The fashion industry has shown little progress in terms of its transparency, claims Fashion Revolution. The responsible fashion advocacy group says that its recently released 2021 Fashion Transparency Index indicates an average transparency score of 23%, unchanged from last year’s Index results.
With regard to environmental impact transparency, the report found that 62% of the 250 biggest brands publish their carbon footprint in their own facilities. However, most carbon emissions occur at processing and raw material levels. Only 26% of brands disclose emissions information at the processing and manufacturing level, and only 17% do so at the raw material level.
More than one third of big brands (36%) have published their progress towards reducing the use of virgin plastics for packaging, but only 18% did so for textiles deriving from virgin fossil fuels, which consumers are less likely to recognise as plastic.
There was slight progress with regard to supply-chain transparency: 27% of major brands now disclose some of their processing facilities, compared to 24% last year. Additionally, 11% of brands publish some of their raw material suppliers, up from 7% last year.
According to the report, shoppers would like more transparency among fashion brands: 60% of survey respondents said transparency is important to them and 53% believe ethical labor policies are important. A separate poll found that 55% are interested in purchasing sustainable clothing but 48% don’t know how or where to find sustainable clothes. More than a third (34%) said, “If there was a store for sustainable clothes, I’d do all my shopping there.”