The environmental cost of producing and wearing clothes is high. Nearly 20% of industrial water pollution comes from textile dyeing and treatment. Apparel, footwear, and textile production takes place at thousands of factories globally. These facilities play a key role in the overall sustainability of the industry.

The Sustainable Apparel Coalition (SAC) is a non-profit organization founded in 2011, allying and leading the apparel, footwear and home textile industries for sustainable production. It has more than 200 members, who have committed to the vision of establishing a standard tool to measure sustainability performance for the above mentioned industries so as to produce no unnecessary environmental harm and have a positive impact on the people and communities.
 

■ What is Higg FEM
Higg Index is a suite of self-assessment tools developed by SAC and it is designed to measure the sustainability impacts of apparel and footwear products. FEM (Facility Environmental Module) is one of the modules at the facility level, which informs brands, retailers, and manufacturers about the environmental performance of their individual facilities, so they can make improvements that reduce negative impacts.

■ Higg Index Ecosystem


■ Benefits (Why do you Higg?)

• CHEAPER

This module can be used by manufacturers at any tier of the apparel, footwear, and textile industry value chain. It covers all areas under the same business license even if the factory has several sites and different production lines, which reduces the need for additional site inspections, saving management time and money.

• CLEARER

It creates oppor tunities for open conversations among value chain partners so businesses at every tier in the value chain collectively perform better. 

• BETTER

Trusted, credible Higg Index data provides better, more comparable benchmarking information for manufacturers so they can better evaluate their existing level of performance and improvement opportunities.

• SMARTER

FEM can give manufacturers clear guidance on hotspots for improvement and outline the current best practices in the field, which streamline the process of finding new business and provide business intelligence for better decision-making.

■ 7 Key Sections

• Environmental management systems
• Energy use and greenhouse gas emissions
• Water use
• Wastewater
• Emissions to air (if applicable)
• Waste management
• Chemical use and management

■ Verification Process
Users conduct the assessments at least once a year, and these assessments are then verified by SAC-approved, on-site assessors.


■ Higg FEM Performance Level Sections


■ MD Structure


■ Why Leverage
Leverage provides professional Higg FEM training service. If you find yourself not familiar with the module after completing the Self-Assessment Questionnaire (SAQ), or have further requirements for the verification knowledge, please feel free to contact us for our training. For example, as to the ZDHC module, Leverage can provide a 2-day course with training certificates issued, the instructors of which are all approved by the ZDHC chemical management module.




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