The Higg Index FAQs

The Higg Index is the leading collection of tools used to measure and manage the environmental and social footprint of a product, a brand or a manufacturing facility. The results of the Higg Index are like a “nutrition label” for fair labor and sustainability.

You can use it to measure greenhouse gas (carbon footprint), water use and pollution, air pollution, chemical impacts, labor impacts and other impacts of creating apparel.

It’s made up of 5 core assessments that accurately determine environmental and social impacts. The 5 assessments are:

• Higg Facility Environmental Module (FEM)

• Higg Facility Social and Labor Module (FSLM)

• Higg Brand and Retail Module (BRM)

• Higg Materials Sustainability Index (MSI)

• Higg Product Module (PM)

The Higg Index is striving to rapidly reduce the environmental and social impacts of the apparel industry. It can measure, manage and reduce impacts from sourcing, creating, and using apparel with the goal being reduced climate impact, more sustainable water use, reduction of harmful chemicals, and creating better and more fair labor conditions.

We are in an environmental crisis and the Higg Index tools can help you get control of your impacts and reduce them rapidly.

The Higg Index allows you to quickly, credibly and effectively assess the specific impacts that your brand has on the environment.

The Higg Index also allows you to communicate your successes in environmental impact reduction to your customers.

Anyone in the value chain from cradle to grave in the life cycle of apparel products can use the Higg Index tools to assess impact.

• Designers, product developers, material developers, sustainability analysts, material and product developers → Higg Materials Sustainable Index (MSI) & Higg Product Module (PM)

• Brands and retailers, consumer goods brands, brands and retailers → Higg Brand and Retail Module (BRM)

• Manufacturers, mills, factories, material suppliers and other related manufacturing facilities → Higg Facility Environmental Module (FEM) & Higg Facility Social and Labor Module (FSLM)

• Governments, NGOs, and consumers

The Higg Index refers to the set of 5 tools that you can use to manage and measure your environmental and labor impacts.

The word Higg doesn’t mean anything in particular or stand for anything. When deciding what to call these series of tools, the founders wanted to use a word that was easy to pronounce in most languages. Higg was decided upon with the hopes of becoming a well known word in the sustainability world.

The Higg Index started in 2007 when a small group of leaders from the outdoor industry created an early sustainability assessment tool called the Eco Index. Snaplinc’s founder, Ammi Borenstein, was one of the people who helped create the earliest versions of the Higg Index in collaboration with people from Patagonia®, REI®, MEC®, Timberland®, Levi’s® and many more.

Great question! The supply chain “refers to the system and resources required to move a product or service from supplier to customer” (University of Cambridge). However, this doesn’t take into account many of the stakeholders involved and the value that is added by these other actors. This value can come in an ethical or moral sense, in an economic sense, or “other non-monetary utility values such as closing material loops, the provision of ecosystem services and added customer value” (University of Cambridge). Another way to think of it is viewing the entire lifecycle of a product.