People and planet should be prioritised in equal measure but the fashion sector continues to come under fire for neglecting its role in paying for a happy and productive workforce throughout the supply chain. 

Last week UK retailer Boohoo made headlines following a BBC Panorama investigation for allegedly pressuring suppliers to drive down prices, even after deals had been agreed.

Boohoo maintains that it is continuing to deliver on the commitments it made as part of its Agenda for Change following the criticisms it received around the pandemic.

The trickle down effect of any fashion company bartering for the cheapest price is the impact on factories being able to pay their workers a decent wage and being able to give their workers enough time to produce the orders without running them into the ground.

Pretty much every fashion brand or retailer now has someone dedicated to sustainability with some even having consumer-facing sustainability ambassadors.

Boohoo is good a case in point for this given it named reality celebrity Kourtney Karadashian-Barker a sustainability ambassador in September last year.

Sadly, we don’t see the same focus on social responsibility either behind the scenes or with a Tik-Tok/Instagram-friendly celebrity-fronted role so it begs the question: Has the focus on tackling sustainability allowed social responsibility to go by the way side?

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There has been a lot of change in a short space of time within global fashion supply chains, especially as legislation is on the horizon that will force fashion brands and retailers to be accountable for extended producer responsibility as well as environmental and social due diligence.

But what is being achieved on the sustainability front still seems to be outweighing what is happening on the social side.

Only a couple of weeks ago for instance, US fashion brand Nike was named a ‘backer’ of what is being called an industry first clean energy project to decarbonise supply chains, which is fantastic from a sustainability point of view.

However in September its shareholders were criticised for rejecting a proposal to assess the efficacy of its supply chain due diligence efforts, which would have included its social responsibility efforts such as the methodology and metrics used to measure performance on forced labour and wage theft risks.

Zara’s parent company Inditex has been doing lots of cool stuff within the circularity space and most recently revealed it would be acquiring the first available 2,000 tonnes of Circulose to lower its impact on the environment by 2030. This is another great sustainability initiative but it’s good to see it is also taking social responsibility seriously by partnering with the International Apparel Federation to improve working conditions and traceability throughout its fashion supply chain.

This is particularly important as Zara came under fire last week with the Canadian corporate ethics watchdog CORE launching an independent fact-finding investigation into Zara Canada over allegations of forced labour links, which Zara has denied.

Cost can no longer be the driving factor if we do want true ethical sourcing on both a sustainable and social level to be the norm for all retailers and brands.

Until the entire fashion sector proves to members of the public that it is doing right by both the planet and its people, investigations by the likes of the BBC will help to keep social responsibility and the importance of treating suppliers and workers as “partners” front of mind with consumers.

By Just Style