Ethical Fashion Certification - SA8000, WRAP, Fair Wear & More

SA8000 tracks more than 3,700 locations across 61 different countries, and WRAP had already certified 1,700 factories by 2008 with its strict zero-tolerance policies. The Fair Wear Foundation works with over 120 clothing brands at this point. Businesses can only display their logo if they score above 75% and achieve what they call Leader status. Each certification body also works in its own particular way. Some of them want to see continuous improvement with annual audits every year, and others just give you a pass or fail grade after one inspection.

The Clean Clothes Campaign ran the numbers and found out that only 0.6% of what you pay for a t-shirt actually goes to the person who sewed it. The certification organizations carry out over 20,000 audits each year, and they use third-party businesses for it. Academic studies are now asking if the factories actually follow the standards between inspections or if they're just putting on a show when they know that auditors are on the way.

Every big certification tests for something different. They all check your compliance in their own particular way, and the one you choose does matter.

We should take a closer look at these certifications so you can make better ethical fashion decisions!

Each Certification Takes a Different Approach

Four big certifications have taken over the ethical fashion space, and each one deals with the problem a bit differently. SA8000 is probably the most thorough one out there since it deals with the whole social accountability picture. Factories need to actually sit down and calculate what a living wage looks like for their workers, and it's not a simple calculation. The certification looks at just about everything at work, from child labor policies to discrimination practices. And you have to have strong management systems that are already set up if you want to keep the certification active from one year to the next.

WRAP has carved out its own niche by focusing specifically on manufacturing factories. The Rana Plaza collapse in Bangladesh was a wake-up call for the entire industry, and in the aftermath, hundreds of factories there scrambled to get WRAP certified. They needed a way to show that they'd meet international production standards. The certification focuses on workplace safety above all else. But it also verifies legal compliance and fundamental labor rights. The scope stays pretty narrow, though, because WRAP mostly cares about the activities on the production floor itself instead of what goes on throughout the entire supply chain.

Fair Wear Foundation takes a different strategy, and what makes them different is that they put the workers at the center of everything they do. They've set up this complaints system that actually works the way it should. Factory workers can report problems straight to Fair Wear, and their bosses never have to know about it - workers don't have to worry about being fired or punished. Workers now have a legitimate way to raise complaints when they're forced to work too much overtime or when their wages show up late.

GOTS originally launched as a certification for organic textiles. But somewhere along the way, they realized that they needed social requirements too. The bar for certification is fairly high because you need at least 70% organic fibers in your products, along with solid evidence that your workers receive fair treatment throughout the production process. Most of the brands that market organic clothing go with GOTS because it validates their material sourcing and their fair treatment of workers in one shot.

How Auditors Verify Factory Claims

Factory certification audits are big business. Auditors will spend between 2 and 5 days at a facility, and during that time, they look at every part of the operation in detail. Management can make all kinds of claims about how they run their business. Auditors won't take anything at face value. Documentation is everything. Payroll records and timecards get scrutinized to make sure workers actually receive the wages that the company reports. Then those same auditors will meet with workers privately and off-site to hear their side of the story without any pressure from supervisors.

The main tool that auditors use to expose factory lies is cross-checking. Management will swear up and down that everyone goes home after 8 hours. Then the workers sit down for those confidential interviews, and suddenly the truth comes out about 12-hour days. The paperwork usually gives it away, too. Some factories go as far as keeping two different sets of books just to throw off the inspectors. The veteran auditors know which documents matter and where the discrepancies always show up.

The type of audit that a factory goes through actually matters quite a bit. Second-party audits happen when buyers send their own team to check out their suppliers. Factories can usually see these coming from a mile away. Third-party certifications are different, though. Independent auditors show up with their own rules, and they're not there to make friends or help anyone out. These inspectors have one job - to find every problem that they can. No exceptions.

These audits usually find problems at almost every factory they visit. Most factories actually fail their first certification inspection. Not necessarily because they're terrible places to work. The certification standards themselves are just extremely strict and demanding.

Academic research has uncovered another issue that makes this whole system less reliable than it should be. Factories that undergo multiple audits every year eventually learn how to manipulate the process. The workers receive coaching about what to tell auditors. The documents mysteriously become perfect just days before an inspection is scheduled. Some auditors are sharp enough to detect these tricks when they make unannounced visits and pay close attention to the small details during their observations. Many others walk right past the deception without realizing it. The verification process definitely beats having zero oversight whatsoever. But anyone who thinks that it catches everything is also kidding themselves.

