A new Fashion Revolution report states that an overwhelming majority of major fashion brands refuse to publicly disclose key information about their supply chains.
Fashion Revolution is a non-profit fashion activism movement, that established an annual review under the title of “The Fashion Transparency Index”. It ranks major labels on their level of openness around company practices about human rights and environmental policies. The report says there are vested interests in showcasing empty promises and unambitious targets that are ill-equipped to save us from the climate crisis. It claims that continue absurd excess and wage theft.
The study collected data for all fashion brands with an annual turnover of more than $400 million. None of the information released by Fashion Revolution is verified or audited by an independent party, but rather exists as a dossier of claims the group hopes stakeholders can use to “hold brands to account.”
For the 2023 Index, the group asked 250 major brands for information on the weekly take-home pay for entry-level workers, the number of workers paid “by piece” in their supply chains (meaning payments are directly correlated to how much they can produce, rather than time worked) and the proportion of workers paid at least minimum wage.
About 99 percent did not disclose the number of workers in their supply chains being paid a living wage. The remaining 1 percent said they had provided wages higher than required by local law — Fashion Revolution in its report points out this is, in many cases, not the same as a livable wage.
According to the Index, 94 percent of the industry’s top brands do not publicly disclose what fuels are used to manufacture their clothes. Just 6 percent admitted to relying on coal to power at least some of their supply chains, and only 9 r percent revealed steps taken to decarbonize their production lines.
However, the report also claims more brands are communicating their approach to due diligence as 68 percent of the brands publish their processes for identifying human rights issues in their supply chains; 49 percent share their approach to environmental issues.
The report scores the 250 brands by their transparency and converts those scores into percentages. This year, 18 brands scored just 0-5 percent, meaning they disclosed nothing or very little concerning human rights and climate issues. 210 of the 250 brands received less than 50 percent and just two companies were deemed 80 percent transparent.
The report accuses fashion brands hiding facts about addressing climate change
