Fashion brands that make transparency easy to understand for consumers
In fashion, transparency is the practice of openly sharing information about how, where, and by whom a product was made. Being transparent means publishing all information about every actor involved in the production process, from start to finish, from the fields to the store shelves. It allows customers to know exactly what they’re buying, with details from every step of the production process.
The environmental and social impact of fashion companies is facing growing scrutiny, with consumers and stakeholders demanding transparency and accountability. However, not all companies readily disclose the necessary information and metrics needed to assess their sustainability efforts.
In 2023, the most transparent clothing brands in the world
In a recently compiled list from 2023, ranking the world’s most transparent fashion companies, OVS emerged as the top-performing fashion brand in terms of transparency. The Italian retailer achieved an impressive transparency index score of 83 percent. Notably, this score was twelve percent higher than H&M, which achieved a score of 71 percent.
This recognition highlights the increasing importance of transparency in the fashion industry and signals a positive shift towards greater openness and accountability among brands.
The lack of visibility along this chain prevents companies from understanding the true social and environmental impact of their items and business practices.*
“Good On You” presents key points for fashion brands to enhance transparency by disclosing information about their impact:
- The Planet: This includes details about materials used, their proportions, waste generation, waste management practices, and water usage and treatment.
- People at All Stages of the Supply Chain: Brands should provide information about their workforce, the factories involved, working conditions, safety measures, wages, working hours, and workers’ rights.
- Animals: If animal-derived materials are used, brands should disclose sourcing methods and the measures in place to ensure humane treatment of animals.
The different stages of the production processes are categorized into different scope levels:
Almost 60% of a garment's environmental impact happens during fiber and fabric manufacturing.
Large numbers of the materials that are commonly used today in the fashion industry are resource-intensive.
The question is: “What are brands and retailers doing to increase the use of sustainable materials and reduce the use of virgin plastics and microfibre shedding?”
- Tools and processes to deline sustainable materials
- Strategies and progress on the switch to more sustainable materials
- The brand's overall hore mix
- Strategies and progress on the reduction of the use of virgin plastics in packaging and clothes
- What the brand is doing to minimise the impact of microfibres.
The fashion industry, and our apparel consumption, accounts for more environmental impact than we can afford. Globalized supply chains tap into low-labor cost countries with insufficient labor and environmental regulation, to offer us new outfits for less than a lunch. Unsurprisingly, the low price we've become used to pay, comes at a cost: broken labourers, escalating pollution, frail eco-and biodiversity, resource drought, mountains of trash and climate change. In a bid to meet consumers' increasing awareness that something is amiss, “sustainable” products are flooding the shelves. Not only do they fail to address the issue at hand: we're consuming more than our planet can take. They risk comforting us into consuming even more.
The average European produces 8 tonnes of CO2e per year, when we should be at 2 tonnes to stay below 1.5°C global warming. We need to understand the impact of our clothing to be able to reduce it. Some brands use the knowledge of their traced supply chain to calculate and share with you the environmental impact of all our garments: Their CO2 emissions, water and energy consumption. They show you the impact of their garments, from fiber extraction all the way until finished garment, on every product page.
Honest CO2 numbers
Carbon footprint is an important tool, guiding our internal actions by serving as an indicator. For combating climate change, it is crucial for us to truly understand, evaluate and develop our own impact.
The CO2 footprint frames our production and value chain, thus having a large impact on our decision making. By examining this key figure, we can justify the existence of a product, look into new material and product innovations together with our partners, measure development and of course increase awareness and discussion.
The CO2 numbers provide inspiration for you to examine your own personal impact and create a deeper understanding. They also shed light on the comprehensive fashion industry ecosystem and its impact on our planet.
What are brands and retailers doing to reduce the use of hazardous chemicals and minimise their water footprint?
- Strategies and progress on reducing the use of hazardous chemicals
- Water footprint in direct operations and in the supply chain
- Water risk assessments.
This section focuses on whether brands are publishing supplier lists from manufacturing facilities to raw material level, and what level of detail brands are disclosing about these supplies.
Disclosing factories, processing facilities and raw material suppliers.
- Are brands disclosing the factories where their clothes are made, often referred to as the first-tier or tier 1 manufacturers - in other words, the facilities with which brands have a direct relationship and typically do the cutting, sewing and final trims of products?
- Are brands disclosing processing facilities further down the supply chain - knitting, weaving and spinning mills, wet processing, embroidery, printing and finishing, dye-houses, tanneries and laundries?
- Are brands disclosing their suppliers of raw materials - primary materials such as fibres, hides, rubber, chemical and metals?
What level of detail is
provided? Are brands sharing information such as:
- Name of parent company
- Address of the facility
- Products/services
- Approximate number of workers
- Gender breakdown of workers % of migrant or contract workers
- If the facility has a trade union, and the name of the trade union If the facility has an independent worker committee
- Certifications the facility holds, if any
- If the list includes at least 95% of its supply chain
- If the list is in machine-readable format (csv, json, xls)
- If the list was updated within the past six months
The question is: “What are brands and retailers doing to address overproduction minimise waste and move towards circularity?”
- How many items were produced in the reporting period
- Commitments to degrowth
- How much textile waste was generated and how much was destroyed or recycled
- Strategies and progress on reducing pre-consumer waste and recycling post-consumer waste
- Strategies for take-back schemes and clothes longevity.
Sustainability goes hand-in-hand with transparency — supply chain transparency as well as transparent pricing. Thats why consumers should know what they’re paying for so they can better understand the value of the garments they buy.
The problem with opaque prices and intricate supply chains is that consumers have no idea how much of their money actually goes to the people producing it. Barred-off, complicated value chains and unjustified margins are large-scale issues in the fashion industry. This can lead to massive issues of social injustice and environmental problems. The end customer is kept in the dark on who is actually getting paid on the process.Even for fair fashion brands bringing light into the darkness is not always easy, as supply chain structures are still very outdated. But good communication and constant improvement are key in making the fashion industry more transparent.
Some brands reveal the pricing behind each step of the way; from main materials to metal parts, production, packaging and our own margin.
let's admire them.
As usual, I choose garments from conscious brands rated Good On You. In addition, this selection is completely independent; the author does not receive a commission from fashion brands