Non-profit organisation Remake has published its latest annual “Fashion Accountability Report 2024”. It measured the performance of 52 large fashion companies in six key areas: traceability, wages and wellbeing, commercial practices, raw materials, environmental justice and governance.
"Since 2016, Remake has been evaluating fashion companies on their human rights and environmental progress. In 2021, with the climate crisis looming large and the industry’s unethical treatment of garment workers during the pandemic thrust into the spotlight, we raised the bar on corporate accountability by strengthening our criteria to measure what matters most. It is undeniably clear that transparency, though absolutely necessary and foundational to sustainability, is not enough.
The fashion industry needs radically different business models and new modes of thinking in order to operate within our finite planetary boundaries and deliver equity for fashion workers across the value chain.
Our accountability assessments rely only on information that is in the public domain, most notably that which is published in companies’ own sustainability and annual reports, or on their websites. This is to encourage companies to fully trace and measure impacts across their value chain, set ambitious targets to mitigate their negative social and environmental footprints, as well as be publicly accountable for meeting these targets."
Remake’s authors of the Report explain how it is different:
"We score companies on progress, not promises.
We evaluate companies holistically.
We evaluate companies comprehensively from equitable upward mobility in the workplace, to the wages paid to retail and garment workers, to the animal welfare standards on farms.
We do not separate social from environmental impacts.
These two avenues of progress are deeply intertwined.
We take no funding from the fashion industry.
To ensure our ability to serve as an independent third-party watchdog, we take no money from the companies we evaluate, or any fashion company"
"Since 2016, Remake has been evaluating fashion companies on their human rights and environmental progress. In 2021, with the climate crisis looming large and the industry’s unethical treatment of garment workers during the pandemic thrust into the spotlight, we raised the bar on corporate accountability by strengthening our criteria to measure what matters most. It is undeniably clear that transparency, though absolutely necessary and foundational to sustainability, is not enough.
The fashion industry needs radically different business models and new modes of thinking in order to operate within our finite planetary boundaries and deliver equity for fashion workers across the value chain.
Our accountability assessments rely only on information that is in the public domain, most notably that which is published in companies’ own sustainability and annual reports, or on their websites. This is to encourage companies to fully trace and measure impacts across their value chain, set ambitious targets to mitigate their negative social and environmental footprints, as well as be publicly accountable for meeting these targets."
Remake’s authors of the Report explain how it is different:
"We score companies on progress, not promises.
We evaluate companies holistically.
We evaluate companies comprehensively from equitable upward mobility in the workplace, to the wages paid to retail and garment workers, to the animal welfare standards on farms.
We do not separate social from environmental impacts.
These two avenues of progress are deeply intertwined.
We take no funding from the fashion industry.
To ensure our ability to serve as an independent third-party watchdog, we take no money from the companies we evaluate, or any fashion company"
Here are the main points of the Report:
- What Kind of Fashion System Do You Want to Work in?
- What Kind of Fashion Companies Do You Want to Support?
- Fashion Brands Swim Against A Capitalist Tide
- When a Garment Factory Floods, Who Will Bear the Cost?
- We Don’t Want All This Stuff
- The Fashion World Lacks True Leadership
In conclusion of the Report:
Fashion workers—from the employees at corporate headquarters to the sewists in factories to smallholder cotton farmers—are burnt out and disillusioned with this system. Nobody wants to work in a system that is toxic and abusive. And we do see the quiet and difficult work being done by employees at dozens of fashion companies. They raise their concerns, push for disclosure, direct money toward solutions, advocate for joining binding agreements, and often do so with little thanks for their efforts. It’s not yet enough, far from it, but it’s something. We hope that this report can serve as a point-by-point roadmap to a better fashion industry that we are proud to be a part of. Perhaps, if we strive to fulfill these aspirations, fashion can be returned to its former place of glory and respect. Maybe then, saying, “I work in fashion,” will not be an apology or complaint, but a joyful boast that you help create useful and beautiful things that help uplift people while improving communities and ecosystems around the world.
You can download FASHION ACCOUNTABILITY REPORT 2024 by the link.
Fashion workers—from the employees at corporate headquarters to the sewists in factories to smallholder cotton farmers—are burnt out and disillusioned with this system. Nobody wants to work in a system that is toxic and abusive. And we do see the quiet and difficult work being done by employees at dozens of fashion companies. They raise their concerns, push for disclosure, direct money toward solutions, advocate for joining binding agreements, and often do so with little thanks for their efforts. It’s not yet enough, far from it, but it’s something. We hope that this report can serve as a point-by-point roadmap to a better fashion industry that we are proud to be a part of. Perhaps, if we strive to fulfill these aspirations, fashion can be returned to its former place of glory and respect. Maybe then, saying, “I work in fashion,” will not be an apology or complaint, but a joyful boast that you help create useful and beautiful things that help uplift people while improving communities and ecosystems around the world.
You can download FASHION ACCOUNTABILITY REPORT 2024 by the link.