The Fashion Industry’s Focus on Risk Minimization is a Barrier to Sustainability
How can the industry talk about equal partnership when suppliers are defined as a liability to be minimized instead of an asset to be leveraged?
By definition, rules are a tool of control; social compliance is effectively a set of rules for factory behavior, and audits are the mechanism for enforcing those rules.
As an industry, we quibble about those social compliance rules. Some say that the problem is the way we enforce the rules — for example, the prevalence of for-profit auditing. Others say the problem is dishonest players taking advantage of the rules, or their imperfect implementation. And still others suggest the rules aren’t fair and advocate tweaking them.
But the real issue with social compliance audits is their situation within a broader set of rules designed to eliminate risk for brands.
I want to take a step back. The inherent limitation of rules is that they are written by entities with interests. Usually entities in positions of power. Entities comprised of people whose particular world view has been shaped by that power. In other words, rules are never neutral. That isn’t necessarily or inherently a bad thing.
