SUSTAINABILITY
Understand how the sustainability ranking works.
Breaks down both the 5 star scale system and the slow to mega fast fashion wording.
Each store is ranked in a scale from 1-5 based on a variety of factors that the brand obtains.
*Much inspiration and education came from the website Good On You. Link to website below.*
0 STARS
This has usually been reserved for the mega fast fashion brands that are actively putting out tons of new clothing items each week to keep up with the high demand of ultra fast trends. These brands might also avoid paying their workers a decent wage, avoid sustainability efforts, (or at least contribute a very minimal amount of effort) and do not disclose the necessary information for consumers to know how their work policies are being enacted.
1 STAR
Generally, this mainly centers around fast fashion brands that aren't quite as big as the mega fast fashion brands, but still produce a high amount of new items weekly. While they might have some efforts, like decomposable shipping bags, their efforts lack true initiative in actually making a difference. However, it's still better than those that don't partake in any efforts at all. Or, it might mean a lack of info available.
2 STARS
Two stars lies between hardly doing much and starting to make an impact. It's the brands just beginning their journey towards sustainability and look to make an active effort, but haven't quite gotten there yet. They're still doing more than zero stars or one star, but there's still room to make significant changes towards bettering themselves.
3 STARS
Three stars equates to being actively invested in sustainability efforts, but there's still some things the brand can do. It's things like having a plan for the future to become 30% more sustainable by year XYZ, and providing consumers with insights into how the company produces their clothes and how they treat their workers.
4 STARS
With four stars, the brand is almost at 100% sustainable but there's an element that's lacking, which holds them back. They're probably slower fast fashion, are heavily involved in monitoring production and undergo strict ethical procedures for producing clothes.
5 STARS
These brands are truly sustainable and abide by highly moral and ethical standards when producing their clothes in every way.
SLOW FASHION
Sustainable fashion with little variety and slower production time. Many brands are made to order, or have a limited amount for release dates. Often production stays in-house within the region that headquarters are located.
SLOWER FASHION
Not completely sustainable. Might outsource to factories or production companies and have more options when it comes to variety, but doesn't have a fast trend cycle.
Fast fashion is where a majority of major brands are. They rely heavily on producing many clothes each week and outsource their production efforts to multiple factories.
FAST FASHION
Releasing new clothes at rapid speed. Produce tons and tons of clothing and generate hundreds of millions of dollars in revenue. Often they have little to no ethics regarding production or labor policies. Only a few of the major companies can reach this level.
MEGA FAST FASHION
KEYWORDS BELOW IN GREEN:
Part of the clothing directory sustainability research has come from "Good On You." According to their about page, "We’ve done the work to read between the seams for you. We are the world’s leading source for fashion brand ratings. We pull all the information together and use expert analysis to give each brand an easy-to-understand score. With Good On You, you can discover the very best fashion from around the world and learn everything you need to know about ethical and sustainable fashion."