On April 24, 2013, an eight-story commercial building, Rana Plaza, collapsed in Savar, a sub-district in the Greater Dhaka Area, the capital of Bangladesh.
The disaster, which left more than 1,000 dead and over 2,000 injured, spurred an international outcry for fashion retailers manufacturing offshore to take more responsibility for their supply chains and garment factory workers worldwide.
According to a recent survey by Oxfam Australia, Australian consumers in particular have taken a stronger stand on the matter since the Bangladesh tragedy.
The report, which examined attitudes to Australian clothing retailers following the disaster, found that since the Bangladesh clothing factory collapse, more than two thirds (71 per cent) of respondents are concerned about the conditions in which overseas workers are making their clothes.
Additionally, 81 per cent stated that they believe Australian clothing companies have a responsibility to ensure overseas workers are paid enough to cover basic needs (such as food, clothing, housing) and almost 70 per cent of Australians said would pay more for their clothes if they knew overseas workers were paid a decent wage and that garment factories had safe working conditions.
This is not an isolated response. The potency of the consumer conscience across the board, including also a greater consideration for environmental concerns and sustainability, has been increasing for quite some time.
In Australia, where locals traditionally spend $191 million on Fairtrade products in one year, support for cotton farmers has recently seen Fairtrade sales spike, with Fairtrade growing at 12 times the market rate, according to the organisation.
The total market for sustainable products and services has also almost doubled in the last four years, and despite rising living costs and signs of a declining appetite from the Australian community for a price on carbon, more Australians are continuing to embrace ‘eco’ options.
This affinity for ethical products has inevitably spurred new businesses to look to gain accreditation and, according to Fairtrade records, on average there are now more than 15 new businesses entering the Fairtrade system in Australia each year.
Ethical Clothing Australia (ECA), a local organisation dedicated to supervising ethical supply chains in accredited fashion brands throughout Australia, has also recently seen a raft of new brands enter its fold – including babywear brand Fourzero, Game Clothing and Melbourne-based women’s boutique fashion label, The Ark – which have become accredited within the last few months.
However, while on the outside, all consumers see is a swing tag which carries favourable connotations – internally, businesses who have gained these ethical accreditations have had to pay a price for their goodwill.
Additional costs, paper trails and less choice when it comes to suppliers are all part and parcel of aligning a brand with entities such as Ethical Clothing Australia (ECA), Fairtrade and the Global Organic Textile Standard (GOTS).
However, local brands who have taken the leap so far say it’s worth it.
Moreover, it can also act as a competitive advantage in an Australian market which is becoming increasingly crowded, according to David Kesby, CEO of Australian fashion chain Cue Clothing Co.
The company is currently the largest manufacturer of women’s fashion in Australia and is ECA accredited. In addition, as a signatory to ECA and the Homeworkers Code of Conduct, Cue is regularly audited by the Textile, Clothing & Footwear Union of Australia (TCFUA) and maintains regular contact with union representatives who visit its makers to check conditions and ensure statutory requirements are being met.
“The decision to make our products ethically and in Australia does come without risk and additional cost – but we feel it is an investment worth making,” Kesby says.
“Wage and supply costs are higher, but we feel the differentiation it offers from our competitors far outweighs this and plays an important role in what makes Cue unique.”
Natalie Dillon, co-founder of fashion label 3Fish, echoes Kesby’s statement and says that treading the ethical accreditation path has been far from a walk in the park.
“Establishing an international supply chain from scratch is a challenge for any business,” she says.
“But, in setting ethical standards as the baseline for establishing and continually developing the 3Fish supply chain, it is a wonderful challenge. Perhaps it narrows the pool of potential suppliers, but that is the point. We don’t want to produce anything less than great garments, and we don’t want to produce anything founded in anything less than respect, dignity and fairness. This is the right thing to do.”
Her company 3Fish, which she established with her husband Marty Dillon, was founded in 2008 and has complied to a list of exhaustive garment standards ever since. These include: Fairtrade Certified (FLO ID 20301), Australian Certified Organic (ACO Licence No.11058W), using GOTS certified dyes and inks, carbon neutral products, low carbon company, and links to the Carbon Reduction Institute of Australia.
While it has not been easy, the Dillons say that gaining and maintaining these accreditations for 3Fish has been a labour of love – both because it is ethical and underpins their entire brand strategy, setting them apart from other labels.
