The Sustainable Apparel Coalition and the Higg Index

Abstract

The Sustainable Apparel Coalition (SAC) seeks to lead the apparel industry toward a shared vision of sustainability built upon a common approach for evaluating sustainability performance. By developing a common tool—the Sustainable Apparel Index—the SAC enables apparel industry companies to measure the environmental and social impact of apparel production throughout the product lifecycle, from design to end of use or recycling of the product. The potential impact of the Sustainable Apparel Coalition is enormous. SAC member companies (including brands, retailers and manufacturers) are estimated to be responsible for more than one third of the apparel and footwear produced globally. The SAC has built a strong foundation and made significant progress since its launch in 2010. As the coalition looks forward, there are a few key challenges that members must be prepared to overcome in order to reach shared sustainability goals. The Higg Index, announced by the SAC, is primarily an indicator-based assessment tool for apparel and footwear products that was launched in 2012. The Higg Index has a suite of self-assessment tools dealing with facility, brand, and product and asks practice-based, qualitative questions to gauge environmental sustainability performance and drive behavior for improvement. It is a learning tool for both small and large companies to identify challenges and capture ongoing improvement. It targets a spectrum of performance that allows beginners and leaders in environmental sustainability, regardless of company size, to identify opportunities. The SAC has established a strong foundation of organizational culture and progress, faces both opportunities and challenges, opens membership to any interested company in the apparel sector and drives the Index tool through further iterations and industry adoption. As the organization grows and evolves, it must retain its unique culture and speed at the same time that it balances membership growth, which may bring evolving expectations around sustainability aspirations and engagement to the coalition. The SAC must look forward in order to achieve its long-term vision of transforming apparel industry such that it produces no unnecessary environmental harm and has a positive impact on the people and communities associated with its activities. The organization is poised to build on its success with strong momentum and member commitment. Translating the coalition’s accomplishments and lessons learned across the apparel industry (and to other industries) will be the true measure of SAC’s success.