Sustainable Apparel Coalition

As awareness and scientific understanding of the environmental and social issues facing the ATs industry has expanded, stakeholders within the apparel industry have developed various tools and indices for measuring different aspects of sustainability within the supply chain. Two of the first leading tools were the Outdoor Industry Association s Eco Index (OIA, 2014) and Nike s Apparel Environmental Design Tool (Nike, 2010), both of which evolved into the Sustainable Apparel Coalition s (SAC) Higg Index. 

In early 2012, the Sustainable Apparel Coalition, an association of over 60 apparel and footwear brands, retailers and suppliers, and non-profit organizations, released the Higg Index 1.0 for Sustainable Apparel. 

Nowadays there are two of the hottest trends now among CSR executives are supply chains and collaboration among companies on sustainability. The latest example for these two comes from the apparel industry, where the Sustainable Apparel Coalition (SAC), a trade association representing more than a third of the global apparel and footwear market, unveiled the Higg Index, a new tool for sustainabihty measurement across the industry value chain. 

The Sustainable Apparel Coalition is an industry wide group of over 80 leading apparel and footwear brands, retailers, suppliers, nonprofits, and NGOs working to reduce the envirorunental and social impacts of apparel and footwear products around the world. 

The focus of the Sustainable Apparel Coalition is the Higg Index that measures the environmental performance of apparel products. Future versions will include footwear products and measure social performance. 

The Sustainable Apparel Coalition was founded by a group of sustainability leaders from global apparel and footwear companies who recognize that addressing our industy s cmrent social and environmental challenges are both a business imperative and an opportunity. 

With the creation of an apparel and footwear index, the Sustainable Apparel Coalition aims to accomplish the following goals ... 

The Index asks practice-based, qualitative questions togauge environmental sustainability performance and drive behavior for improvement. It is based largely on the Eco Index and Nike s Apparel Environmental Design Tool however it has been significantly enhanced through a pilot testing period. Gap is one of the Sustainable Apparel Coalition s foimding members. 

Through multi-stakeholder engagement, the Coalition seeks to lead the industy toward a shared vision of sustainability built upon a common approach for measming and evaluating apparel and footwear product sustainability performance that will spotlight priorities for action and opportunities for technological innovation. 

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