Ethical Fashion: Can Faith and Fast Fashion Coexist?

By: Jodie McEwen

While you’re shopping the post Christmas sales, this might be a question that crosses your mind. We all try and shop more ethically these days. To give us a hand, Baptist World Aid releases the Ethical Fashion Guide annually. Consumers can easily search for their favourite brand and see how they are ranked.

Companies are ranked on six areas:

Where are their materials coming from?
Do they pay workers a living wage?
Are they listening to their workers?
How do they respond to labour exploitation?
Are they choosing sustainable fibres?
Are they taking climate action seriously?

You can head to the fashion guide to find out how your favourite brand ranks.

Monitoring Makes a Difference

The 10th anniversary Special Edition Ethical Fashion Report compared the progress of 25 fashion companies from 2013 and assessed again in 2022.

The top 5 companies who made the most progress are:

The least improved companies in ten years since 2013 are:

Forever 21
Abercrombie & Fitch
Sussan Group
Myer
Just Group

The report highlighted that although companies have started to put policies in place to protect garment workers, they are failing to follow through on those commitments. Other areas such as living wages, worker empowerment outcomes and raw materials monitoring have also failed to progress significantly.

However, one of the positive findings was that the twenty-five fashion companies assessed each year between 2013 and 2022 are improving their ethical performance and rank, mostly due to the consistent public scrutiny holding the companies to account.

Recently Rhema 99.7’s Richelle Wenham caught up with Baptist World Aid’s Advocacy Manager, Sarah Knob who confirmed this.

‘The companies who have been consistently monitored over the past 10 years actually score, 11 points higher (on average) than companies who haven’t been under the same sort of public scrutiny’.

This is great news because it means that more improvement is possible. As well as supporting companies who operate ethically and take care of their workers and the planet, we can make a difference by publicly holding them accountable. By supporting organisations like Baptist World Aid to help them continue this life-improving research and by making your opinions known to your favourite fashion outlets, you’re making the fashion industry more ethical, fairer and sustainable for everyone.

Make Your Voice Heard

Consumer feedback is one of the most effective ways you can push for more ethical work practices by your favourite brands.

The Ethical Fashion Guide has a simple tool where you can Find Your Favourite Brands, check their score and email them directly. It’s never been easier to be an advocate for a more sustainable fashion industry.

Get in touch with companies that perform poorly and urge them to do more around their workplace labour practices and their supply chain.

Research Brands While You Shop

Next time you’re thinking about buying clothes or shoes, you can easily research the brand with a few clicks and make a decision that reflects your values. You can download the latest guide and keep it on your phone for quick reference while you’re browsing. The difference your purchase makes in real peoples’ lives is so much bigger than the small amount of effort it takes to spend your money wisely. And being a good steward of what we have and caring for others? That’s priceless.

Article supplied with thanks to Rhema 99.7.

Feature image: Photo by Artem Beliaikin on Unsplash