SAN FRANCISCO — May 20, 2021 — Higg, a technology platform that enables consumer goods companies to measure, manage, and share the social and environmental impacts of their value chain, today celebrates its second year since forming as a public benefit company.

After quickly becoming the apparel industry go-to for sustainability measurement, Higg is rapidly moving into new verticals, with its network of primary impact data that helps businesses understand and improve the sustainability of their entire operations.

Following a spin out from the Sustainable Apparel Coalition in 2019 and a Series A funding round, Higg invested in on-platform analytics, began offering licensed API access, and announced partnerships offering complementary assessments and data. The company is focused on developing a comprehensive platform for sustainability insights for responsible consumer goods businesses, beginning with fashion.

These technology investments have helped Higg realize significant markers of success: since 2019, manufacturer environmental scores have improved nearly 20%; Higg has broadened its reach from 20,000+ users to more than 45,000, including tens of thousands of manufacturers; and more than 500 fashion brands have committed to using its brand and retail tool. Users are completing their assessments faster, and nearly half of users have shared their results with more than one value chain partner, effectively improving transparency within the value chain. Higg has also seen financial progress and team expansion, building out its leadership team with former executives from Nike Inc. and Microsoft, and growing from 20 employees in 2019 to 73 team members today.

“As a tech company we’re able to innovate, move fast, and scale quickly to help bring solutions to our urgent climate situation,” says Higg Chief Executive Officer, Jason Kibbey. “The clock is ticking and consumer goods industries need to make more than small, independent measures to reduce their overall impact. It is time to bring holistic insights to industries, and the kinds of tools that can identify data-driven solutions within the complexity of global value chains and add up to change at scale.”

Higg delivers deep data and analytics about the social and environmental impacts of businesses’ value chain operations. By utilizing its tools and services, companies can meet environmental goals faster, mitigate value chain risks, and deliver on customer expectations. “It took 10 years and significant external pressure for the fashion industry to get where it is today, finally using data to assess and address its footprint. All consumer goods industries need to move faster to address climate change and social impact,
using sustainability data that is comparable and contextualized,” says Kibbey.

The high-quality data and analytics within the Higg platform unlock a comprehensive view of a business’ social and environmental impacts in value chain operations, from materials to products, factories to stores, across energy, waste, water, and working conditions, and deliver tools, data reports, and analytics to consumer goods industries professionals and C-Suite leaders.

“We’re at the start of what’s possible,” says Kibbey. “We started with the apparel industry, but our platform can serve other industries effectively and demonstrate that sustainable improvements are good for business. Recognizing there is no single ‘silver bullet’ and businesses are at different points in their impact reduction journeys, we’re also progressively adding new integration capabilities and data sets.”

Higg’s Impact At-a-Glance on Its Second Anniversary
● Higg represents users in 120 countries.
● Higg has seen over 70% user growth since 2019.
● There are more than 45,000 Higg users today.
● More than 500 fashion brands are committed to using the brand & retail tool.
● Manufacturer environmental scores have improved nearly 20% since 2019.
● Nearly 60,000 performance reports shared between supply chain partners since 2019.
● Factories are completing assessments faster — from 250 to 115 days.
● Nearly half of users are sharing assessments with more than one supply chain partner.

Higg is also a signatory to America Is All In, a statement from communities, businesses, and institutions calling on the Biden Administration and the U.S. Congress to prioritize a climate change agenda.

Posted May 25, 2021

Source: Higg

ST. LOUIS — May 25, 2021 — A new Stifel survey indicates that consumers believe it’s important for companies to act sustainably and most are willing to pay a premium for brands that demonstrate ethical business practices, environmental care, and social responsibility. Based on this insight, Stifel is also introducing the “Stifel Sustainable Lifestyle Brands Index,” which ranks brands based on consumer perception of corporate sustainability practices.

Stifel, working with Morning Consult,surveyed 4,756 U.S. active/casual lifestyle brand consumers ages 18-55 and found:

• 83 percent believe it’s important for brands to act sustainably (39 percent consider it “very important”).
• 71 percent report caring more now about buying sustainable products than a year ago, and 58 percent intend to buy fewer products for the sake of sustainability.
• Nearly three-quarters (73 percent) consider sustainability factors when choosing between brands.
• More than two-thirds (67 percent) are willing to pay more for brands with leading sustainability practices, and half (52 percent) regularly opt for more expensive products because they are more sustainable.
• Some of the top sustainability priorities respondents consider “very important” include giving workers fair pay and benefits (60 percent), supporting racial equality (48 percent), and protecting local environments and ecosystems (43 percent).
• Nearly half (46 percent) have either boycotted or stopped buying a brand or product specifically because of sustainability concerns.

