The Higg Index: A sustainability benchmark for fashion brands

The fashion industry is under growing pressure to become more sustainable, as consumers increasingly demand transparency about environmental impact and ethical production.

The Higg Index, developed by the Sustainable Apparel Coalition (SAC), has emerged as a pivotal tool in this landscape, enabling brands and retailers to measure and improve their supply chain performance.

In this article, we’ll explore the fundamentals of the Higg Index, its components, and how it helps fashion companies enhance their sustainability strategies.

What is the Higg Index?

The Higg Index is a set of standardized measurement tools that evaluates a company’s environmental, social, and labor impacts across the value chain, including product design, manufacturing, logistics, and retail operations.

It provides a framework that:

1. Benchmarks environmental performance: assesses water usage, carbon emissions, and chemical management.
2. Evaluates social and labor practices: looks at working conditions, fair wages, and community impacts.
3. Informs decision-making: guides companies toward more responsible material choices, sourcing strategies, and production methods.

Main components of the Higg Index

Higg facility modules

• Environmental module (Higg FEM): focuses on energy consumption, wastewater treatment, air emissions, and waste management in manufacturing facilities.
• Social & labor module (Higg FSLM): examines labor practices, health and safety standards, and worker engagement.

Higg brand & retail module (BRM)

This module evaluates how brands manage sustainability throughout their operations—both upstream and downstream. It covers product design, marketing, packaging, and distribution, enabling companies to identify areas for improvement across the entire lifecycle.

Higg product module (PM)

The Product Module allows for a life cycle assessment (LCA) of individual products, from raw material extraction to disposal or recycling. It helps brands pinpoint where in a product’s lifecycle the most significant impacts occur, such as water usage in cotton farming or energy consumption during manufacturing.

Why the Higg Index matters

1. Transparency and accountability: a standardized system fosters comparability across different brands and suppliers, enhancing trust among stakeholders.
2. Continuous improvement: annual assessments encourage businesses to set science-based targets and refine their sustainability goals.
3. Regulatory compliance: as governments tighten environmental and labor regulations, using the Higg Index can help companies stay ahead of legal requirements.
4. Brand value: engaging in a recognized framework signals to consumers and investors that the company takes sustainability seriously.

Implementation steps

1. Conduct a self-assessment: begin with baseline data on resource usage, social metrics, and supply chain practices.
2. Prioritize areas for improvement: use Higg Index scores to identify the most critical hotspots—for instance, a factory’s excessive water consumption.
3. Set targets and KPIs: establish measurable goals (e.g., reducing waste by 25% within two years) and assign responsibilities to cross-functional teams.
4. Collaboration with suppliers: share your Higg Index goals with supply chain partners to ensure alignment on eco-friendly materials, ethical labor, and efficient resource usage.
5. Verify and disclose: seek third-party audits or verifications to lend credibility and share performance transparently with stakeholders.

Challenges and considerations

• Data quality: collecting accurate and verifiable data across diverse supply chains can be complex.
• Supplier engagement: some suppliers may lack the awareness, training, or technology to meet the data requirements effectively.
• Resource constraints: smaller brands may find it challenging to allocate the necessary time and budget for thorough assessments.
• Balancing trade-offs: achieving zero carbon emissions, for example, might conflict with cost constraints or speed-to-market demands.

Success stories

• Patagonia: widely recognized for its transparent supply chain, Patagonia has integrated Higg Index findings into product design and material sourcing decisions.
• Levi Strauss & Co.: uses Higg modules to measure progress on water conservation, achieving significant reductions through its Water<Less® initiative.
• H&M Group: engages with the Higg Index to track improvements in labor rights and environmental performance across multiple supplier factories.

The future of the Higg Index

As the fashion industry evolves, so does the Higg Index. The Sustainable Apparel Coalition continues to refine methodologies to encompass emerging concerns like microplastics, circular economy models, and biodiversity protection.

Additionally, more brands—from fast fashion to luxury segments—are adopting the framework, fostering industry-wide collaboration and transparency.