The Green Transformation of "China's Silk Capital": A Multi-Dimensional Case Analysis of Low-Carbon Upgrading across Nanchong's Silk Industry Chain

Abstract

Traditional industries face distinctive challenges in achieving low-carbon transformation, yet their upgrading pathways remain underexplored compared with those of high-tech and heavy-emitting sectors. This paper addresses this gap by examining the silk industry of Nanchong, a prefecture-level city in Sichuan Province officially designated as "China's Silk Capital" (2005) and the "Origin of Silk" (2016). Nanchong possesses the most complete cocoon-silk-textile industry chain in southwestern China, spanning sericulture, reeling, weaving, dyeing, garment manufacturing, and cultural-tourism integration. Drawing on embedded multi-case study methodology (Yin, 2018) and an industry-chain life cycle analytical framework, we select representative enterprises at each major segment of the value chain — Bubisi Organic Agriculture (upstream sericulture), Yiger Textile and Shuncheng Textile (midstream reeling and weaving), Jiafeng Fashion (downstream garment manufacturing), and the Litai Fung Group's eco-standard industrial park in Yilong County — and analyze their low-carbon upgrading strategies across five dimensions: organic raw material substitution, intelligent equipment-based energy conservation, clean production in dyeing and finishing, comprehensive utilization of sericulture by-products (mulberry tea, mulberry fruit, silk protein extraction), and silk cultural-tourism fusion. Our analysis reveals that the silk industry chain possesses an inherent "green endowment" — silk is a natural protein fiber derived from a renewable biological cycle — but that this endowment is unevenly realized across chain segments. Upstream sericulture can function as a net carbon sink when managed organically, while midstream dyeing and finishing remain the principal emission hotspots. We identify a "green sandwich" pattern in which the industry's upstream and downstream segments are relatively amenable to low-carbon upgrading, while the midstream processing segment faces the greatest technical and financial barriers. We propose an integrated upgrading model — the "Silk Green Chain" framework — that combines organic certification, digital lean manufacturing, circular by-product valorization, and cultural branding to achieve simultaneous decarbonization and value-added enhancement. The findings carry implications for traditional industry clusters in developing regions seeking to reconcile heritage preservation with carbon neutrality imperatives.