ABSTRACT Through the Ecodesign for Sustainable Products Regulation and the Corporate Sustainability Due Diligence Directive, the European Commission targets sustainable products and value chains to curb environmental and social problems. Based on a combination of a complex systems lens and the global value chain and global governance approaches, the paper uses literature analysis and expert interviews, evaluated through qualitative content and causal loop analysis, to analyze the complex potential impacts on value chains and actors' evolving responsibilities within global value chains. Results show that textile chains are expected to experience positive and negative outcomes from the regulatory change. The impact upstream, such as on cotton farmers, remains unclear. Positive impacts of the mandatory regulatory change depend on facilitators like collaborative governance, value chain transparency, political support, measurability, external checks, and industry know‐how. Barriers include power structures within global value chains, regulatory limitations, among others. The Regulation and the Directive can drive sustainability within garment supply chains, provided barriers are addressed from the beginning and facilitators are promoted throughout the supply chain. However, substitution of cotton by more easily traceable synthetic fibers may result in an effective traceability solution rather than an effective solution to solve social and environmental problems.
Stadler et al. (Fri,) studied this question.