The rising cost of living is one of the biggest concerns for retailers right now

Q: What role can the retail indus­try play in dri­ving diver­si­ty and inclu­sion?

A: Retail has long pro­vid­ed a unique envi­ron­ment where diver­si­ty and inclu­sion can thrive. It is a dynam­ic, agile and inno­v­a­tive indus­try that has always attract­ed a var­ied work­force. It is often the first step into the world of work or a per­fect choice for those with parental or car­ing respon­si­bil­i­ties look­ing for part-time work to fit around their lifestyles.

This work­force diver­si­ty is vital when it comes to respond­ing to the needs of con­sumers today. Pres­sure is mount­ing to ensure that pro­mot­ing equal­i­ty is entrenched into busi­ness prac­tices. It is no longer good enough to con­sid­er sim­ply diver­si­fy­ing the lead­er­ship lev­el and expect­ing per­ma­nent change to occur through­out the rest of the indus­try. 

This is why we launched the Diver­si­ty and Inclu­sion char­ter, which is now sup­port­ed by over 60 retail­ers, to make a com­mit­ment to last­ing change and to improve the retail employ­ment land­scape for the bet­ter. The charter’s pledges focus on over­sight, recruit­ment, pro­gres­sion, report­ing, inclu­siv­i­ty and respon­si­bil­i­ty. They are designed to help all retail­ers chal­lenge their cul­ture and bias­es holis­ti­cal­ly and embed diver­si­ty and inclu­sion into every aspect of their busi­ness, to make our indus­try as vibrant, cre­ative and inno­v­a­tive as it can be.

Q: Beyond recy­cling, what should the fash­ion and retail indus­tries be doing to get on the path to net zero? And what role do sourc­ing and sup­ply chain play in this goal? 

A: The sup­ply chain plays a piv­otal role in the retail industry’s jour­ney to net zero, but it all starts with improved trans­paren­cy and trace­abil­i­ty. In fash­ion retail specif­i­cal­ly, the main impact of car­bon emis­sions is at the fab­ric cre­ation stage, from spin­ning to weav­ing to dye­ing.

This is why a clear sourc­ing strat­e­gy is essen­tial when work­ing with sup­ply chain actors who are try­ing to reduce their own car­bon foot­print.

The BRC is help­ing retail­ers to reduce their car­bon emis­sions as part of our Cli­mate Action Roadmap, chart­ing retail’s jour­ney to Net Zero by 2040. Over 80 lead­ing UK retail­ers have already signed up, includ­ing many major fash­ion retail­ers.

Part of the Roadmap focus­es specif­i­cal­ly on sourc­ing sus­tain­ably and aims to help retail­ers reduce their sup­ply chain emis­sions. Our most recent guide with IBM sets out the frame­works and strate­gies for how retail­ers can gain bet­ter vis­i­bil­i­ty and improve report­ing of their emis­sions to achieve the great­est pos­si­ble reduc­tions.

Q: The UK is in the midst of a cost-of-liv­ing cri­sis, with prices ris­ing and house­hold bud­gets shrink­ing. How easy is it for retail to pur­sue a sus­tain­able agen­da in a time like this?

A: The ris­ing cost of liv­ing is one of the biggest con­cerns for retail­ers right now. The whole indus­try is try­ing to keep up with the fluc­tu­a­tions of the cur­rent mar­ket, while keep­ing costs down for con­sumers as they feel the squeeze.  

Nonethe­less, most con­sumers are still look­ing for good qual­i­ty prod­ucts that have been sourced respon­si­bly – though these must still be at a rea­son­able price. Although it may seem so, this is not an impos­si­ble task. Retail­ers are look­ing at dif­fer­ent ini­tia­tives to deliv­er the best qual­i­ty at a low cost. Such actions for fash­ion retail­ers include lim­it­ing the cloth­ing ranges or fab­ric con­sol­i­da­tion to allow retail­ers to nego­ti­ate bet­ter prices from sup­pli­ers with­out pass­ing the costs back down to con­sumers.