Sharing data and creating impact: Fashion Revolution Brasil open up their data on WikiRate

Uma versão em português deste blog está disponível aqui.

To mark Consumer Week in Brazil, Fashion Revolution Brasil and WikiRate have teamed up to launch the Fashion Transparency Index Brazil as an open dataset on WikiRate.

The Fashion Transparency Index Brazil (FTI Brazil) comprises thousands of data points about Brazilian-based companies and their policies and actions on key issues such as living wages, climate change, deforestation and inequalities.

The team at WikiRate have translated the dataset into an open format and made the raw data, sources and company scores available via WikiRate’s platform. This means everyone can access the data on WikiRate and the data can be made available in consumer-facing tools like the Fashion Checker.

The Fashion Checker is a tool that shines a light on living wages and transparency in apparel supply chains by comparing brand promises on living wages with the real wages of workers in their supply chains. Clean Clothes Campaign created this valuable advocacy tool which is powered by WikiRate.

Now that the Fashion Transparency Index Brazil is hosted on WikiRate, it is possible to pull Brazilian brands like Havaianas, Osklen and Colcci into the Fashion Checker campaign for the first time.

“We are delighted to host this important resource and thankful to Fashion Revolution Brasil for their commitment to making data about the Brazilian fashion industry accessible to all on WikiRate and through the Fashion Checker” — Aileen Robinson, Program Manager at WikiRate

Below, Fashion Revolution Brasil’s Manager and Educational Coordinator, Isabella Luglio, explains why we decided to take part in the collaboration.

Why has Fashion Revolution Brazil decided to make their data available on WikiRate?

The partnership between Fashion Revolution Brasil and Wikirate is in line with the objectives of the Fashion Transparency Index. Among the Index’s main goals are to help different stakeholders to better understand what data and information is being disclosed by the world’s largest fashion brands and retailers, raise public awareness, educate citizens about the social and environmental challenges facing the global fashion industry and support people’s activism.

We believe that partnering with different organisations on a global level is a way to not only push for greater transparency, but also allow our methodology and research to be used more widely, transforming results into tangible actions.

Furthermore, given that Brazil is the largest complete textile chain in the West, employing millions of workers, it is important that, for the first time, Brazilian companies are included in a platform such as Wikirate.

How does bringing this data onto WikiRate help Fashion Revolution Brazil tell its story?

Fashion Revolution works towards a fashion industry that conserves and restores the environment and values ​​people over growth and profit. The Fashion Transparency Index is a tool that helps us achieve this vision and feeds into our manifesto point 8: “Fashion is transparent and accountable. Fashion embraces clarity and does not hide behind complexity or rely on trade secrets to derive value. Anyone, anywhere can find out how, where, by whom and under what conditions their clothing is made.”

We believe that without transparency, it is not possible to protect vulnerable people and the planet. Therefore, transparency underpins the systemic change that is needed to transform the fashion industry.

Having the ITMB2021 data on Wikirate helps us on the journey towards systemic change as it allows the Index research to be available to more and more people, in order to serve as a basis and support for the activism of workers, unions and other organizations in civil society. In addition, having ITMB data on a platform that already has other data from companies around the world makes it possible to identify problems and possible solutions through the comparison of indicators.

This partnership strengthens Fashion Revolution’s goal of promoting a culture of transparency and accountability throughout the global fashion industry’s value chain, where brands take responsibility for their social and environmental impacts.

When it comes to transparency, what are the key strengths and weaknesses within the Brazilian fashion industry right now?

Although we have noticed an improvement in the overall average score of the brands that are included in the Fashion Transparency Index Brasil since the first edition in 2018, the overall results are still low and 17 of the 50 brands reviewed scored zero. This demonstrates that the fashion industry in Brazil needs to be bolder and more transparent about what it is doing to face the social and environmental challenges that permeate it.

A positive point that we can mention is that, when comparing with the results of the global Index, Brazil has a higher score in the traceability section, in which we search for the disclosure of supplier lists at three levels — production units, processing facilities and mills and raw materials — and how detailed the information about these facilities is.

On the negative side, the finding that most impacted me was that even with the climate crisis and Brazil breaking records in deforestation, none of the 50 brands disclosed a measurable commitment to zero deforestation. Furthermore, considering that more than half of the Brazilian population is black, it is frustrating that only 12% publish the breakdown by colour or race of their employees and none disclose the pay gap from a racial perspective.

What do you hope bringing data about Brazilian fashion brands into the Fashion Checker will achieve?

The mainstream fashion industry is built upon the exploitation of labour, natural resources and the knowledge of historically marginalised peoples. Wealth and power are concentrated in the hands of a few, and growth and profit are rewarded above all else. The fashion system operates by producing too much too fast, and manipulating us into a toxic cycle of overconsumption. Meanwhile, the majority of people that make our clothes are not paid enough to meet their basic needs, and already feel the impacts of the climate crisis — which the fashion industry fuels.

Therefore, the key message of Fashion Revolution Week 2022 is Money, Fashion and Power. We want to, together, mobilise people, amplify unheard or marginalised voices, and work towards effective solutions.

One of the problems to be addressed during events across Brazil will be that fashion professionals need better working conditions and, for that, they have the right to receive a living wage. Fashion Checker allows consumers and workers to access real data on living wage payments across the value chains of the world’s biggest brands.

In Brazil, there is still little discussion about the payment of a living wage to workers in the supply chain and the disclosure about this topic on the brands included in the Transparency Index of Fashion Brazil is almost non-existent. Therefore, we hope that this partnership will foster discussion about the importance of all workers in the fashion supply chain receiving a living wage. We also hope that the inclusion of ITMB data in Fashion Checker will encourage policymakers to create laws that hold brands accountable for their human rights impacts, and that brands and retailers will be more transparent on all the topics covered in the Fashion Transparency Index, continuously updating public disclosure in response to evolving risks