Global brands now have the ability to assess social and labour performance of their supplier facilities with a standard scoring system added to the Higg Facility Social & Labor Module (Higg FSLM).

The launch builds on work by the Social Labor Convergence Program (SLCP), whose Converged Assessment Framework (CAF) tool aims to standardise facility auditing for social and labour issues at global scale and now becomes the foundation of the Higg FSLM.

The scoring provides judgement information, eliminating the need for brands to conduct individual audits to assess facilities’ performance, while Higg Index scoring enables comparability of the data.

The score is out of 100 and covers issues like handling grievances, respectful treatment of workers, and child labour practices. As a performance assessment, rather than a compliance exercise, the Higg FSLM provides an opportunity for facilities to improve year over year.

“The launch of Higg FSLM scoring presents an opportunity for brands to retire independent proprietary tools and move towards performance improvement and increased collaboration to address social and labour issues across the value chain,” says Amina Razvi, executive director of the Sustainable Apparel Coalition (SAC).

“This has been a key goal of the SAC since its inception, and with this launch we get one step closer to reducing audit fatigue and shifting resources towards improvement and collective action. This is a game changer for the industry and a critical tool right now to achieve true industry transformation.”

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Higg Co, the technology company and service provider behind the digitalisation of the Higg Index – a suite of sustainability tools and services to assess the social and environmental impacts of global value chains – calls the addition of scored data an important step forward for the industry.

“Organisations need meaningful end-to-end data to inform management decisions around sustainability investment,” says Higg Co CEO Jason Kibbey. “Availability of accurate data and comparability and consistency of data are critical to enabling the scale up of sustainable business practices.”

More specifically, as part of the Higg Index, the Higg FSLM offers:

  • A set of social and labour data that covers all most important categories.
  • SLCP’s diverse signatory base developed the tool.
  • Robust verification methodology and verification oversight.
  • Automated data quality checks.
  • Ability to share data beyond the Higg platform if using the Higg FSLM
  • Enables widespread sharing of a single verified data set (creating efficiency: reducing time and money spent on social audits).

Earlier this month Higg Co revealed details of a new tool that will allow consumers and stakeholders to see the data behind statements about product sustainability for the first time.