The Higg Index stands as one of the most pivotal and comprehensive sustainability measurement tools in the global apparel, footwear, and textile industry. For brands navigating the complex landscape of environmental and social responsibility, understanding and effectively implementing the Higg Index is no longer optional—it’s a strategic imperative for risk management, consumer trust, and long-term viability.
In this definitive guide, you will learn:
Read More:
The Higg Index is a suite of standardized, sector-specific self-assessment tools developed by the Sustainable Apparel Coalition (SAC). Its primary function is to measure the environmental and social impacts of products, facilities, and brands across the entire value chain, from raw material extraction to end-of-life.
Unlike a single certification, it is a holistic sustainability assessment framework designed to drive transparency, identify hotspots for improvement, and facilitate data-driven decision-making. For brands, it transforms vague sustainability claims into quantifiable, comparable, and verifiable data.
The game-changing nature of the Higg Index lies in its unified approach. Before its development, brands and manufacturers were inundated with a plethora of conflicting standards and audits. The Higg Index consolidated these into a common language of sustainability, enabling brands to:
The suite is modular, with each tool designed for a specific user:
Established Facts about the Higg Index:
The Higg Facility Environmental Module (Higg FEM) is the cornerstone of the Higg Index for supply chain engagement. It is an annual self-assessment tool that enables industrial facilities (e.g., textile mills, tanneries, garment factories) to measure, score, and report on their environmental performance.
The data collected provides brands with critical insights into the environmental footprint of their production processes. The Higg FEM is structured around key environmental impact areas, prompting facilities to report on management systems, resource consumption, and emissions.
A facility’s performance is scored on a scale from 0 to 100, with levels (Level 1 to Level 5) indicating the degree of sustainability practice adoption. The scoring is based on a combination of Practice and Performance questions.
Practice questions evaluate the existence of management systems and policies (e.g., “Does the facility have a written energy policy?”), while Performance questions require quantifiable data inputs (e.g., “Total energy consumed per production unit”). This dual approach ensures that good data management is backed by tangible results.
The core sections of the Higg FEM include:
✔️ Environmental Management Systems (EMS): Foundations for tracking and improving performance.
✔️ Energy Use & Greenhouse Gas (GHG) Emissions: Covers energy consumption, efficiency, and Scope 1 & 2 GHG emissions.
✔️ Water Use: Measures water consumption, efficiency, and water risk assessment.
✔️ Wastewater: Assesses wastewater quality, treatment, and management against ZDHC standards.
✔️ Emissions to Air (Air Emissions): Manages and reports on air pollutants from operations.
✔️ Waste Management: Evaluates solid waste generation, reduction, recycling, and disposal methods.
✔️ Chemical Management (Chemicals Management): Focuses on the safe storage, handling, and use of chemicals, integral to the ZDHC Roadmap to Zero Programme.
For brands, the power of the Higg FEM lies in aggregated data. By requiring suppliers to complete the FEM, a brand can create a heatmap of its supply chain’s environmental impact, pinpointing which facilities or regions need the most support or intervention.
This is a critical first step before embarking on more advanced strategies like carbon offsetting or investing in renewable energy projects. Understanding your baseline emissions from the supply chain (a major part of your Scope 3 emissions) is essential, a task for which tools like Climefy’s carbon calculator for large organizations can provide complementary, high-level analysis.
While the Higg FEM focuses on manufacturing sites, the Higg Brand & Retail Module (Higg BRM) is designed for the brands and retailers themselves to assess the sustainability performance of their internal operations, product design choices, and overall business model.
It shifts the lens from the supply chain to corporate headquarters, product development teams, and retail stores. The BRM helps brands answer the critical question: “How sustainable is our own organization, and how are our decisions influencing the broader value chain?”
The module is divided into two primary sections: Company-Wide Operations and Product Portfolio. The Company-Wide section examines internal policies, management systems, and the environmental footprint of offices, warehouses, and transportation.
The Product Portfolio section delves into the impacts of the products themselves, including material selection, durability, and end-of-life pathways. This makes the BRM an essential tool for any brand serious about corporate sustainability reporting and ESG disclosure.
Key areas assessed in the Higg BRM include:
✔️ Corporate Sustainability Strategy: The integration of sustainability into core business strategy and governance.
✔️ Design, Materials, & Innovation: How design-for-environment principles and low-impact material choices (informed by the Higg MSI) are implemented.
✔️ Manufacturing & Supply Chain Management: How brands engage with and support their suppliers, including the use of Higg FEM data.
