Fashion Accountability

The fashion industry is the second largest polluter, and the calls for the industry to do more to mitigate its adverse impacts have always been louder.

Remake's 2022 Fashion Accountability Report finds a few promising trends, but maintains that much more should be done to bring sustainability and social justice to manufacturing hubs such as Bangladesh, Cambodia, Sri Lanka and Pakistan, among other places. The report underscores that sustainability is being driven by a handful of companies, underscoring the need for policy and binding agreements. For the report, Remake reviewed 58 large companies, including Chanel, Inditex, Levi's and All birds, on their progress towards social and environmental goals across six categories: traceability, wages and wellbeing, commercial practices, raw materials, environmental justice, and governance. However, the advocacy group decided not to score small sustainable brands earning less than $100 million in annual revenue and self-described as sustainable or ethical, as, it claims, that since the organization's measurements are designed to hold large corporations accountable.

Traceability

The report maintains that at present traceability in fashion continues to be led by a handful of companies, while the majority of the industry knows little, or reveals little, about where it manufactures its goods. It observes that tracing this far into the supply chain is more challenging, but several companies are accomplishing it. Reformation, for example, published 85% of its tier 3 facilities, while Columbia Sportswear published approximately 80% of its tier 3 processing facilities by business volume, and Victoria's Secret & Co. 'has begun the work' of tracing its spinning mills and other tier 3 processing facilities. However, ASOS and PUMA published supplier lists that fully disclose suppliers all the way down to tier 3, to a detail sufficient to meet The Transparency Pledge, becoming the two companies with the greatest level of traceability.

Wages & Wellbeing