The Sustainable Apparel Coalition (SAC), a global industry coalition standardizing social and environmental sustainability performance measurement, has launched a new and improved version of its Higg Materials Sustainability Index (Higg MSI).
“The updated Higg MSI paves the way for deeper material transparency and awareness of environmental impacts and a vital addition to the Higg Index allowing us to do brand, facility, and product level assessment,” said Jason Kibbey, CEO, SAC.
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The new MSI provides information in a user-centric way that empowers product designers and developers to iterate on designs while considering sustainability during the product creation process, thus reducing data requests of manufacturers. A centralized database contains materials and their impacts which can be accessed by public. It also helps to create a common baseline for material performance against which textile manufacturers can work to improve their performance and differentiate their capabilities with their customers.
“The new materials database/MSI represents a leap forward in standardizing the way apparel companies profile materials, sustainable or otherwise. At VF, we’ve already begun to integrate the MSI into our internal systems of product impact measurement and we will continue to advocate that others do the same,” said Barruch Ben-Zekry, Director of Sustainable Products and Materials, VF Corporation.
The Higg Index is a suite of assessment tools that empower brands, retailers, and manufacturers to measure their environmental impacts at every stage of the lifecycle and value chain, enabling them to address inefficiencies, resolve damaging practices, and achieve the environmental and social transparency that consumers are starting to demand.
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