March 07, 2025
Higg Brand & Retail Tool
The Higg Brand & Retail Module (Higg BRM) helps brands and retailers of textiles, apparel, and footwear identify opportunities for continuous sustainability improvement in company operations.
As a leading industry-specific ESG framework, the Higg BRM aims to help brands and retailers build corporate sustainability strategies to deliver more effectively on their ESG goals and industry needs.
The Higg BRM
The Higg BRM delivers clear, consistent, and transparent scoring on sustainability objectives and achievements, assessing performance against industry-specific ESG metrics to help businesses benchmark with their peers. And it aligns with relevant industry frameworks and regulations – such as Textile Exchange’s Material Change Index and the ZDHC Brands to Zero program – to reduce reporting burdens.
The tool assesses sustainability performance across 11 key impact areas within three pillars:
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01Environmental
- Biodiversity
- Climate
- Chemicals
- Waste
- Water
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02Social
- Workers
- Employees
- Consumer
- Communities
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03Governance
- Structure & Management
- Ethics & Behavior
Communicating Your Higg Index Performance
Cascale provides guidelines on sharing your Higg Index performance as part of any business to business (B2B) or business to consumer (B2C) communications. Please review the Higg Index Communication Guidelines for more information.
Accessing the Higg Brand & Retail Module
The Higg Index Tools are owned by Cascale and exclusively licensed to Worldly, the leading platform for sustainability data and analytics in consumer goods supply chains. Although Cascale members benefit from exclusive community support, educational experiences, and collaborative opportunities, the Higg Index suite of tools can be accessed through Worldly without Cascale membership.
Frequently Asked Questions
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Cascale maintains a list of approved verifying bodies and the process of verification is generally similar to other sustainability report assurance/verification processes. Verification is initiated once the complete Higg BRM Self-Assessment has been submitted. Members and users currently are not required to pay a Higg BRM Verification Access Fee. Cascale reserves the right to change the Verification Access Fee process in the future. -
Each question in the Higg BRM contributes a specific number of points towards the total score of 100, with the value depending on the user’s path, the location of the question within the assessment, and the total number of questions in that section. After completing the Higg BRM, the user receives the following results:
- One Total Score (out of 100), presented as a percentage.
- ESG Scores for each pillar of activity – Environment, Social and Governance – with detailed scores on each impact area within the pillar.
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To learn more about how the Higg BRM aligns with CSRD, review our white paper and mapping. In this paper, we articulate exactly how the Higg Brand and Retail Module (Higg BRM) can assist brands and retailers (undertakings) in fulfilling their reporting requirements under the European Union’s (EU) Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive (CSRD), while also helping to develop consistent corporate sustainability strategies and avoid duplication across sustainability initiatives.
Resources
Cascale, SLCP, and Worldly Co-Host Webinar on Higg FSLM to Support Social Compliance
On November 6, Cascale, SLCP, and Worldly co-hosted the latest webinar in the Navigating Legislation & the Higg Index series, titled “Higg FSLM in Supporting Social Compliance.”
November 21, 2024
Higg BRM Looks to Support CSRD Compliance, Per White Paper
With compliance around the corner, Cascale published a white paper showcasing how the Higg Brand and Retail Module (Higg BRM) is answering the call.
Adrián Branco
August 15, 2024