✔️ Transportation & Logistics: The environmental impact of moving goods through the value chain.
✔️ Brand Operations & Use of Facilities: Energy, water, and waste in owned or operated buildings.
✔️ Product End of Life: Strategies for circularity, including take-back programs, recycling, and reuse.
The BRM score provides a holistic view of a brand’s sustainability maturity. It challenges brands to move beyond auditing suppliers to examining their own role in creating demand for unsustainable practices.
For instance, a brand might score well on supply chain management but poorly on design for durability, highlighting a key area for internal innovation. Bridging the data from the BRM with a comprehensive net-zero journey plan, such as that facilitated by Climefy’s Net Zero Journey service, allows brands to align their operational sustainability with ambitious climate targets.
Understanding Higg Index scoring is crucial for moving from simple data collection to meaningful action. The scoring methodology is designed to reward both the implementation of strong management systems (practices) and the achievement of measurable environmental outcomes (performance).
It is not a pass/fail system but a continuous improvement model. Each module has its own scoring algorithm, but they follow a consistent philosophy: baseline data is the first step, but sustained reduction in impact is the ultimate goal.
In the Higg FEM, for example, scoring is tiered. A facility must achieve a minimum threshold in Practice questions to unlock points in the corresponding Performance section. This ensures that a facility reporting excellent energy consumption data (performance) also has a system in place to act on that data (practice).
The final score places the facility on a level from 1 (Beginning) to 5 (Leading). Most facilities initially score in Levels 1-3, with Levels 4 and 5 representing industry leaders. It’s critical to note that a higher score doesn’t necessarily mean a facility has a low absolute environmental impact; it means they are effectively measuring, managing, and improving their impact relative to their scale and context.
For brands interpreting supplier Higg FEM scores:
The interpretation of Higg BRM scores follows a similar logic but at the brand level. A high score indicates robust internal systems, strong supply chain engagement, and a product strategy aligned with circular economy principles. However, the true value is in the gap analysis.
The BRM report highlights areas of weakness, providing a clear roadmap for internal investment and strategy development. This detailed self-assessment is a powerful precursor to formal ESG consultancy, which can help structure the complex initiatives needed to improve those scores, such as developing a solid waste management strategy for retail operations or a digital integration solution for tracking Scope 3 emissions.
The intersection of the Higg Index and carbon accounting is one of the most significant aspects for brands today. As climate change becomes the central focus of global sustainability efforts, accurately measuring and managing greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions is paramount.
The Higg Index, particularly the FEM and BRM modules, serves as a critical data collection engine for a significant portion of a brand’s carbon footprint, especially within Scope 3 emissions, which often constitute over 80% of a fashion brand’s total impact.
The Higg FEM requires facilities to report on their energy consumption and calculate their Scope 1 (direct) and Scope 2 (purchased electricity) GHG emissions. For a brand, aggregating this data from multiple suppliers across its supply chain provides the foundational data for its Scope 3, Category 1 (Purchased Goods and Services) emissions inventory.
Similarly, the Higg BRM prompts brands to account for emissions from their own operations, transportation, and product use phases. This creates a harmonized data stream that feeds directly into carbon accounting frameworks aligned with the Greenhouse Gas Protocol.
How the Higg Index supports robust carbon accounting:
✔️ Standardized Data Collection: Provides a consistent methodology for suppliers to report energy and emission data.
✔️ Supply Chain Transparency: Unlocks previously opaque Scope 3 emission hotspots.
✔️ Performance Tracking: Allows brands to track emission intensity (e.g., CO2e per kilogram of fabric) over time.
✔️ Informs Reduction Strategies: Identifies which facilities or processes are the largest emitters, guiding targeted reduction investments.
However, it’s important to recognize that the Higg Index is a broader sustainability tool, while carbon accounting is a specific climate-focused discipline. The Higg data is a vital input, but brands often need dedicated platforms to consolidate this data with other sources (like logistics data, material LCAs) to build a complete, auditable GHG inventory.
This is where specialized carbon management becomes essential. Brands can use Climefy’s carbon calculator for large organizations to establish their initial corporate footprint and then use Higg data to drill down into supply chain detail. Furthermore, once a reduction strategy is in place, brands can address residual emissions by supporting high-quality, verified projects through a marketplace for GHG reduction projects, ensuring their climate action is comprehensive and credible.
Implementing the Higg Index across an organization and its supply chain is a significant undertaking that requires careful planning, resource allocation, and sustained commitment. A successful implementation is not just about purchasing licenses; it’s about embedding the tool into core business processes.
