Company Profile
Reading Time: 10 Minutes
Before You Get Started
- Your responses to the company profile information questions will be used to categorize your company for comparative analytics as well as to unlock other sections.
- Please complete this section first before moving on to other sections of the module.
- The answers provided by your company in this section will unlock or hide subsequent questions in other sections. It is therefore the expectation that companies first complete this section before proceeding to the others: Brand, Retailer, Stores and Operations & Logistics.
- When reviewing the questions, please refer back to the tool if the answer options are not listed below. Some answer options are omitted for brevity.
- 9 questions are covered in the Company Profile section.
Questions
Intent of the question
Your company must meet basic local regulations before proceeding to beyond-compliance sustainability behavior. This question is intended to confirm that you have a process to manage local permits and compliance.
Examples of violations are: Restricted substances used in the final product, improper waste stream handling, labor violations related to overtime or worker injuries.
Technical Guidance
Answer options: Yes/No
To answer “yes” your company should have in place a robust process designed to resolve potential issues and ensure compliance with local legislation and regulations in countries in which it operates.
How this will be verified
Documentation required
- Any documentation containing the information related to mechanisms or procedures to be activated as soon as any government-issued citations or allegations are received
- Action plans to address issues along with responsible staff and tracked progress
Intent of this question
The answer is used to categorize your company for comparative analytics in the benchmarking.
Technical Guidance
Select the country where your company is headquartered
How this will be verified
Documentation required
- Business Registration License
- Corporate Website
Important Note: The selected options will drive applicability and whether you will have to complete the Brand, Retailer, and Stores sections.
Company Ownership – Answer Options:
- Public
- Private
- Subsidiary
Business Model – Answer Options:
- Retailer: Does your company purchase products from other companies to sell?
- Answer options: Yes/No
- Brand: Does your company create its own branded products?
- Answer options: Yes/No
- Stores: Does your company have brick-and-mortar stores?
- Answer options: Yes/No
Intent of this question
This question will support in unlocking the relevant sections that are applicable to your specific business model.
Technical Guidance
Company ownership
- Public (Publicly listed companies)
- Private (Companies that are privately held and not publicly listed)
- Subsidiary (Companies that are part of a holding company or a group)
Business model
- Retailer: Companies selling products that are manufactured and branded by other companies, also known as third party brands, wholesale or national brands. For example retailers such as De Bijenkorf, Zalando and REI.
Note: If your company sells 1% or less of third party brands in your stores there is no need to report on this data through the Higg BRM since the impact is not considered significant.
- Brand: Brand is defined as a company selling products that are manufactured and sold under your own company brand also known as private label. For example brands such as H&M, The North Face and Tommy Hilfiger.
Note: If your company is a licensee and manufacturers products, this section will be applicable to you. If your company is a licensor, please encourage your licensee(s) to complete and share their Higg BRM results with you to gain insight into their sustainability performance.
- Stores: The scope of this question covers owned and leased stores but excludes stores that are not owned and operated by your company such as store-in-store (operated by department store) or franchised stores (operated by franchisees). For example stores operated by Zara, Uniqlo and Target.
Note: If your company works with franchisees for store operations, you may encourage them to complete and share their Higg BRM results with you to gain insight into their sustainability performance.
How this will be verified
Documentation required
- Business Registration License
- Corporate Website
Company Annual Financial Report, if available
4.1 What percentage of these products are sold online
4.2 What percentage of these products are sold in store(s)
Intent of this question
This answer is used to categorize your company for comparative analytics in the benchmarking.
Technical Guidance
Definitions
- Own distribution: company’s owned and operated stores
- This excludes franchisees and store-in-store which are owned and operated by the department store/wholesale retailer. To capture this information, we encourage companies to request their franchisees and wholesale retailers to complete their own Higg BRM to gain insight into their sustainability performance.
- Sold online: through e-commerce sales
- Sold in stores: company’s owned and operated (leased) stores
To calculate:
This should be entered in product quantities (units sold) and should not be based on $. It is suggested to use Sell in & Sell Out (units).