Multiple Certifications Cover All the Gaps

Large fashion brands now almost never use just a single certification anymore. Patagonia actually carries Fair Trade, bluesign and B Corp certifications all at the same time, and this has become pretty standard practice across the industry. The technical term for it is certification stacking.

SA8000 goes really deep into labor practices and worker rights, and it's great for watching over those areas. The downside is that it ignores environmental concerns. GOTS takes a different path, and it focuses heavily on organic materials and chemical restrictions instead. Their social requirements are actually minimal in comparison, though. Each certification obviously has its strengths. But none of them can cover everything that a responsible brand needs today.

Eileen Fisher shows how companies handle this challenge. They first got into certifications back in 2005, and now they're carrying multiple different standards at the same time, with each one covering the important areas that the others miss.

One certification alone can run you more than $50,000 a year, and we haven't even talked about the staff time yet. Somebody has to manage those audits, and somebody also has to deal with all that paperwork. A medium-sized brand can wind up spending $500,000 annually when you add up all its certifications and the work it takes to maintain them.

The fashion industry can't create one perfect standard that covers everything. The industry has way too many different moving parts for that to ever work. A denim factory needs different oversight than a silk weaver does. The standards for leather production have nothing in common with what the synthetic fabric manufacturers need. Most companies have come to accept that working with multiple standards is a part of doing business if you want to prove that you care about every part of production.

Two Ways Brands Check Their Factories

Factory certification programs each have their own way of handling improvements, and the differences between them are pretty big. Fair Wear Foundation makes factories create these very comprehensive annual improvement plans. Factories then have to prove that they're actually making measurable progress each year if they want to hang onto their certification status. WRAP takes a different stance with a simple pass or fail system. Factories either meet all of the standards on WRAP's checklist or they walk away with nothing.

The continuous improvement model is worth looking at because it tracks particular metrics over a few years. The whole point is to see if factories get better over time. Wage progression is probably the best example of how this works in practice. Some of these programs don't check if workers are earning minimum wage - they monitor if those workers are moving closer to a real living wage each year. Factories in Vietnam that work with Fair Wear's program have been showing 15% annual wage increases - because they have to show measurable progress if they want to hold onto their certification status.

Fashion brands hate it when things get this complex. These brands just want one answer - a yes or no about their suppliers and their ethical standards. Labor advocates see the whole situation differently, though. They argue that real change in factory conditions takes years of continuous pressure and frequent checks to happen.

The pass-or-fail audit model has serious flaws that make it almost useless in practice. Factories know down to the day when inspectors will show up for their visit, which gives them time to temporarily clean up their act. Workers who never see overtime pay might suddenly find it on their paychecks during audit week. But those same workers go right back to unpaid hours once the inspectors drive away. And seasonal violations somehow disappear whenever the audits take place during the factory's slower production months.

Research backs up what many of the professionals in the industry have known for years. Study after study showed the same pattern with factories that go right back to their old ways after they pass an audit. These factories don't have much reason to keep up any improvements once the inspectors leave. They've already got their certificate in hand, and at the end of the day, that paper was all they were after.

The whole situation also brings up a pretty uncomfortable question that the industry needs to answer - whether brands are actually interested in checking that their suppliers are improving conditions over time, or if they just need factories to pass that audit once and then they're happy to move on.

The Change That Starts with You

These certifications are actually just baseline requirements if you dig into the fine print. They show what a company needs in order to meet the minimum standards. But they don't tell you anything about what excellence means in that industry. The gap is like the difference between barely passing a class and making the honor roll. Every time you see one of these labels at the store, take a few extra minutes for some homework. Look into what that certification specifically demands from businesses and whether the business shares any information about their goals or about what they plan to improve in the coming year. The premium prices you pay usually go toward a genuine investment in better materials and responsible practices.

Technology has come a long way, and now it helps us to track claims and verify what businesses tell us. That alone gives me hope. But most of the power still sits with customers who take the time to ask hard questions. The customers who support businesses that really care are the ones who create the most change. Every purchase also sends a message about the world you want to live in. Those small decisions add up to something bigger.

Our entire company was built on the idea that business should be done differently. The name probably gave that away! Every month brings new lessons for us, and we do our best to stay honest about our strengths and the areas where we still have room to grow.

Transparency matters to you when you're shopping. Maybe you want to see what an ethical business actually looks like day to day. We're happy to have you here either way! Our collection includes products for all kinds of different values and needs. Our blog talks about the work that goes into running a responsible business.

Change only happens when enough customers and businesses want the same values and actually put in the effort. We thank you for being part of our community and joining us on this path.