The following step-by-step guide outlines a strategic pathway for brands to maximize the value of their Higg Index journey, turning assessment into tangible action and improved sustainability performance.
Step 1: Internal Alignment & Goal Setting
Before engaging suppliers, ensure internal stakeholders—from leadership to design, sourcing, and finance teams—understand the “why.” Define clear goals: Is it for risk management, customer communication, or driving reductions? Secure executive sponsorship and budget.
Step 2: Pilot with Key Suppliers
Start with a small group of strategic, collaborative suppliers. Provide them with training and support to complete their first Higg FEM assessment. This pilot phase will help you understand the data quality, identify common challenges, and refine your communication approach. Consider leveraging resources like the Climefy Sustainability Academy for foundational training on tools like the Higg Index and carbon accounting.
Step 3: Develop a Rollout & Support Strategy
Based on the pilot, create a phased rollout plan to scale across your supply chain. Develop support materials, host webinars, and establish a dedicated internal or external helpdesk. Remember, suppliers are providing you with valuable data; investing in their capability builds stronger, more resilient partnerships.
Step 4: Integrate Data into Decision-Making
Collecting data is pointless if it sits in a silo. Integrate Higg scores and performance data into your sourcing decisions, supplier scorecards, and product design processes. Use the insights from the Higg BRM to set internal KPIs for design teams and operational managers.
Step 5: Invest in Verification
While self-assessment is valuable, verified data carries far greater credibility for internal and external reporting. Prioritize verification (now facilitated through the Higg Verification Protocol) for your high-impact facilities and your own BRM to ensure data accuracy and build trust with stakeholders.
Step 6: Close the Loop with Action Plans
Use the low scores and poor performance data as a springboard for action. Work with suppliers to develop improvement plans. This could involve co-investing in energy-efficient machinery, connecting them with chemical management experts, or financing renewable energy projects. For your internal operations, use BRM gaps to launch initiatives like afforestation and plantation projects for insetting or improving office waste management.
Step 7: Communicate Progress Transparently
Report on your Higg Index journey in your sustainability report. Be honest about challenges, progress, and scores. This transparency builds credibility. Furthermore, explore digital integration solutions that can showcase product-level impact data to consumers at the point of sale, directly connecting your Higg-based efforts to customer engagement.
Despite its widespread adoption and transformative potential, the Higg Index is not without its challenges and criticisms. Acknowledging and understanding these complexities is essential for brands to use the tool effectively and ethically. The primary critiques often revolve around data reliability, the burden on suppliers, the potential for misuse in marketing, and the tool’s evolving nature.
One of the most significant challenges is data accuracy and verification. As a primarily self-reported tool, the accuracy of Higg Index data is dependent on the knowledge and diligence of the reporter. In the past, this has led to concerns about “greenwashing” or inflated scores.
The SAC has addressed this through the introduction of the Higg Verification Protocol, which standardizes third-party verification. However, verification adds cost and complexity, potentially disadvantaging smaller suppliers. Brands must therefore strike a balance between scaling data collection and ensuring data integrity.
Common challenges faced by brands and suppliers include:
✔️ High Cost of Participation: License fees, consultant fees, and verification costs can be prohibitive, especially for small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs).
✔️ Resource Intensity: Completing the modules is time-consuming and requires dedicated staff with technical expertise.
✔️ Data Overload vs. Actionable Insight: Brands can be overwhelmed by thousands of data points without a clear strategy to analyze and act on them.
✔️ Supplier Fatigue: Suppliers are often asked to complete multiple different assessments for different brands, leading to audit fatigue. The Higg Index aims to solve this, but adoption across all buyers is not yet universal.
✔️ Criticism of the Higg Material Sustainability Index (MSI): The MSI has faced scientific scrutiny regarding its lifecycle assessment (LCA) methodology and the comparability of material scores, leading to debates about its use in material selection.
Furthermore, a major criticism is the risk of the tool being used as a simplistic benchmarking or ranking system. A facility with a high score in a water-abundant region may have a lower actual environmental impact than a facility with a lower score in a high-water-stress region that is implementing excellent water stewardship practices.
Context is everything. The Higg Index is designed to be an improvement tool, not a single-score label. Brands must be educated and cautious in how they communicate Higg-derived information to avoid misleading claims. Engaging with a knowledgeable eco-friendly partner who understands these nuances can help navigate these challenges and implement the tool in a way that drives genuine, context-aware impact.
The Higg Index is not a static tool; it is in a constant state of evolution, driven by advancements in environmental science, stakeholder feedback, and the changing regulatory landscape.
