Building Balance and Equity at Cascale: A Look Ahead
Cascale’s senior director of communications, Lee Green, unpacks recent changes and updates in store on all things tools, membership, and more!
Global consumer goods nonprofit releases annual update of Higg Facility Environmental Module (Higg FEM)
Amsterdam, Hong Kong, Oakland (CA) – November 7, 2024: Today, in partnership with Worldly, Cascale launched the latest version of its Higg Facility Environmental Module (Higg FEM) to provide more precise and verified environmental data on the consumer goods manufacturing supply chain, as well as reduce reporting duplication for manufacturers, saving businesses valuable time and resources.
For over a decade, the Higg FEM tool has been a critical sustainability assessment for the consumer goods industry, allowing users to drive continuous improvement on environmental management practices, support legislative compliance and risk management practices, and collect impact data to track progress against reduction targets. Today, it is used by over 20,000 companies worldwide. Higg FEM is part of the Higg Index, which is developed and owned by global nonprofit alliance Cascale and exclusively available on Worldly, the industry’s leading sustainability data insights platform.
“The updates to Higg FEM 2024 are a direct response to the needs of our members and Higg Index community,” said Colin Browne, Cascale CEO. “Higg FEM 2024 embodies our unwavering dedication to providing the most credible, impactful data. By incorporating valuable insights from members and stakeholders, we’ve ensured that this latest version continues to set the standard for environmental assessments to drive meaningful change across the industry.”
Higg FEM 2024 now integrates Worldly’s Facility Data Manager (FDM). With FDM, facilities can track and share quantitative environmental metrics on a monthly basis and import that data into the Higg FEM on Worldly’s platform. This streamlines data collection for facilities and saves time in completing the annual Higg FEM assessment.
“At Worldly, we view Higg FEM 2024 as a pivotal advancement in measuring and driving environmental impact, enabling our customers to act faster with greater precision and high-quality primary data,” said Scott Raskin, CEO of Worldly. “The integration of Higg FEM with our Facility Data Manager provides manufacturers a distinct advantage by reducing friction in data capture throughout the year and seamlessly connecting with Higg FEM to minimize duplication of effort—a key goal. We are proud of our partnership with Cascale as we support both brands and manufacturers through streamlined data capture processes and actionable insights, driving progress toward sustainability goals and regulatory compliance.”
The Higg FEM 2024 update also expands the scope of verification to include waste impact metrics, in addition to the existing metrics on energy, GHG, water, wastewater and air emissions. Expanding the verification approach ensures that the data provided remains relevant and impactful.
This update reflects a collaborative effort, where Cascale engaged with over 85 leading brand and manufacturer members across 17 consultation sessions in 2024. With Higg FEM 2024, Cascale and Worldly underscore their commitment to innovation and continuous improvement with the Higg Index suite of tools, which are updated annually. To help Cascale members and Higg FEM users better understand the latest update and changes, Cascale and Worldly will co-host a Higg FEM 2024 Launch Webinar on November 14.
ABOUT CASCALE
Cascale is the global nonprofit alliance empowering collaboration to drive equitable and restorative business practices in the consumer goods industry. Formerly known as the Sustainable Apparel Coalition, Cascale owns and develops the Higg Index, which is exclusively available on Worldly, the leading sustainability data insights platform. Cascale unites over 300 retailers, brands, manufacturers, governments, academics, and NGO/nonprofit affiliates around the globe through one singular vision: To catalyze impact at scale and give back more than we take to the planet and its people.
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ABOUT WORLDLY
Worldly is the planet’s most comprehensive impact intelligence platform, trusted by 40,000+ major brands, retailers, and manufacturers in fashion, outdoor, home goods, toys, and more. Worldly uniquely collects high-resolution primary data specific to companies’ value chains, operations, and products, providing insight into true impacts across carbon, water, chemistry, and labor. Featuring the most comprehensive source of ESG data for global manufacturers and the largest library of materials and product impacts, Worldly empowers businesses to scale responsibility into their global operations, faster and more accurately. Hosting, connecting with, and supporting the leading industry solutions and methodologies including ZDHC, Bluesign, and the Higg Index – the most widely-adopted measure of sustainability in the apparel industry – Worldly delivers the insights businesses need to reduce their impact, comply with emerging regulatory and financial disclosure requirements, and meet the expectations of a new generation of customers. www.worldly.io
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