Assessing Supply Chains within the Apparel Industry

An increasing number of companies are seeking to reduce the nature and biodiversity-based impacts of their production practices.

Many of these company sectors are mature in their climate and sustainability programs, but other sectors, such as apparel, have just begun to take first steps in understanding their impacts and dependencies on nature and are facing the difficulties of doing so because of a lack of visibility into their supply chains.

“The apparel sector has wildly complex supply chains, and many of these companies’ climate programs are lower maturity, if not just getting started in the nature space,” said Emily Wolff, U.S. climate change associate consultant at WSP. “This makes biodiversity and nature-based accounting intimidating.”

That’s why WSP is shifting its client approach towards prioritizing internal learning before recommending to or not to publicly disclose, which keeps each client in the driver’s seat.

“Instead of starting with disclosure, you should start with a high-level investigation of your impacts and dependencies on nature and biodiversity to identify the hotspots within your value chain, then conduct a detailed assessment,” Wolff said. “Only then can you decide if it is in the best interest of your organization to proceed with disclosure using a prevalent nature and biodiversity framework, such as the Taskforce for Nature-related Financial Disclosures.”

WSP’s nature-based reporting team sits within its sustainability, energy and climate change (SECC) group in the U.S. and has extensive experience evaluating how impacts and dependencies on nature can lead to risks and opportunities for business.

“We’re staying up to date with various frameworks and collaborative approaches from industry groups for apparel such as Cascale and the Textile Exchange, working with our clients to help them align to these frameworks and draw connections to nature in the data they’ve already collected using our nature and biodiversity expertise as a lens for analysis,” Wolff said. “This gives clients education and exposure to the topic, enabling them to make better informed decisions.”

However, while their approach is informed by these frameworks, it’s also dynamic and shaped according to each client’s data limitations and strategy.  

“We don’t need detailed, granular data to infer relevant nature and biodiversity hotspots within our client’s operational control,” Wolff said.

The most significant hurdle for apparel industry clients and their sustainability programs is collecting data from their intricate supply chains, as well as other relevant networks of value.

This is significantly more burdensome for companies just getting started.

“We’ve had apparel clients come to us and ask, ‘I don’t know what to do. What do I need to do here and what’s next?’” said James Cooper, WSP assistant vice president of the apparel and retail services in the firm’s SECC group. “Our approach is a more succinct way to interpret the data and anticipate their needs.”

The journey to accounting for nature-related dependencies and impacts can seem daunting. But it’s also becoming increasingly necessary, as the apparel sector is lacking in its climate change solutions, while still having some of the most profound ecosystem impacts.

The firm leverages its membership to Cascale, a global, multi-stakeholder nonprofit alliance for the consumer goods industry; and the Textile Exchange, a global non-profit organization that works closely with every sector involved in the fashion and textile supply chain, to ensure collaboration in expediting attention to ecosystem impacts.

“This is simply an opportunity to add nature-indicative data gathering to the already expanding and improving data management movement that we are seeing across company sectors,” Wolff said. “As consultants, we need to meet our clients where they are and help them understand the first steps they need to take.

“It’s really just about letting the client drive,” Wolff continued. “We give them the nature lens and information to make better informed decisions, and then they decide what to do with that information.”

For more information about nature and biodiversity-based impacts of production practices, please contact Emily Wolff, [email protected].

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