Date: 2025-05-01 Page is: DBtxt003.php txt00016603
Marketing / Reputation
BRANDS TAKING STANDS™ NEWSLETTER
Global Apparel Industry Moves to Total Transparency ... The Higg Index / Sustainable Apparel Coalition
Peter Burgess
Brands Taking Stands Newsletter BRANDS TAKING STANDS™ NEWSLETTER
Continue the important conversations on corporate responsibility long after 3BL Forum with the Brands Taking Stands™ newsletter. Written by veteran journalist, John Howell, this newsletter is published every Wednesday morning.
THE BIG STORY
Global Apparel Industry Moves to Total Transparency
Chances are, most shoppers have never heard of the Higg Index. The Sustainable Apparel Coalition, which is made up of over 200 brands including Nike, Levi’s, J. Crew, Abercrombie and Fitch, M&S, Zappos, and Columbia, is committed to filling that information gap in 2020 with full transparency about the value of the Index, and the progress it represents for a globalized business sector.
The Higg Index is a standardized value chain measurement suite of tools that measure environmental and social labor impacts across the value chain. “With this data,” says the SAC, “the industry can address inefficiencies, improve sustainability performance, and achieve the environmental and social transparency consumers are demanding.”
The SAC began in 2009 with an unlikely partnership between Walmart and Patagonia issuing a call to CEOs of leading global corporations to join in developing an index to measure the environmental impact of their products. To date, over 200 companies in the apparel, footwear, and textile industries have signed on to the SAC and Index.
Three SAC members were singled out by Krystal J.F. Grant in a recent blog as examples of major progress in transparency enabled by the Higg Index. Writing on Dressmember, Grant noted:
Hanes owns 70% of its manufacturing facilities and spent two years researching economies and interviewing workers to provide a living wage in Latin America and Vietnam. Gap has decreased its number of suppliers in order to help them to listen to workers’ needs and improve working conditions. Vans (VF Corporation) conducts interviews with local workers and managers to partner for cleaner drinking water, preventative healthcare, and early childhood enrichment programs in their production communities.
Sustainability will become more and more important in the future. Almost one in three people ages 14-34 in the U.S. say it’s “important” that the clothes they buy are made with sustainable materials, according to Cassandra, a research firm.
NEWS YOU CAN USE
Climate Change and Corporate Activism
The Sustainable Food Policy Alliance has released a set of climate policy principles to guide the development of federal climate legislation. The SFPA includes four of the world’s biggest food companies: Danone North America; Mars, Inc.; Nestlé USA; and Unilever. In a statement, the organization said “climate challenge...demands a bigger response from businesses than just cutting their own emissions. SFPA companies are urging Congress to enact policies that drive down greenhouse gas emissions across the entire economy.” The SFPA called on member companies to use their clout with politicians to drive change in public policy. The call to corporate activism by global food companies comes as climate change is having large and unprecedented effects on the food and agriculture sector.
Diversity and Inclusion
Companies continue to focus on diversity and inclusion as a major pathway toward hiring the best talent for their future workforces. Bank of America has hired 4,700 employees from low-and moderate-income communities over the last 18 months. The company says it is on track to exceed its 2018 commitment to hire 10,000 workers over the next five years from the LMI neighborhoods it serves. BoA is also raising its minimum wage to $20 per hour over the next two years, the highest of any of the large banks.
Sustainable Strategies and Practices
Sustainability continues to be integrated into strategies and practices as a material factor rather than a qualitative value. To show how it matters at the bottom line, eight CFOs of large American companies have launched the first U.S. chapter of Accounting for Sustainability. The nonprofit, founded by the Prince of Wales, aims to “help business leaders infuse sustainability and solutions to social and environmental challenges into core strategy and business processes.” The founding companies of A4S’s Chief Financial Officer Leadership Network in San Francisco are Salesforce, Caterpillar, Autodesk, VMWare, Levi Strauss, Equinix, Gilead Sciences, and Securian.
C-SUITE COMMENTS
“The theory of change of the Sustainable Apparel Coalition is straightforward and profound: putting standardized sustainability measurements that are both deep and profound in the hands of key decision-makers in the apparel and footwear value chain will incentivize them to make better decisions that collectively reduce the environmental impact and increase the social justice of the entire industry.” —Rick Ridgeway, VP Environmental Initiatives and Special Media Projects, Patagonia From the Sustainable Apparel Coalition
PEOPLE ON THE MOVE
Henry A.J. Ramos has been elected Chair of the Nonprofit Finance Fund Board. Ramos is Principal of Mauer Kunst Consulting, a private research and advising firm working with social investors and public interest nonprofit groups. He was most recently the Executive Director of Equal Voice Action, a national family membership organization of working and striving families seeking enhanced political and economic empowerment. From 2007-2010, he served as director and lead consultant of the Diversity in Philanthropy Project, an initiative of leading U.S. private foundations to increase philanthropic effectiveness through the greater inclusion of multicultural talent in foundation appointments, investments and contracting.
Alex Papageorgis is the new Head of Quantitative Investments at Ethic, a sustainable investing tech startup. Papageorgis joins the firm from Goldman Sachs where he served as a vice president within the company’s QIS’ Customized Beta Strategies team, managing bespoke smart-beta, tax-efficient, environmentally and socially responsible portfolios for ultra-high-net-worth and institutional clients.
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