The fashion industry is famous for its kind of glamour with, but we know it is fair to end with some darkness – a dark place with various architecture filled with ethical and environmental issues in the supply chain. The exploitation that happens in the fashion supply chain and the environmental devastation caused by the production of textiles is something that requires utmost transparency in the fashion supply chain. In this article, we will discuss what supply chain transparency is, the struggle this industry is battling, and some tips to have high visibility and improve the industry’s future path.
The Urgency of Transparency:
Fashion is not placing doubt over the fact it is having an impact on the planet and its people. In place of fast fashion, a fast system of mass production uses cheap prices and fast turnover. This has resulted in:
- Exploitative Labor Practices: Low wages, unsafe working conditions, and even forced labor are prevalent in many parts of the fashion supply chain, particularly in developing countries.
- Environmental impacts: The production of the textile includes many environmental impacts such as water pollution from the release of toxic chemicals into waterways or greenhouse gas emissions that lead to changes in the climate.
- Lack of Accountability: Because the fashion supply chain is opaque, it is challenging to spot and resolve these problems, enabling brands to disassociate themselves from the unfavorable effects of their manufacturing.
The Benefits of Transparency:
And one of the many reasons for hashing out the transparency of the fashion supply chain’s chain is that:
- Improved Ethical and Social Standards: All of these will plant the seed of transparency which will notify brands as well as suppliers that they are not complying concerning ethical and social dividends such as fair wage and labor conditions.
- Reduced Environmental Impact: It traces the environmental footprint from creation up to where it is utilized and helps in tracing the process as well as the material that will be implemented to reduce the environmental footprint.
- Enhanced Brand Reputation: It was giving increased brand reputation because the people were becoming more conscious with regards to what they were buying and the ethical as well as the environmental side. However, to succeed with customers, who are sustainability and ethics-inclined in the manufacturing process, one has to create transparent brands.
- Increased Innovation: Transparency can foster innovation by encouraging the development of more sustainable materials such as textured thread and trilobal polyester thread and production processes.
- Improved Risk Management: It identifies or knows potential risks, labor violations, environmental disasters, and disruption of the supply used to prove that brands can do such actions to mitigate or deal with these risks.
Challenges to Achieving Transparency:
Progress on making transparency here is exponentially increasing, but it hindered that work:
- Complexity of the Supply Chain: The fashion supply chain is a very long, complex multiple-tiered supply chain, and thus fashion supply chain individuals do not or do not want to follow the supply of raw materials or working conditions.
- Data Silos: Information in the supply chain was spread in different hands of the supply chain, and it was very hard to get a complete view of the information.
- Lack of Standardization: Furthermore, supply chain commitment transparency cannot be standardized as one format that can be always used throughout the corporations.
- Supplier Resistance To Providing Information: Some suppliers may be unwilling to provide information regarding their operation when they fear that the information can nullify their competitive advantages.
- Cost of Implementation: Implementing robust transparency initiatives can be costly, requiring significant investments in technology, data collection, and third-party audits.
Strategies for Improving Supply Chain Transparency:
The solution requires multiple approaches and strategies that can be taken to overcome these challenges and improve supply chain transparency.
Technology Adoption:
- Using Blockchain Technology: It helps the material and product journey through the path and makes an immutable and clear record.
- Use of Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Machine Learning: AI can be used to inspect and review data along with patterns and display potential danger in the region of demand.
- Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) and other tracking technologies: These are suitable for tracking products and materials in real-time to increase visibility in the supply chain.
Collaboration and Partnerships:
- Industry-Wide Initiatives: Indeed, cooperation among brands, suppliers, NGOs, and governments is crucial to how we can improve and practice industry-wide standards of transparency, which may be part of industry-wide initiatives.
- Multi-Stakeholder Platforms: Multi-stakeholder platforms (also known as platforms sharing information and collaboration among the supply chain).
Data Collection and Analysis:
- Thorough Data Collection: Companies need to gather thorough data about their supply chains, including details on labor practices, production methods, and the source of products.
- Verification and Third-Party Audits: Independent third-party audits can assist in guaranteeing the dependability and correctness of the information gathered by brands.
Consumer Engagement:
- Transparency Reporting: A transparent supply chain should be made to the suppliers as the environmental and social impact of a brand’s supply chain should be known to them.
- Technology for the Transparency of the Supply Chain: Aiming to foster the use of technology that enhances supply chain transparency and customer consent.
Regulatory Frameworks:
- Mandatory Disclosure Requirements: Mandatory Disclosure requirements are critical as governments can enforce mandatory disclosure requirements on any company conducting business in its jurisdiction.
- Incentivizing Transparency: To incentivize, Governments can allow tax breaks and preferential policies of procurement to companies to improve transparency in their supply chain.
Examples of Best Practices:
- Allbirds: Allbirds is a footwear brand that is well known for its transparency and it opens its business on its materials, its manufacturing processes, and its environmental impact.
- Patagonia: Founded in 1973, Patagonia is an active voice in sustainable fashion, a pioneer in transparency, and continues to attempt a lot to be more traceable, cheaper, and environmentally friendly.
- Everlane: The other brands such as Transparent or Cara have said themselves as a credible source of information about certain products.
Conclusion
Transparency in the supply chain of the fashion industry is a complex process. If we cannot solve these problems, then we will create an even more unsustainable and unethical history unless we use technology, work collectively, and ensure that we have good practices in collecting and analyzing data that are robust.
We are still struggling but the rising demand from consumers for transparency and rising regulator pressure will nonetheless lead to the making of positive change. Together working as a brand, supplier, and other stakeholders, a just and sustainable fashion system that serves all, people and plants, is created.
