Burberry and Levi’s top Remake’s Fashion Accountability report for 2022

Now in its fifth year of publication, Remake’s Fashion Accountability report is continuing its efforts to expose brands’ transparency issues and unethical supply chains within the industry.

For its 2022 report, the organisation said it was responding directly to the rise in overproduction and garment worker exploitation that have been exacerbated over the past couple of years due to various events.

Next to updating its evaluation framework, the NGO has also expanded its list of brands within its scope, as it looks to take its evaluation beyond its typical focus on transparency.

It comes amid rising pressure on the fashion industry to adapt business models and respond to the climate crisis, with the report detailing various data by the likes of The World Economic Forum to drive home the urgency of the matter.

Remake also noted its recent ‘#Payup’ campaign, which called on brands to commit to retroactive payments to compensate their garment workers for finished orders.

The organisation added: “The trajectory of events over the past couple of years have made it clear that although transparency is a core value of ethical and sustainable fashion, it is not enough.

“Supporting conscious consumers today has taken on a bigger challenge. In the current environment of fast fashion, being a conscious consumer means more than just shopping ethically.

“Conscious consumers need conscious industries. This means radically different business models – ones that work within the constraint of finite planetary boundaries and delivery of equity for its workforce.”

Burberry, Levi’s and Everlane are this year’s high scorers

To evaluate the 58 corporations this year, Remake said it had updated its assessment criteria, with a renewed focus on action and progress, instead of its usual transparency-related requirements.

The latter requirement was now only worth eight points, while companies were to be further evaluated on wages and wellbeing, commercial practices, raw materials, environmental justice and governance.

Three salient issues were also taken into consideration, albeit did not negatively affect scores; commitments to the International Accord, links to the updated End Uyghur Forced Labour coalition and pandemic-related wage theft in the supply chain.

Remake noted that it ultimately scored brands on their inherent business models, not just their practices, meaning companies that relied on overproduction and prioritised excess sales would automatically be ineligible to gain points in various categories.

Burberry and Everlane took the top spot in the list, each with a score of 38 points. Both companies were recognised for incorporating regenerative practices and “sustainably-led” corporate governance into their strategies. They were followed by Levi’s, Reformation and H&M, each of which were credited for their climate efforts.

Meanwhile, URBN Group, TJX, Forever 21 and Abercrombie & Fitch were among the lowest scorers for 2022, all given two points and criticised for showing “no improvement in any assessment category”.

The Edinburgh Woollen Mill and Ross Dress for Less both received zero points, putting them at the bottom of the list, with Remake noting that the former had been cancelling orders without payments to its suppliers.