The Sustainable Apparel Coalition (SAC), a global multi-stakeholder non-profit alliance for the consumer goods industry, along with its technology partner Higg, launched the first phase of a transparency program to publicly share data on a product’s environmental impact, starting with its material content. The program provides a consistent way for brands, retailers and manufacturers to share sustainability badaktoto information about apparel and footwear products, across impact categories, such as water use, greenhouse gas emissions and fossil fuel use. Building on a decade of device development, consumer testing, and environmental impact data contributions, this first phase of the Higg Index transparency program is an important step toward a unified approach to realizing industry-wide transparency – to give shoppers visibility into a product’s real impact.
The main components of the program are the Higg Index Sustainability Profile and Higg Index Materials seal, both of which are based on independently and externally reviewed environmental impact data from the Higg Materials Sustainability Index (MSI). SAC members Amazon, Boozt, C&A, Calvin Klein and Tommy Hilfiger (PVH Corp.), Columbia Sportswear, H&M, Helly Hansen, JustWears, Lenzing AG, Norrona, PUMA, Salomon, and Zalando announced their commitment to implement the first phase of the program across a wide selection of products available in the US and Europe, from tops and skirts, to backpacks and wallets. In its first phase, the program will focus on the environmental impact of product materials, and will expand over the next two years to include additional data including manufacturing and corporate responsibility.
A key component of the program is the Higg Index Sustainability Profile, which is a scorecard for sharing data on a product’s environmental impact. From now on, H&M and Norrona will list the Higg Index Sustainability Profile on their e-commerce platforms in the US and Europe. Participation in this program supports H&M’s long-standing transparency ambition to help consumers make more informed choices.