For % Own Distribution:
- Sell In to your own channels
- Sell In to other retailers
- Ratio would be Sell In (Own) / Sell In (Total = Own + Other)
For Sold Online and Sold In-Store, this is only for Own Distribution:
- Sell Out (Online) / Sell Out (Total = Online + In Store)
- Sell Out (In Store) / Sell Out (Total = Online + In Store)
How this will be verified
Documentation required
- Business Registration License
- Corporate Website
- Company Annual Financial Report, if available
Answer options:
- Apparel
- Footwear
- Home Textiles
- Accessories
- Home Furnishings
- Hard Goods
- Other
Intent of this question
This answer is used to categorize your company for comparative analytics in the benchmarking.
Technical Guidance
- Home Textiles (bed linen, towels, rugs/carpets)
- Accessories (e.g. belts, bags, jewelry, etc.)
- Home Furnishings (e.g. furniture and home decoration)
- Hard Goods (e.g. equipment, tents & sleeping pads, backpacks, skis, snowboards & bindings, ski equipment gear, climbing gear, bicycles)
- Other (any product category that has not been listed above)
How this will be verified
Documentation required
- Relevant documentation provided by the company
- Company’s annual report, if available
Answer options:
- Less than 5 million
- 5-20 million
- 20-100 million
- 100-500 million
- 500 million to 1 billion
- 1-10 billion
- Exceeding 10 billion
Intent of this question
The answer is used to categorize your company for comparative analytics in the benchmarking.
Technical Guidance
All revenue (including through licensee models) should be included.
How this will be verified
Documentation required
- Relevant documentation provided by the company
- Company’s annual report, if available
Tooltip: Number of units sold in the last calendar year.
Intent of this question
The answer is used to categorize your company for comparative analytics in the benchmarking and for further integration with the Higg Product Module.
Technical Guidance
- Please provide total units (quantity/pieces) of all products sold from January 1 through December 31 of last calendar year.
- Enter number of sold units (quantity/pieces) through either owned and operated retail stores and/or e- commerce sales.
- Reporting on brand vs group: If you are reporting this as part of a brand then report the total number of sold units for the brand. If you are reporting this as part of a holding / parent company then report the total number of sold units for the entire holding / parent company.
- When rounding, we recommend keeping at least 4 significant figures (i.e. the first four numbers of your number of units). For example: 12,456 units would be 12,460 units and 12,567,235 units would be 12,570,000 units.
The Sustainable Apparel Coalition recommends reporting of one Higg BRM per brand for the purpose of clarity and performance communications.
How this will be verified
Documentation required
- Supporting documents used to calculate Total Units sold per year
Answer Options:
- Asia Pacific (APAC)
- Europe Middle East Africa (EMEA)
- North America (NAMER)
- Latin America (LATAM)
- Global (All of the above)
Intent of this question
The answer is used to categorize your company for comparative analytics in the benchmarking.
Technical Guidance
Select the sales regions that are applicable to the sales of your product(s). Multiple selection possible.
How this will be verified
Documentation required
- Corporate website
- Company’s annual report, if available
Answer Options:
- 0 employees
- 1-10 employees
- 11-50 employees
- 51-200 employees
- 201-500 employees
- 501-1000 employees
- 1001-5000 employees
- 5001-10,000 employees
- 10,001+ employees
Follow-up questions:
9.1 Specify the number of full-time employees at your company
9.2 Specify the number of part-time employees at your company
9.3 Specify the number of temporary employees at your company
Intent of question
The answer is used to categorize your company for comparative analytics in the benchmarking.
Technical Guidance
- Part-time employees: the term part-time employee refers to an employee whose normal hours of work, calculated on a weekly basis or on average over a period of employment of up to one year, are less than the normal hours of work of a comparable full-time worker. More information: ILO’s Convention No. 175
- Temporary employees: employees that are on a temporary contract without a permanent duration or are recruited through labor recruitment agencies
- Shared services and employees within a parent company should only be counted once and reported under the headquarters.
How this will be verified
Documentation required
- Relevant records and reporting that Human Resources department are able to provide
- Company’s annual report if applicable