SAN FRANCISCO – The Sustainable Apparel Coalition (SAC) will ditch the aggregated single score used by the Higg Materials Sustainability Index (MSI) in January 2021 as it shifts its focus from raw material to product level environmental impacts.
Instead, MSI users will be able to use the five individual impact area scores in the latest version of the Higg Product Module (Higg PM) to determine the environmental credentials of their products.
These impact areas are global warming potential, nutrient pollution in water, fossil fuel depletion, water scarcity and chemistry.
The retirement of the aggregated single Higg score comes ahead of the planned launch of the second version of the Higg Product Module (Higg PM), in spring of 2021, which for the first time will also consider product use and product end-of-life.
The move also comes after Ecotextile News continued to call for greater disclosure and transparency around Higg scores in the last edition of our publication – something we’ve been recommending since 2013.
The decision has already been welcomed by some industry groups.