“We believe consumer appreciation for sustainable brands is reaching an inflection point,” said Jim Duffy, managing director and Sports and Lifestyle Brands Analyst at Stifel. “The empowered and connected consumer is armed with more available information about products and brands than ever before, and we are seeing increasing emphasis on sustainability in personal values and buying behavior.”

Full survey results can be found here.

Introducing the Stifel Sustainable LifestyleBrands Index

In conjunction with the survey, Stifel is launching the “Stifel Sustainable Lifestyle Brands Index,” which ranks brands based on U.S. active/casual lifestyle consumer perception of brand sustainability practices. Brands were measured according to three metrics of sustainability: environmental,social, and ethical business practices.

Brands with the highest overall score include, in order:

1. Bombas
2. Patagonia
3. The North Face
4. adidas
5. Allbirds
6. Hydro Flask
7. A four-way tiebetween Puma, Rothy’s, YETI, and Columbia.

Newer brands that have staked their brand identity on matters of corporate responsibility and environmental sustainability (Bombas, Allbirds, Rothy’s, and YETI) scored exceptionally well in the Index, indicating effective messaging with the category purchasers in the U.S.

The Index also highlights the evolved sustainability practices and effective communication of leading outdoor brands(Patagonia, The North Face, and Columbia) as well as European athletic lifestyle brands with advanced sustainability initiatives (adidas and Puma).

“Brands will continue to compete on innovation, product quality, customer experience, and value, but sustainability is becoming another key factor in the minds of consumers,” Duffy noted.

Global Insights

The survey also questioned 5,259 additional active/causal lifestyle brand consumers ages18-55 across the UK, Germany, France, Italy, and China. Across all markets, an overwhelming majority of category purchasers say they’re trying to be more sustainable day to day and agree that sustainability’s influence on their purchasing decisions has increased in the last year.

Additional findings include:

• Italy had the highest percentage of category purchasers respond that overall sustainability matters were “very important” to them.
• U.S. consumers are more likely than those in China, but less likely in those surveyed European markets, to consider sustainability as a top purchasing priority when shopping active/casual lifestyle brands.
• In all countries surveyed, most respondents try to learn about a brand’s sustainability practices before buying and admit to purchasing a new product specifically because of sustainability practices.
• German category purchasers showed the greatest willingness to pay a premium for leading sustainability practices, with 76 percent indicating comfort with higher product prices.

“Increasing emphasis on sustainability across the globe underscores the importance for brands to define and communicate sustainability initiatives to an attentive consumer set,” summarized Duffy. “We expect sustainability will prove a source of competitive separation for leading brands in the coming years, while brands that are underinvested will be left behind.”

Survey Methodology

Morning Consult conducted n=10,015 online interviews among active/casual lifestyle brand consumers ages 18-55 in the U.S., UK, Italy, Germany, France, and China from April 16-25, 2021. Interviews in each market were carefully sampled and weighted to be demographically representative for their age groups according to published population statistics for age, gender, region, education, race, and income in the U.S., and age, gender, region, and education in the UK, Italy, Germany, France, and China.

Active/casual lifestyle brand consumers are defined as those who purchased at least one of the following types of brands within the past six months: athletic or activewear clothing or footwear brands; casual lifestyle clothing or footwear brands; outdoor clothing or footwear brands (i.e., for hiking, skiing, etc.); or sporting goods or outdoor recreation equipment brands.

Sustainable Lifestyle Brand Index Methodology

Stifel and Morning Consult measured sustainability ratings for 50 active/casual lifestyle brands with leading sustainability practices among n=4,756 active/casual lifestyle brand consumers in the U.S. Active/casual lifestyle brands were measured according to three metrics of sustainability: environmental sustainability, ethical business practices, and social sustainability. Index scores for each of these metrics were calculated according to the following methodology, and then averaged together to compute the overall Sustainable Lifestyle Brand Index Score.

Calculations for each brand focus on those who selected a response on Stifel’s four-point scale,excluding those who selected “Don’t know/No Opinion.” Raw scores were calculated for each brand by adding value for positive ratings and subtracting value for negative ratings. “Excellent” and “Poor” were given twice the weight of “Good” and “Just fair” to ensure more polarized views were reflected in the scores. Finally, raw scores were converted to index scores, where the average score for each metric is indexed to 100. This ensures Stifel’s three metrics are uniform, and have equal weight when averaged together to compute the overall Sustainable Lifestyle Brand Index Score.

Posted May 25, 2021

Source: Stifel