a fundamental component of sustainable development. Against this background, the paper examines corporate self-regulation initiatives, emphasising that the companies operating in the fashion industry are increasingly incorporating animal welfare standards in their Corporate Social Responsibility programs and codes of conduct, which are evolving from voluntary ethical tools into legally relevant commitments. International soft law instruments and national legislations are also investigated for their role in shaping corporate obligations, which, however, often prove inadequate due to their limited scope of application and the neglect of animal welfare concerns. The EU Directive 2024/1760 on corporate sustainability due diligence emerges as the most advanced framework for achieving sustainable development goals. Though expressly focused on environmental and human rights issues, the Directive implicitly integrates animal welfare within the non-financial due diligence process, through the adoption of the “One Health” approach, which stands as an essential paradigm for those sectors that generate the most critical sustainability challenges, like the fashion industry.