Accountability for market leaders
The BoF Sustainability Index was launched last year by The Business of Fashion, which looked at public disclosures from 15 of the industry's biggest players to assess the industry's progress toward meeting ambitious environmental and social goals by 2030. The findings revealed a significant disconnect between large businesses' public commitments and concrete, measurable activities.
The Index's scope has been expanded this year to include the performance of the industry's 30 top publicly traded companies by revenue in three market segments: luxury, sportswear, and high street.
Puma and Kering topped the list of the platform's most sustainable brands, followed by Levi Strauss, H&M Group, and Burberry.
The assessment for 2022 is based on data points, proprietary metrics, and extensive study and covers six impact categories:
- Emissions
- Transparency
- Water and chemicals
- Materials
- Workers' rights
- Waste
The index's goal is to give a standard for brands to use in order to grow sustainably, as well as for investors to assess the industry's success.
Puma received a score of 49 out of 100, outperforming the index average of 28. It attributed this to its Forever Better sustainability strategy, which it claims has contributed to a reduction in the company's carbon emissions.
The five worst performers were; URBN, Skechers, Fila, Anta and HLA Group who all scored fewer than 10 points.
You can read the full report by The Business of Fashion here.