SAN FRANCISCO — February 16, 2021 – The Sustainable Apparel Coalition (SAC), the leading association representing the apparel, footwear, and textile industry in sustainability, today released a comprehensive report detailing the organization’s first decade of bold progress, culminating in its signature achievement — the completion of the Higg Index, a suite of tools for the standardized measurement of value chain sustainability. In addition to illustrating the impact of the Higg Index, the report lays out the framework for the SAC’s ambitious new mission to transform business for exponential impact.

Developed over the last decade by the SAC, the Higg Index enables companies to proactively measure and manage issues like environmental stewardship, working conditions, and supplier relations. The five tools within the Higg Index continue to evolve to align with emerging scientific data and an ever-growing understanding of sustainability issues.

“Over the past 10 years, we have worked collaboratively across the industry to develop and launch the Higg Index, providing cutting-edge, standardized sustainability tools for our industry,” said SAC Executive Director, Amina Razvi. “As we look ahead to our next decade of action, the Higg Index will be central to the SAC’s mission of transforming businesses for exponential impact — providing the building blocks necessary to help us make smarter and more informed decisions about the products we make, how we make them, and how we partner together to reduce impact on people and the planet. With scientists predicting that we only have 10 years until the effects of climate change are irreversible, we feel a sense of urgency and responsibility to continue moving our industry forward.”

The SAC’s new strategic plan is built around four pillars — collective action, integrated tools, transparency, and sustainability leadership. This plan is bold, ambitious and flexible, acknowledging that new and emerging insights and issues across the industry will require the organization to be agile in how it prioritizes its work and focuses its attention on continual progress towards its goals.

“As the SAC prepares to embark upon a new decade of transformative action, the organization and its more than 250 members are committed to a bold, new mission to transform business for exponential impact through groundbreaking tools, collaborative partnerships, and trusted leadership for industry sustainability,” said Sean Cady, SAC Board Chair and VF Corporation Global Vice President for Sustainability, Responsibility and Trade.

“The SAC has spent ten years developing the Higg Index for the industry, and now we’re ready to put the tools to use,” said Jeremy Lardeau, the SAC’s Vice President of the Higg Index. “The insights provided by the Higg Index will empower the industry to accelerate and deepen the adoption of climate solutions, worker protections, and more sustainable products at scale.”

Click here to download a copy of the “A Decade in Review” report and here to download report assets.

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About the Sustainable Apparel Coalition (SAC)
The Sustainable Apparel Coalition (SAC) is an industry-wide group of more than 250 leading apparel, footwear and textile, brands, retailers, suppliers, service providers, trade associations, nonprofits, NGOs and academic institutions working to reduce environmental impact and promote social justice throughout the global value chain. Leveraging the Higg Index suite of tools for the standardized measurement of value chain sustainability, the SAC is working to transform business for exponential impact.

The SAC was incorporated as a 501(c)6 nonprofit organization and launched the groundbreaking Higg Index suite of tools in 2011. In May 2019, the SAC spun-off the Higg Index technology platform to Higg, which delivers tools and services that help consumer goods businesses accelerate transformation for a more sustainable future. For more information, visit www.apparelcoalition.org.