The Sole Sustainability Index (SSI), which analyses the performance of some of the biggest branded apparel and footwear businesses was revealed by Morgan Stanley Research. The index aggregates existing data and compares the companies’ performance in several terms— social matters (supply chain management and community engagement), environmental issues (examining water, waste and raw materials, specifically cotton and leather), and governance (how sustainability is integrated into the business strategy and how shareholder-friendly the corporate governance structure is).

The leader in environmental issues was revealed as Nike, whereas, PVH (Calvin Klein, Tommy Hilfiger etc.), and Nike shared the first spot for social topics. The VF Corporation (Lee, Wrangler, The North Face, Vans, etc.) was on top for governance.

On this index, where the maximum score is 300, overall, the highest rankers are Nike, VF Corp., and Hanesbrands (Hanes, Champion, Playtex, Wonderbra etc).

Morgan Stanley however admitted that there were several limitations to these results. There is little, quantifiable industry ESG data (environmental, social and corporate governance). Besides, the existing numbers are difficult to compare. The report also stated that a company’s SSI score is primarily driven by disclosure quality, and the existence of targets and trends.

Thus, VF Crop, Nike and Hanesbrands are at the top, because of their disclosure of most evidence of their commitment to sustainability throughout their core operations. Though, there isn’t enough third-party audited data.

Morgan Stanley is also a financial institution with severe commercial interests. Thus the company’s objectivity in selecting the companies to be examined and their final evaluation is not given.