ANALYSIS: Apparel Industry ‘E’ & ‘S’ Activism Is on the Horizon

The global apparel industry faces no shortage of ESG issues—from grappling with the massive amount of clothing waste to reworking complicated supply chains—and consumers are taking notice.

Since Bloomberg began tracking global investor activism in 2017, however, no environmental or social objectives have been launched against apparel companies. But about two-thirds of the top potential activist targets in the apparel industry fall behind peers on at least one ESG performance and disclosure indicator (in addition to scoring low on these indicators).

This low performance—particularly on environmental and social issues—may indicate that activists are gearing up to launch environmental ...