Making Data Matter

Standardizing company data disclosure creates new opportunities for data use and digestibility by making data more structured and comparable. Open standards for data disclosure bring even greater opportunities for insight by putting data in the hands of many actors with different perspectives.

For companies, there can be many benefits that outweigh the risks. Publishing new information like supplier lists can feel like a scary prospect for companies, especially because it's difficult to know everything that is happening in the supply chain. Nevertheless, those who have done so acknowledge that the opening of this data has allowed them to receive more up-to-date information from multiple sources on issues and changes happening in their own operations and supply chain. Increasing the flow of information also helps industry groups improve and iterate together. Keeping information in the dark maintains the status quo.

WikiRate advocates for and helps to create a more open flow of corporate sustainability information, engaging all interested actors in the process. Companies can play a special role as the gate keepers of much of their sustainbility data, by taking steps to report directly to stakeholders through WikiRate, and by publishing their information in formats that are easily used by others.

Different industries and issues may require additional standard for open data disclosure. The below standard was created to advocate for greater usability and disclosure of supplier lists among fashion brands.

The Open Data Standard for Supplier Disclosure*

How we can make transparent data accessible and usable

Current issues blocking usability of disclosed data:

Supplier lists published on brand websites are listed in different, incompatible and non machine-readable formats
When a brand updates the supplier list on its website, data previously gathered can quickly become obsolete
Supplier lists are often hard to find on brand or retailer websites and are disclosed without explicit permission for reuse
Comparing and analyzing across these data sets without a unique identifier number/ unique factory id for each factory is difficult and time consuming

The Open Data Standard for Supplier Disclosure solution:

We are developing a group of like-minded organizations to make common request to brands and retailers for standard supplier disclosure. When publishing factory lists, brands and retailers should:

Publish a downloadable, machine-readable file at a regular common frequency in one or more of the following formats: csv, json, xlsx.
Publish their supplier list using a common disclosure template
Upload their supplier list to the Open Apparel Registry to assign each factory a standard factory identification number (2018)
Use the Open Data Commons database license, to explicitly give permission for reuse, by copying and pasting it on the supplier list page (https://opendatacommons.org/licenses/odbl/)

The benefits of an Open Data Standard for Supplier Disclosure:

An open data standard will:

Provide a level playing field: various stakeholders like academia, civil society, MSI's and consumer organizations can more easily use this data to provide accurate and up-to-date analyses, and allow brands to fulfill their due diligence obligations in a responsible, comparable way
Make data usable and current: With the ability to scrape from machine readable data, open source databases can update when a brand publishes an up-to-date list
Create one common resource: with a common ID system across supplier lists, organizations can collate supplier lists and make them accessible to users in easy-to use tools and maps
Save time: Companies won't spend time or money publishing information which might not be used and organizations analyzing data won’t spend time collating or trying to sync data
Make it easy to find factories and associations which contribute data to promote sustainable and transparent fashion

*The ODS for Supplier Disclosure was created in partnership with the Open Apparel Registry, and will be refined with a working group of experts over the coming months