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2019 Ethical Fashion Report

2019 Ethical Fashion Report

The 2019 Ethical Fashion Report on mostly mainstream brands - 130 companies and 430 brands is out 

The 6th Ethical Fashion Report from the Baptist Church is out and it ranks a number of well known Australian brands A to Z. 

Along with Buildings and Electronics, Fashion is a particularly complex industry, with literally more moving parts than a Swiss watch. All of which have ethical and environmental aspects. There are many reports, rankings, ratings on these moving parts - from the beginnings of a fabric - a fish scale, sheep, oil or ocean waste, right through the entire supply chain of production, labour, chemicals & transport - and on to the shirt on our backs. A shirt that we may or may not even even need. 

​The 2019 Ethical Fashion Report states that it is intended to provide a picture of ethical sourcing practices in the fashion industry as a resource for consumers, corporations, investors, and policymakers. The group also state that they have worked with supply chain parties interested in improving and promoting good practices as it aligns with others like Modern Slavery and Ethical Clothing Australia. And that work is extremely important. 

The report deals with a number of important areas in the supply chain, but doesn't deal with questions about consumption, for instance, the ethics of fast fashion or fabrics processing. And that includes issues like the fact that H&M are now one of the biggest users of organic cotton globally. Much of H&M's product ends up in landfill and cotton is the biggest guzzler of water on the planet.

Not all companies choose to cooperate with the authors and of course many companies aren't actually assessed. There is a whiff about the treatment of companies who didn't cooperate being assigned lower rankings. Setting aside the potential to call out using the report to 'influence or lean', the decision to lower a company's rankings (rather than simply say they didn't participate) actually has the effect of undermining the credibility of the report as much as it increases the ire of the related businesses and that doesn't really help consumers.

​THE 2019 ETHICAL FASHION REPORT DOES ATTEMPT TO LOOK CLOSELY AT SOME IMPORTANT SUPPLY CHAIN ISSUES AS IT ASSESSES COMPANIES ON 44 SPECIFIC CRITERIA ACROSS 5 KEY THEMES AT 3 CRITICAL STAGES OF THE SUPPLY CHAIN.

According to the report, there have been a pile of improvements in the fashion industry over the past 6 years, especially in trace-ability of raw materials and use of sustainable fibres. Living wage payment however is still surprisingly low among the companies ranked.


While Living Wage payments results had not improved substantially among the companies surveyed, more companies were addressing child and forced labour issues as well as investing in gender equality and responsible purchasing. 


THIS REPORT MAY NOT BE PERFECT, AND THAT IS POTENTIALLY AN ISSUE, BUT IT IS BEST TAKEN ON BOARD AS ANOTHER PIECE OF INFORMATION RATHER THAN A DEFINITIVE RANKING.

IT CONTAINS SOME GREAT INFORMATION & THOUGHT STARTERS & OFFERS ANOTHER PIECE OF THE PUZZLE OF BETTER FASHION CHOICES AS IT LOOKS AT 3 CRITICAL STAGES - RAW MATERIALS, INPUTS PRODUCTION & FINAL STAGE PRODUCTION.



You can check where your favourite brand stacked up by going to the report. The A+ rankings are listed below, but you will find most well known brands in the report, which it appears you may have to give your email to access.


Etiko, Freeset T-Shirts, Icebreaker, Kowtow, Liminal Apparel, Outland Denim, adidas.



Images: 2019 Ethical Fashion Report

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