The Sustainable Apparel Coalition is actively working on several major developments that will shape the future of sustainability measurement for the industry. Understanding these directions is crucial for brands to future-proof their strategies and investments.
A central pillar of the future evolution is the transition from purely module-based assessments towards a more integrated, data-driven ecosystem. The vision is to connect the dots between facility data (FEM), brand strategy (BRM), material choices (MSI), and product impact (PM) into a seamless flow of information.
This will enable truly holistic life cycle assessments and more accurate accounting of circular economy initiatives. Furthermore, there is a strong push to enhance the social and labor dimensions through the strengthened Higg FSLM, ensuring social sustainability keeps pace with environmental measurement.
Key future developments for the Higg Index include:
✔️ Enhanced Digital Infrastructure: Development of more robust APIs and digital integration solutions to allow for automated data pull from facility meters or other enterprise systems, reducing manual entry errors and improving efficiency.
✔️ Deeper Alignment with Regulation: As governments worldwide implement stricter ESG disclosure laws (like the EU’s Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive – CSRD), the Higg Index is evolving to ensure its data outputs can directly feed into these mandatory reports.
✔ Strengthened Verification and Assurance: The Higg Verification Protocol will continue to mature, increasing confidence in the data and potentially opening doors for its use in consumer-facing labels or financial instruments like sustainability-linked loans.
✔️ Expansion Beyond Apparel: While rooted in apparel, the core principles of the Higg Index are applicable to other consumer goods sectors. We may see adapted versions for home textiles, luggage, or other sewn products.
✔️ Integration with Carbon Markets and Offsetting: As brands use Higg data to calculate their Scope 3 emissions, there is a growing link to the voluntary carbon market. Accurate Higg data is the prerequisite for high-quality carbon reduction projects within a supply chain (insetting) or for purchasing verified offsets.
Platforms like Climefy’s Marketplace for verified carbon projects will become increasingly relevant partners for brands looking to offset their Higg-measured residual emissions under robust standards like the Climefy Verified Carbon Standard.
The future of the Higg Index points towards greater transparency, regulatory relevance, and actionable insight. For brands, this means the tool will become even more integral to core business operations, moving from a sustainability department checklist to a source of strategic intelligence for sourcing, product development, risk management, and compliance.
Costs vary significantly depending on the user type and scale. For brands, annual membership in the Sustainable Apparel Coalition is required, which has a fee based on annual revenue. Additionally, brands pay per-module license fees for the BRM and for each facility they wish to enable in the FEM. For manufacturing facilities, the cost includes the FEM license fee and, if pursued, the separate cost of third-party verification. These costs can be a barrier for smaller entities, which is why some brands choose to subsidize their key suppliers’ participation.
Currently, the SAC advises against using individual Higg Index scores or data points for direct consumer-facing product labels or comparative marketing claims (like “this shirt is 20% better”). This is due to the complexity of the data, the importance of context, and the risk of oversimplification and misunderstanding. The primary use is for internal improvement and B2B communication. However, the SAC has been piloting the Higg Index Transparency Program, which focuses on sharing facility-level environmental performance data in a standardized format, which brands can communicate to consumers as a form of transparency, not as a product score.
A Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) is a rigorous, ISO-standardized scientific methodology to assess the environmental impacts of a product or service throughout its entire life cycle (cradle-to-grave). The Higg Index, and specifically the Higg Product Module (PM), is informed by LCA methodology but is a simplified, standardized tool designed for rapid, comparative assessment at scale by industry practitioners. It uses pre-calculated data (like the MSI for materials) and industry-average data for processes to provide directional insights, whereas a full LCA requires primary, product-specific data and is more resource-intensive.
Verification is not mandatory for basic participation and self-assessment. However, it is highly recommended and increasingly required by major brands for their strategic suppliers. Verified data carries significantly more weight for internal decision-making, external reporting, and meeting stakeholder demands for assurance. The Higg Verification Protocol provides the standardized framework for how verification must be conducted.
The Higg Index is complementary to these frameworks but serves a different, more specialized purpose. B Corp Certification is a holistic assessment of a company’s entire social and environmental performance, governance, and transparency, resulting in a certification. The Higg Index is a sector-specific measurement tool focused on value chain impacts. Data from the Higg BRM can inform parts of a B Corp assessment. Similarly, the Global Reporting Initiative (GRI) provides standards for sustainability reporting. Higg Index data, especially verified data, can be used as the metrics to populate specific GRI disclosures related to materials, energy, water, and emissions, providing the robust measurement behind the report.
