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Advanced Facility Engagement Guidelines | Amazon

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As part of Amazon’s ongoing commitment to environmental protection, Amazon seeks to collect supplier environmental performance data to understand the impacts of our supply chain, identify opportunities to mitigate environmental harm, and meet our ambitious global climate goals. (https://sustainability.aboutamazon.com/about/the-climate-pledge)

This year, Amazon is partnering with Higg  to collect supply chain environmental data through the Higg Facility Environmental Module (Higg FEM). We understand your company has already purchased the 2021 Higg FEM, and we kindly request your company share its completed 2021 Higg FEM self-assessment with Amazon.

Please post and share your FEM with Amazon by July 8th, 2022. The data you share with Amazon will not impact your business relationship with Amazon or your SR audit results.

We highly encourage your company undergo a verification for your 2021 Higg FEM by an approved Verification Body. Verification ensures your company accurately completes all parts of the module, increasing credibility and accuracy of your FEM data. Due to an approved Verifier shortage and delays due to COVID, we recommend scheduling your company’s FEM verification by July 20th and post finalized verified modules by August 30th.

Who is Higg?

Higg is the sustainability insights platform, helping consumer goods businesses take responsibility for their entire impact – from materials to products, from factories to stores, across energy, waste, water, and working conditions.

By making both data collection and performance analysis easier, we help brands and manufacturers make better environmental, social and governance decisions – across all parts of their business.

Spun out of the Sustainable Apparel Coalition in 2019, Higg is the exclusive licensee of the Higg Index, a suite of tools for the standardized measurement of supply chain sustainability.

What is the Higg Index?

The Higg Index is a suite of tools developed by the Sustainable Apparel Coalition (SAC), for the standardized measurement of supply chain sustainability, used by the footwear, apparel, textile, and other industries. Together, these tools are used to assess the environmental and social performance of both value chains and products. Each tool focuses on measuring a different parameter.

STEP 1: Make sure to add info@higg.com to your company email’s safe email sender list, otherwise you risk not receiving the ongoing communications due to email firewalls.

STEP 2: POST & SHARE HIGG FEM 2021 SELF-ASSESSMENT WITH AMAZON BY JULY 8, 2022

A) Complete 100% of the applicable questions and post the module.

B) Accept the module share requests sent by Amazon.

If you do not see a pending share request from Amazon in your modules page, under Share Requests, you should click the Share Module button and initiate the module share with Amazon.

Sharing Details
Account Name: Amazon
Higg ID: 131418

STEP 3: SCHEDULE FEM VERIFICATION BY JULY 20, 2022
Verification of the self-assessment ensures that facilities have accurately completed all parts of the Higg Facility module – giving the self-assessment data the credibility and accuracy required to share publicly.

STEP 4: POST FINALIZED VERIFIED FEM BY AUGUST 30, 2022

Amazon Deadlines (2021-2022)

  • July 8, 2022 – Higg FEM self-assessments must be posted and shared with Amazon
  • July 20, 2022 – FEM verifications must be scheduled with 3rd party verifying bodies
  • August 30, 2022 – Verified Higg FEM assessments must be posted

Frequently Asked Questions

1. I haven’t completed the 2021 Higg FEM yet. What should I do?
We request facilities complete their purchased 2021 Higg FEM and share with us by July 11th, 2022. Please note – after April 30th, 2022, facilities can edit their FEM in the Higg platform but only have one chance to post their FEM 2021.

2. Who can I contact for support?
Amazon pays for advanced Higg customer service for its suppliers. This means that Amazon’s suppliers will receive an expedited response from the Higg Support Team when a support request is submitted on Higg.org. Please use this link (http://howtohigg.org/requests) to submit questions directly to the Higg Support. Users will receive a response from the team within 24 business hours.

For non-technical questions or to provide feedback to Amazon, please contact Amazon’s Social Responsibility team at sr-support@amazon.com.

3. What is a verification, and how do I get one?
Verification of the FEM self-assessment is conducted by a third- or second-party SAC approved verifier. The verifier is selected and hired to review a facility site. The verifier is the only person responsible for validating the accuracy of the assessment. The Higg FEM verification is not a pass/fail audit. It is simply a means to verify you understood and answered the FEM self-assessment correctly. Verified data and scores provide trusted information on facility environmental performance, reducing the need for multiple proprietary audits.

There are two types of verification: 1) Onsite Verification where a Verifier is required to visit the facility premises; and 2) Offsite Verification where a Verifier conducts the verification without going to the factory premises, usually by other means such as e-mail, pictures, web-conference, etc. For the 2021 FEM, both verification options are sufficient for Amazon.

For more information on the Verification process, see https://howtohigg.org/higg-fem-verification-program/ .

Additional Higg Resources

Higg’s training website, HowtoHigg.org, contains all of the information and guidance facilities need to help them at every stage of the module and verification completion processes.