LONDON – 20 Brazilian apparel brands and retailers have been ranked on their transparency by Fashion Revolution. The campaign group’s new Fashion Transparency Index Brazil is the first regional edition of its broader, global Transparency Index and assesses businesses based on their own public disclosure of social and environmental policies, practises and impact.
The study looks at openly available information from sources such as websites, corporate social responsibility reports and sustainability reports, and evaluates them on: policies and commitments, governance, traceability, knowledge, communication and resolution, and featured topics.
The research for the index was conducted by the global and Brazilian Fashion Revolution teams, and in technical partnership with the Getulio Vargas Foundation’s Centre for Sustainability Studies (FGVces).
”We hope that the first edition of FTI Brazil will encourage Brazilian companies to communicate how they manage their business and the impacts of its operations, and open a dialogue with its stakeholders. Such initiatives serve as a model and inspiration for other sectors of the Brazilian economy, with challenges that reflect those faced by the global fashion industry,” said Aron Belinky, leader of the FGVces research team.
The Brazilian Fashion Transparency Index shows similarities to the global index, in what brands prioritise. 12 out of the 20 brands scored high for their policies on human rights, anti-discrimination and forced and child labour policies while only two companies report on carbon emissions and energy reduction.
This reinforced the findings from the Global Fashion Transparency Index that companies tended to focus on the company’s values and beliefs rather than on their actual practices and real-life impact.
In Brazil, four brands that were also analysed by the Global ITM in 2017 showed an average year-on-year growth of 38 per cent in their levels of transparency.
”We believe that the fashion industry has the power and ability to be a force for the common good, and we understand that the index is a significant tool in fostering transparency and helping us achieve that goal,” said Giuliana Ortega, head of C&A Foundation Brazil.
