Cascale Shares First Better Buying Garment Scorecard on Industry Purchasing Practices
Data from 1,200 suppliers representing 10 million workers spurs call for urgent industry-wide action as progress stalls
AMSTERDAM, HONG KONG and OAKLAND, Calif., August 5, 2025 /3BL/ - Cascale today released the Better Buying 2025 Garment Industry Scorecard, a benchmark tool that tracks year-over-year progress in brand and retailer purchasing practices across the global apparel sector. Based on anonymous input from over 1,200 suppliers during the 2025 Better Buying Purchasing Practices Index (BBPPI) ratings cycle, the Scorecard measures performance across seven key purchasing practices categories that directly impact suppliers’ ability to provide decent work and wages.
These suppliers represent over 10 million workers, or roughly one in six of the estimated 60 million workers employed in the global apparel value chain.
Insights include:
- Most category scores declined by one or two points, signaling stalled progress.
- The steepest drop was in Planning and Forecasting, which fell from 59 to 56 points. More than 37 percent of suppliers identified this category as the most critical area for improvement.
- The overall purchasing practices score declined slightly, from 67 to 66.
This Better Buying Garment Industry Scorecard is the first to be published since Better Buying joined Cascale in February 2025, and offers topline data ahead of the full Better Buying Purchasing Practices Index (BBPPI) Report. This will combine the Scorecard with deeper commentary and analysis of what lies behind the scores, and will be published during Cascale’s Annual Meeting in Hong Kong on 15-17 September.
Companies that subscribe to Better Buying’s surveys have already received individual scorecards. Cascale encourages them to share their scorecards with suppliers, and work with them, as true partners, to co-create solutions to the challenges that are identified.
“The BBPPI scores provide us with a critical baseline on where we are, as an industry, on purchasing practices,” said Katie Hess, Head of Product at Cascale Better Buying. “I’m pleased to see that brand and retailer progress has been broadly maintained, even during a period of unprecedented global and geopolitical turbulence as a result of the ongoing trade tariffs uncertainty, but at this late stage in the game, stagnation is not good enough. The urgent need for collective, committed, whole-industry action on purchasing practices is starkly clear.”
“With Better Buying now part of Cascale, we have an unprecedented opportunity to drive up action at scale, by bringing together all key stakeholders to embed fair purchasing principles as the norm in global supply chains, and achieve our mission of Decent Work for All,” said Fiona Sadler, global head of responsible sourcing at Marks and Spencer and Cascale board director representing brands and retailers.
ABOUT CASCALE
Cascale is the global nonprofit alliance empowering collaboration to drive equitable and restorative business practices in the consumer goods industry. Formerly known as the Sustainable Apparel Coalition, Cascale owns and develops the Higg Index, which is exclusively available on Worldly, the most comprehensive sustainability data and insights platform. Cascale unites over 300 retailers, brands, manufacturers, governments, academics, and NGO/nonprofit affiliates around the globe through one singular vision: To catalyze impact at scale and give back more than we take to the planet and its people.
The Better Buying tools, now part of Cascale, empower brands, retailers, and manufacturers to embed responsible purchasing practices into their operations, making fair business relationships the industry norm. By integrating Better Buying’s proven tools into Cascale’s ecosystem, we move responsible purchasing practices from voluntary commitments to measurable, data-driven progress—ensuring that accountability and transparency become foundational to sustainable business relationships.
