For over a decade, Baptist World Aid’s Ethical Fashion Report has been driving improvement in the labour rights and environmental protection systems of Australian and international fashion companies. 

The fashion industry is often synonymous with exploitation—both of people and the planet. When companies lack sufficient systems to protect their workers and ecosystems, injustices such as modern slavery, worker exploitation, and environmental degradation occur. But with up to 300 million workers employed in fashion globally—the majority of whom are women in low-to-middle income countries—the industry can also be a major driver for good. It can catalyse change through provision of jobs, growth, and export revenue. It has huge potential to bring people out of poverty and provide dignity to millions of workers. 

Fast fashion brands are the world’s largest employers of garment workers—both directly, through company owned factories, and indirectly through engagement of third-party garment suppliers. As a result, they have the ability to influence lasting change for the greatest number of people. 

Do We Go Too Easy On Fast Fashion Companies?

Each release of our Ethical Fashion Report brings some concern that Baptist World Aid is letting the purveyors of fast fashion off the hook too easily. 

We publish scores out of 100 demonstrating that even those brands ranking highly amongst their peers still have a long way to go. In fact, with an industry average of 31.3 per cent, it’s clear that the entire industry has extensive progress to make. But even so, some fast fashion brands are still ranking highly in the top 20 per cent of companies assessed. 

So, let us take you through exactly how fast fashion brands can rank well in the Ethical Fashion Guide. 

First Things First—What’s The Issue With Fast Fashion? 

Fast fashion is frequently criticised for contributing to a culture that demands cheaper clothing, in more styles, on a regular basis. These clothes are rotated through stores at breakneck speed, sometimes with a weekly turnaround. 

Consumers are purchasing four times the amount of clothing compared to just two decades ago. With around 100 billion garments produced annually around the globe, and Aussies buying 56 items each per year, this contributes to the eye-watering 200,000 tonnes of clothing rotting in landfill in Australia alone each year. 

In many cases, fast fashion has been bad news for workers as well. The fixation on cheaper prices puts significant downward pressure on wages. The speed of changing trends puts enormous pressure on factories to deliver on short lead times and contributes to ongoing issues of excessive and forced overtime. 

Knowing all of this, how can the Ethical Fashion Report rank brands like fast fashion pioneers H&M and Zara, and Aussie icon Kmart, in the top 20 per cent of companies assessed? 

How We Come To A Score

All companies are assessed on 48 questions covering 18 different indicators of supply chain practice. These questions are grouped into five differently weighted sections including: 

  • Policies and Governance
  • Tracing and Risk
  • Supplier Relationships and Human Rights Monitoring
  • Worker Empowerment, and
  • Environmental Sustainability.  

It’s a comprehensive analysis of what companies are doing in a broad range of areas across their supply chain. 

We assess companies on both publicly available information (things like Modern Slavery Statements and annual reports) and evidence disclosed to us directly.  

In total, our research team spend six months on the assessment including multiple rounds of review and feedback before the scores are finalised. In 2024, that amounted to over 13,000 data points assessed. 

What About Greenwashing?

Each question has strong validation and evidence requirements to meet. This means we don’t take vague statements at face value, but dig deeper and work with companies wherever possible to ensure they’re practicing what they preach in their supply chains. Where possible, we request third party verification documents such as audits and certificates. For companies assessed on public information, the same level of evidence and validation applies. Further to this, our research team are assessing company statements, webpages, and documents on a daily basis for several months each year, which means they’ve developed expertise in identifying greenwashing red flags. You can view the requirements for each of our 48 questions (plus the credit awarded to each individual company) by downloading our Ethical Fashion Report Appendix. 

How Are We Addressing The Issues Fast Fashion Perpetuates? 

The fast fashion system has contributed to a range of environmental and social issues which we continually work to address within our survey through the introduction of new questions and stronger validations. 

We’ve added a suite of questions on circular business models addressing in-use and end-of-life impacts of clothing, assessing what companies are doing to not only monitor the impact of clothing once sold, but to design clothing in more responsible, less impactful ways, and engage with consumers to provide them with strategies for reducing impact (e.g. take-back schemes for used items). Companies are also assessed on their efforts towards sustainable production planning and forecasting, and their strategy for addressing disposal of unsold goods. 

Another area that we’ve assessed for several years now is the responsible purchasing practices of companies. This question recognises the impact that things like lead times, pricing negotiations, and production planning have on the lived experience of garment workers. We also have a question examining if companies are tracking data related to their payment of orders.

Different Survey Sections Are Weighted Differently

It’s important to note that each of the five survey sections are weighted differently. Currently, the Environmental Sustainability section, which encompasses the overproduction and circularity questions, accounts for 21 per cent of a company’s overall grade. The Supplier Relationships section, which includes responsible purchasing practices accounts, for 33 per cent. While large companies may not score well on specific questions, if they’re covering a significant amount of the remainder of our survey sections, they can still score well overall. 

With All Of This Said—How Can Fast Fashion Companies Rank In The Top 20 Per Cent Of Companies? 

Our research examines a very specific question: “How strong are the systems companies have to mitigate the risks of worker exploitation and environmental degradation?” 

It may be true that these fast fashion brands have contributed to a destructive cultural change, but that’s not what the report is seeking to address. The truth is, some of these fast fashion companies are doing better than most at mitigating worker exploitation in their supply chains. Their size and scale give them resources to invest in systems to prevent modern slavery—things like tracing their suppliers, effective monitoring, building relationships of influence with suppliers, and working with unions and governments. It also gives them resources to invest in innovative technologies and processes that can reduce environmental harm in specific indicators such as water pollution and emissions reduction.  

When fast fashion companies score highly, it shows that larger companies are still able to take steps towards a more ethical supply chain. In a highly competitive market, where brands are fighting for the market share of the likes of H&M, it’s encouraging to see that big companies can retrofit ethical practices and receive a good score.

So, Should I Buy From Fast Fashion Brands?

The Ethical Fashion Guide is not a shopping guide, but rather a tool for people to become informed and empowered to advocate. Ethical fashion is complex and multifaceted, and there is no single brand which scores a perfect 100 in our research. Remember a blue circle, does not mean a green light! 

When it comes to shopping decisions, if you try to find a brand that is ethically perfect in every way, you’ll be looking for a lifetime. While we can’t always make perfect decisions, we can make decisions within our own means (geographically and financially) which are better than their alternative. This is where the Ethical Fashion Guide enables you to make decisions informed by an understanding of how brands are performing against others. We always encourage the first step as showing thoughtfulness around your patterns of consumption, and asking if you need to buy something new.  

We know that there are larger, systemic issues facing the fashion industry that will not be fully addressed by one report or guide alone. These can only be successfully approached through genuine collaboration between fashion companies, NGOs, civil society, governments, and of course, the demands of global citizens. 

At the heart of the Ethical Fashion Report is a desire to see the industry changed. We want to see garment workers around the world empowered to live their lives with dignity, in a healthy environment. The Ethical Fashion Report and Guide play just a small part in this puzzle. 

This article was originally published on 7 May 2018 by Gershon Nimbalker and later adapted for the 2022 Ethical Fashion Report and Guide launch by Bonnie Graham. It has been updated by Katherine Halliday in October 2024 for accuracy to the launch of the 10th Edition Ethical Fashion Report.