Topshop Ethical Issues

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Sustainability Poster

Sustainability
Topshop have tried to make changes in their brand to become more sustainable and appeal to a wider audience. They have started to recycle more of their clothing including 95% of waste being recycled in UK stores. They have also started to reduce the amount of water and energy that they use in their warehouses, offices and stores. In addition, they are also a member of the Better Cotton Initiative  however, it has been questioned how much of the cotton that is used by Topshop actually comes from this initiative. 

 To try and become more sustainable, Topshop launched a collection called Topshop Reclaimed which is a whole fashion collection made from spare material that has been discarded from previous pieces and is up-cycled into new garments. Also, their parent company Arcadia Group is a member of the Sustainable Clothing Action Plan. Despite this, Topshop are still a slow developing brand in terms of sustainability and can still be considered to be a very profit driven company. 

 Animal Cruelty
In addition to their changes in sustainability, Topshop have pledged that they will not use any animal skins or fur in their products. To display this message they used a window display in their flagship UK store on Oxford Street. They were also listed and praised at the 2018 PETA Awards for committing to ban Mohair within their products. 

 Workers Wages
Sri Lankan workers who were employed to make Beyonce's Ivy Park range for Topshop were paid the equivalent of just 44p an hour. As a result of the poor wages and the sexual harassment claims against Sir Phillip Green (CEO) Beyonce pulled her range from Topshop and the Ivy Park brand is now solely owned by Beyonce's company. Also, cleaners from Topshop and Topman store have spoken out about the fact that their pay does not cover food an rent despite Philip Green's £4.3 Billion earnings.

 Sexual Harassment Claims against Sir Philip Green
The claims of sexual harassment and racial abuse against Sir Philip Green have called people to question the ethics behind the brand. However, a representative of Arcadia Group has said that these allegations will have no impact on the brand and the working culture. 

References 


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