2024 Fashion Accountability Report Highlights Sustainability Struggles – GWC Mag

The Fashion Accountability Report released this month by industry watchdog, Remake, delivers a comprehensive analysis of the sustainability practices of 52 prominent fashion companies. With an assessment covering 88 individual metrics across six critical areas—traceability, wages and wellbeing, commercial practices, raw materials, environmental justice, and governance—the findings reveal an industry struggling to make significant strides in accountability and sustainability amidst the pressing climate crisis.

Persistent Challenges Across Key Metrics

In the evaluation framework, businesses had the opportunity to achieve a maximum of 150 points across the six categories, utilizing data sourced from publicly accessible information, including company reports, as of December 2023. The average accountability score among the 52 companies analyzed did not show progress compared to the previous year’s findings, with an average score of 14 out of a potential 150 points. This highlights a persistent challenge within the sector. A detailed review of the category-specific average scores reveals the trend of minimal year-over-year advancement:

Traceability remained stagnant, with a score of 1 out of 8. Wages & Wellbeing and Commercial Practices saw no change, scoring 2 out of 23 and 1 out of 15, respectively. Raw Materials exhibited a slight improvement, with a score of 3 out of 20, a one-point increase from the preceding year. Environmental Justice saw a modest rise to 5 out of 42, and Governance scores remained flat at 3 out of 42.

Even the industry leaders, such as Everlane, H&M Group, and PUMA, despite achieving the highest scores with 40, 37 and 36 respectively, fall considerably short of the maximum achievable points. This indicates a significant discrepancy between the current sustainability practices within the fashion industry and the ideal benchmarks for sustainability.

The Struggle Against the Tide of a Broken System and Consumer Appetites

Companies like H&M Group face an uphill battle in their efforts to enhance sustainability and equity within their operations. Despite marginal progression across various categories, particularly in emissions, water usage, and chemical management, these companies continue to operate within a global economic system that incentivizes overproduction, pollution, and exploitation. This systemic issue emphasizes the need for a radical overhaul of fashion industry business models to address core sustainability challenges.

Legislative Support and Industry Engagement: Pathways to Systemic Change

Remake advocates for systemic change through legislative support and binding agreements, stressing the importance of holding fashion companies accountable for their human rights and environmental impacts along their supply chains. The Garment Worker Protection Act and the FABRIC Act are critical legislative efforts in the United States that can assist in establishing a more equitable and sustainable fashion industry. Simultaneous to the Remake report release, France’s lower house of parliament unanimously approved a bill that would penalize fast-fashion brands such as Shein with penalties of up to 50% of their selling prices to offset environmental impacts, along with banning advertising from these types of companies. The bill singled out Chinese ready-to-wear company Shein, saying that it, on average, presents more than 7,200 new garment models a day and makes more than 470,000 different products available to consumers. The legislation is headed to the French Senate for final approval in the weeks ahead.

Governance and Transparency: Areas of Stagnation

Governance, representing companies’ ethical and operational ethos, remains a significant area of concern, with no observable progress in enhancing diversity, equity, and inclusion initiatives or making executive teams more reflective of the communities they serve. The transparency in tracing supply chains also needs to show more progress, indicating a need for greater openness and accountability within the industry. Only two companies—Hanesbrands Inc. and MUJI—detailed responsible sourcing timelines, and no company fully ensures that purchasing practices enable suppliers to guarantee fair wages and sustainability.

Circular Economy and Material Sustainability: Emerging Opportunities

Shedding light on the nascent efforts towards circularity in fashion, Remake uncovered that only a fraction of companies are exploring resale, repair, and rental services to extend the lifecycle of their products. The report also highlights a lack of comprehensive commitment to reducing production volumes, a critical factor in minimizing waste and promoting sustainability. This lack of widespread adoption and the minimal impact of current circular initiatives reveal a critical need for the industry to amplify efforts and embrace a more transformative approach towards sustainability and circular economy principles.

An Urgent Call to Action for the Fashion Industry

Remake’s Fashion Accountability Report scrutinizes the substantial discrepancies within the fashion industry’s approach to sustainability and ethics and also lays out a clear imperative for profound structural changes. The selection of the included companies for 2024, based on their significant influence and annual revenues exceeding $100 million, underscores these giants’ crucial role in the industry’s overall sustainability trajectory. The report methodically breaks down performance across vital sectors—highlighting not just the leaders but also casting a spotlight on those at the bottom, such as Fashion Nova, Missguided, SKIMS, and Temu, which scored zero, underscoring the varying degrees of commitment and execution of sustainable practices within the industry.

The data delivered here provides just one more rousing wake-up call for the fashion industry to recalibrate its strategies, insisting on an industry-wide mobilization towards transparency, equitable labor practices, and a decisive pivot from a linear to a circular economy, emphasizing that sustainability requires a comprehensive overhaul of the fashion industry’s foundational structures and values.