Higg Index Communication Guidelines

The Sustainable Apparel Coalition’s (SAC) Higg Index team, composed of subject matter experts, developed these Communication Guidelines in collaboration with our partners at Higg to enable SAC members and Higg users to communicate about their Higg Index performance and promote the Higg Index as the leading global standard for sustainability measurement in the consumer goods industry. 

The guidelines were developed to provide the industry with a unified, consistent, and science-based way to publicly share sustainability performance using the suite of Higg Index tools. We believe that consistent presentation of performance, backed by accurate, credible, and verified data, can prevent companies from making false and misleading greenwashing claims.

The guidelines provide guidance on communicating three major use cases based on each tool:

  1. General use of the Higg Index 
  2. “Raw” value chain performance, such as a manufacturing facility score, or specific product environmental footprint
  3. Contextualized and standardized product-level performance claims for a consumer audience

The guidelines currently feature how to communicate performance for the:

  • Higg Facility Environment Module (FEM)
  • Higg Facility Social & Labor Module (FSLM)
  • Higg Brand & Retail Module (BRM)
  • Higg Materials Sustainability Index (MSI)
  • Higg Product Module (PM) 
  • Higg Index transparency program

As the SAC develops guidelines to communicate performance from other tools, we will update this manual.