Is that a sustain on your shirt?

…or… a sustain?

An organization called The Sustainable Apparel Coalition (membership list below) has just released something called the Higg Index.

First, let’s tell you more about their goals (from their website):

The focus of the Sustainable Apparel Coalition is to create and implement an index to measure the environmental and social performance of apparel and footwear products.

With the creation of an apparel and footwear index, the Sustainable Apparel Coalition aims to accomplish the following goals:

•     Understand and quantify sustainability impacts of apparel and footwear products
•     Dramatically reduce redundancy in measuring sustainability in the apparel and footwear industries
•     Drive business value through reducing risk and uncovering efficiency
•     Create a common means to communicate sustainability to stakeholders

So – one key thing to note here is that third bullet.  Business value through reducing risk and uncovering inefficiency.  They don’t even mention the innovation aspects here (although you’ll see it comes up later).  This reaffirms our ongoing contention that sustainability – woven into projects (excuse the pun) is not (only) about saving the planet but also about creating jobs, making money, and in general, taking care of shareholders.

Here’s more about the Higg Index:

The Higg Index 1.0 is primarily an indicator based tool for apparel that enables companies to evaluate material types, products, facilities and processes based on a range of environmental and product design choices.  The Index asks practice-based, qualitative questions to gauge environmental sustainability performance and drive behavior for improvement.  It is based largely on the Eco Index and Nike’s Apparel Environmental Design Tool, however it has been significantly enhanced through a pilot testing period.

The Higg Index 1.0 is a tool to help organizations standardize how they measure and evaluate environmental performance of apparel products across the supply chain at the brand, product and facility levels.  It is:

• a self-assessment tool that enables rapid learning through identification of environmental sustainability hot spots and improvement opportunities;
• a starting point of engagement, education, and collaboration among stakeholders in advance of more rigorous assessment efforts.

The immediate priority of the SAC is to use the Higg Index to drive improvement and innovation in the global apparel and footwear supply chain. While Coalition members see the need and value of a consumer-facing rating for products, it is a long-term aspiration and no timetable has been set for development of a consumer-facing label based on the Higg Index.

Read the entire press release about the Higg Index here.

Below is a 7-minute training video on how to use the Index:

As of now, this Higg Index is an industry- rather than consumer-facing system, so much of the this will remain behind the scenes. Still, consumers can only benefit from any improved business practices as a result of the tool’s implementation, say the administrators, “Consumers won’t receive direct information until the quality of the information and Index have evolved and that data is completely reliable and credible,.  At that point we’ll then consider the option of developing a consumer-facing label.”

If you are a brand-conscious consumer and want to know who’s been working on this, here are the members of the Sustainable Apparel Coalition:

Adidas, Arvind Mills, ASICS, Avery Dennison, Bureau Veritas, C&A, Cohesive Trim, Columbia Sportswear, Clariant, The Coca-Cola Company, Cotton, Inc., Duke Center for Sustainability and Commerce, DuPont, DyStar, Environmental
Defense Fund, Esprit, Esquel, European Outdoor Group, Gap Inc., H&M, HanesBrands, Huntsman, INDITEX, Intradeco, JC Penney, Kohl’s Department  Stores, Lenzing, Levi Strauss & Co., Li & Fung Limited, L.L.Bean, Inc.,  Loomstate, Makalot Industrial Company, Marks & Spencer, MAS Active, Mountain Equipment Co-op, Natural Resources Defense Council, New Balance, Nike, Nordstrom, Oeko-Tex, Otto Group, Outdoor Industry Association, Patagonia, Pentland Brands, Pratibha Syntex Limited, PUMA, Ramatex Group, REI, TAL Apparel, Target, Teijin Fibers Limited, Textile Exchange, Timberland, Tiong Liong Corporation, University of Delaware, U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, Utrecht University, Verité, VF Corp, Walmart, WL Gore & Associates, and WRI.