Chloé preps to launch new tool to measure fashion’s social impact

French luxury fashion house, Chloé, has announced the development of the industry’s first social effect measuring tool, which it believes will be embraced by the whole fashion industry.

The tool is being developed to assist a business in measuring, evaluating, and visualizing its social impact. While there are several tools for measuring fashion’s environmental impact, there is none for assessing social impact across the entire value chain.

The brand, which is owned by Compagnie Financière Richemont, stated that the Social Impact Measurement tool, also known as Social Performance and Leverage (SP&L), will be an open-source technique that can be used across the fashion industry once it is completed. It also believes that the tool would help with decision-making in terms of sourcing strategy and product design.

The 18-month-old project reflects the brand’s manifesto and long-term commitment to uplift women, eliminate gender-based disparities, and promote diversity in order to make products that have a positive impact on people.

The tool will be used in conjunction with Chloé’s Environmental Impact Report, which will be released in July 2021, and will mobilize social auditing, risk analysis, and the identification of potential positive impacts across the value chain. Chloé goes on to say that fully examining social and environmental effects will become a cornerstone of the company’s sustainability strategy.

The SP&L is a collaboration between Chloé, the Institut Français de la Mode, and the Conservatoire National des Arts et Métiers (the Foresight and Sustainable Development Department), and the tool’s metrics are based on World Economic Forum and International Business Council reports on sustainable value creation.

The tool, which is nearing completion, will be used to guarantee that working circumstances sustain positive social practices, with measurements based on six indicators: gender equality, living wage, diversity and inclusion, training, well-being, and job quality. It will also allow companies to visualize their impact on people who work directly on their products, from sourcing materials to boutique delivery,  including workers employed by Maison’s suppliers as well as its own employees.

With Chloé explaining that the ‘job quality’ indicator’s elements, such as tenure, pay progression, promotion, turnover, and the use of soft skills such as active listening, coordination, responsibility, and group work, have been defined based on the work of French economist Philippe Aghion, the house’s founder Gaby Aghion’s son.

Professional services network PricewaterhouseCoopers is presently reviewing the approach, according to Chloé, before an industry-wide consultation process later this year, during which participating companies will participate in pilot schemes to test the technique and adjust it if necessary. The finalized SP&L technique is expected to be released in 2023.