OECD Side Session
Credible Data vs Misinformation: a lesson in responsible data use and fact checking
Fashion has a huge misinformation issue.
While there have been attempts to resolve fashion misinformation, we have not taken the problem seriously enough. Fashion misinformation is part of the same society wide information disorder destabilizing democracies and undermining public trust. While we need not agree on a one-size fits all solution to environmental and social problems, all players in fashion—from journalists and nonprofits to consumers, suppliers and brands—need to agree on the facts, or hope for progress will fade from view.
Fact-checking is a key tool to help fight misinformation and for brands to become critical users of data and claims and accurately assess the interventions needed in their supply chains.
We will discuss:
The role of data and fact-checking in fashion’s sustainability discourse
How numbers can be distorted
How to filter misleading versus credible claims
How to build critical data consumption
This learning session is divided into 2 parts:
Part One is a fact-checking exercise with 1 case study on fashion misinformation and Part 2 will be an open panel discussion with Alison Deger, Communications Manager for Human Rights Watch, Simon Ferrigno, independent cotton expert and sustainability journalist, moderated by Marzia Lanfranchi, Transformers Foundation Intelligence Director and Founder of Cotton Diaries.
Speakers
Allison Deger - Independent Fact-Checker
Allison Deger is a journalist based in Washington DC. She has worked for the the Nation, Al Jazeera and the Jewish Journal. She has fact-checked and researched for books and news spanning politics, history, the environment and fashion.
Elizabeth L. Cline - Journalist, author and Director of Advocacy and Policy at Remake
Elizabeth L. Cline is a New York-based journalist, author and expert in sustainability and human rights in fashion supply chains. She's written two critically-acclaimed books, 'Overdressed' and 'The Conscious Closet,' which have shaped the global ethical fashion movement. Most recently, she's joined the non-profit Remake as the Director of Advocacy and Policy, where she's shaped successful campaigns such as #PayUp and the International Accord renewal.
Marzia Lanfranchi - Intelligence Director, Transformers Foundation; Founder of Cotton Diaries
Marzia is the Foundation’s Intelligence Director, she is also an independent sustainable fashion consultant and the founder of Cotton Diaries, a community working on cotton sustainability. Her mission is to shape a healthier fashion system by breaking companies’ silos and building bridges across supply chain segments. She has worked in various roles, ranging from fabric development at Burberry, responsible sourcing & social compliance at FatFace, retail and marketing to even farming. Thanks to her experience — from seed to store — she has a thorough understanding of how supply chains operate and is well-versed in the key sustainability challenges facing the textile industry today.
Simon Ferrigno - Journalist and Researcher
Simon Ferrigno has been working on cotton and sustainability since 2000, with a focus on alternatives such as organic cotton and IPM. He has also researched the impacts of pesticide and insecticide use on human health and the environment in Africa. Today, Simon is a freelance researcher and writer working with both public and private clients on the development of sustainable cotton and agriculture. He continues to work in Africa with a growing network of consultants across the continent. Simon is also the author of the Cotton Horizons column for Ecotextile News magazine, for whom he has written two books and several reports on cotton, most recently 'The Inside Guide to Cotton & Sustainability' (2020). Simon also works for Belong Nottingham, an organisation that supports refugees and migrants, and is Chair of European movement Derbyshire and a founder of East Midlands Bylines, a citizens' journalism initiative that is part of a nationwide UK initiative.