“Meeting the Fairtrade farmers in a remote village in the state of Maharashtra in India was a very moving experience for me,” says Marty Dillon, of their decision to go Fairtrade.
“This area of India is known as the suicide belt of India as more than 1000 farmers a year have committed suicide in the past, unable to escape the debt cycle caused by conventional cotton farming. So there are a lot of single mothers with young children, and I learnt that Fairtrade organic cotton farming enables them to afford to send their children to school instead of needing them to work on the farm.
“We also selected India as our manufacturing base as we could achieve all our Fairtrade, and organic cotton certifications in service providers, who are also able to meet our quality specifications in closer proximity to the cotton fields, limiting the movement of our product, and thereby making the achievement of carbon neutral status more commercially viable. Also, scientifically organic farming is gaining traction.”
Like 3Fish, Nico Underwear has also ben founded on pillars of ethical manufacturing and, despite the extra costs involved, designer Lis Harvey says the brand is already reaping profitable rewards from its investment.
“As a very small operation the process of maintaining our accreditation is relatively simple and largely aligns with our standards of ethical business practices,” she says.
“I also feel that interest in ethical manufacturing is growing rapidly and consumers are looking for guarantees that products have been produced without exploitation – ECA provides this guarantee.
“We have seen an increase in traffic to our online store since gaining accreditation and the ECA website is consistently amongst the top referrers. Our accreditation is also frequently picked up and used to promote the brand in the press.”
Kesby says the same is true of consumers’ response to the Cue clothing brand’s ethical accreditation.
“The response from customers who are aware of our position on Australian Made and our ECA accreditation is overwhelmingly positive. We regularly receive feedback from customers via emails, interaction through our social media channels – particularly Facebook – and increasingly bloggers who wish to discuss our practices and show their support,” he says.
However, Kesby is also quick to point out that for all the positive feedback in regards to ethical accreditations, there is much work to be done – and those brands which have not yet capitalised on their ethical accreditations should move quickly to make their mark and distinguish themselves in the market.
“We realise that we must continue to communicate these important messages – because, for all that do know – there are many more who do not,” he says.
“Communication is a key area where accreditation has enabled us to become more proactive in the way we share and formally acknowledge the Cue commitment. From news and updates to our Cue Club members, social media, print and outdoor advertising, window decals and swing tags on all of our Australian made designs – we aim to share these important brand and company messages where appropriate in all our PR, marketing and advertising opportunities. Accreditation from ECA as a recognised and independent industry figure further supports customer confidence in the credibility of our ethical statements.”
Spreading the good word is something Hannah Parris, director of local eco-fashion label Audrey Blue knows quite a bit about.
Parris champions Audrey Blue as the first and only (to date) Australian women’s clothing label which is both GOTS (Global Organic Textile Standard) and FLO (Fairtrade International) certified, and recently took her dedication to ethical TCF practices to the next level.
Parris was recently one of the only Australian labels to travel to London to attend an annual eco-fashion industry conference titled *Source Summit 2013 hosted by the Ethical Fashion Forum, and she has been vocal about it – publicising her involvement in the Summit, locally, in the lead up to the event and after.
Integral to her message is her belief that the principles of sustainability should be shared far and wide in Australia and that sweat shop labour and the use of dangerous chemicals to make clothing and textiles do not have to be a mainstay in Australia.
Ethical manufacturing, she insists, is not only the way of the future but also a way for local brands to shine for the right reasons.
The public seems to agree with her –given the recent opinion polls and rising sales stats from accredited brands – but the emergence of a new era depends on whether more Australian brands will now follow suit and take the leap.
“We can build on the momentum of the recent well publicised concerns and become leaders in the sustainability field.
“Sydney, Melbourne and Brisbane are hotbeds for fashion innovation. Labels and retailers in these big cities have the opportunity to not only build on the momentum discussed by London’s fashion elite, but make it mainstream – make it the cultural norm,” Parris says.
“Boutique business aside, let’s start looking at mass production techniques that create certified organic and Fairtrade garments, but have an affordable price tag.
“What a different world; what a different Australia that would be.”
*The Source Summit 2013 was held in July 2013 and aims to build upon and accelerate the momentum of sustainablity by uniting leaders from the largest global retailers to pioneering brands and suppliers, from all over the world to address challenges, and share and learn from best practice and innovation around the world.
