Kmart and Target Australia have been listed as the most transparent fashion brands, according to a new global report by The Fashion Revolution Foundation.
The Fashion Transparency index measures how much information about the world’s top 250 brands has been made publicly available on issues such as supply chains, water waste, animal cruelty, employment rates, and garment traceability. Each brand is then ranked based on their total score and overall transparency percentage.
Both Kmart and Target achieved a transparency score of 78 per cent, making them two of the three highest brands on the list.
This is the highest either brand has scored, with a big increase from last year’s 56 per cent transparency rating. No fashion retailer on this index has ever had a score above 80 per cent.
One of the worst performing brands was Chinese ultra-fast fashion giant SHEIN, scoring only two per cent.
The report also found that the majority of major brands do not disclose annual production volumes despite the growing amount of global textile waste each year.
Director of the OR Foundation Liz Ricketts says “most retailer take-back programmes simply divert clothing from local communities and ship it off to secondhand markets in the Global South, where we know much of the clothing ends up in landfills, burnt, or swept out to sea.”
According to the report, currently only four per cent of major brands publish the number of workers in their supply chain being paid a living wage.
Kmart and Target have faced mounting public pressure over the past few years due to unfair wages for workers in Bangladesh, with a 2019 report revealing the average income was only 55 cents an hour.
Kmart’s website states “by December 2023 we will improve purchasing practices with our suppliers of our own brand apparel and footwear by implementing the ACT Global Purchasing Practices Standard.”
While they have publicly made this commitment, no further plans have been published as of yet.
