Global Fashion Agenda and Deloitte launch new open-source Fashion Impact Toolkit

An new open-source and free to use toolkit has been developed by the Global Fashion Agenda (GFA) and Deloitte to share a meaningful inventory of industry impacts for guidance on strategy assessment. It keeps fashion sustainability teams in mind to help them understand, measure and leverage large amounts of data to drive positive change, especially considering that teams are often small and resources limited.

“There was a need for a common understanding, for transparency and for accelerating this transition,” explained Cecilia Dall’Acqua, strategic partner at Deloitte and head of the Deloitte Global Hub for Fashion, when presenting the toolkit at the Global Fashion Summit in Copenhagen.

It took seven months to develop, and maps the value chain with its different activities, from the farmers until the end of a product’s life. Overall, there are more than 20 activities and 88 sub-activities for the different stakeholders to understand which role they play along the value chain and what impact they are creating. Focused reporting and transparency were taking into account from the beginning, also connections and collaborations between different stakeholders to accelerate transition.

In the report accompanying the toolkit, Deloitte and GFA have also included seven steps on how to overcome barriers as the starting point for a company’s strategy, operations and management when monitoring impact and developing actionable plans around them.

Why does fashion need another tool?

Dall’Acqua explained that the question, ‘why another tool’, was the starting point. “We have so many, it gets confusing. Based on the needs that we started discussing, we saw that there was a need to promote a tool that helped companies focus their data. The data they are reporting, they need to really understand the full scope.”

Serkan Tanka, vice president of business development at Dakota Garment Group and Companies, agreed but cautioned that data should not only be collected at factory-level but at other tiers as well for a holistic picture. “This is very important, because data collection is one thing, but the most important thing is to understand the reason why we are collecting that data for our teams, for other suppliers,” he added.

With this in mind, Deloitte and GFA saw the need for introducing a separate tool: “We were seeing some tools that were only for a specific part of the value chain. We wanted to really go broad and cover the different aspects, but it should also be used by big brands, small brands and different members of the value chain,” stated Dall’Acqua. “And for them to understand suppliers, the farmers can use it as well to understand what the impacts are that they are having when choosing different types of production or different types of harnessing of virgin materials,” she added.

Taking current and upcoming regulation into account was another consideration. “When talking about impact, we based the tool on the ESRS, the new European standards for reporting, not only to help as a stepping stone to companies that will need to report on CSRD, but to help them think about the strategy that is behind it and to focus their target,” confirmed Dall’Acqua.

Compared to existing tools, the Higg Index for instance, the new toolkit would complement them while also providing strategic reflection. “The Higg Index can drive you to prioritise and this can give you a view on what has been missed; maybe I have a blind spot in my value chain that I was not considering,” remarked Dall’Acqua.

How can a centralised dataset help fashion identify impact?

Companies can use the centralised datasets that the toolkit provides for their own target strategies but also for common goals with suppliers in the larger value chain. “Sustainability strategies must focus on where they will have higher impacts or where they have the biggest opportunities. So this tool will help make this conscious decision about the strategies inside a company,” said Dall'Acqua.

"If we look in a more collaborative landscape, as we were saying before, this enables you to identify from your suppliers and from your raw materials what are the impacts and work together with a common goal. It is not only about only requesting data, it is about working together to minimise these impacts or even leverage on the opportunities that you have found,” she added.

How can companies benefit?

For Tekla, a Copenhagen-based brand with a focus on homewares and home textiles including sleepwear, any kind of support that the SME can get in terms of extending the team is welcome. “What we are looking for in a tool is to cover as much scope as possible. So right now for us, that looks like product footprints, traceability but also increasingly EU compliance, so reporting frameworks as well,” confirmed Pippa Smart, head of sustainability at Tekla. “And then we are also looking for a kind of tech support so that we can centralise and visualise data, which is very important for internal engagement.”

“If you haven't already, I would really advise any size brand to be mapping their supply chain, understanding beyond their tier-one relationships. And I actually think the other advice I would give and what has been a key focus at Tekla is actually working on and building those supply chain relationships and really working with the engagement because your impact is a shared impact and the understanding needs to be shared as well,” she added.

For Tanka, making informed decisions about a company they may invest in is key - the Dakota Group as a supplier is working with global brands, having factories in Asia and doing garment manufacturing and fabric production as well. “All this information needs to support that instead of, again, coming from buyers and others. But the most important thing is the collaboration, to see the same thing in the same tool, even regions and countries.”

Benchmarking is also an important aspect. “Are we doing good? Are we doing enough? Because we are already doing many things, but then we can make a comparison. Are there better areas, better tiers and regions? Then we can learn from each other. This can be really helpful for us,” concluded Tanka.

Currently, a demo version of the Fashion Impact Toolkit is available. The full version with more than 3,000 impacts will go live in September.