Higg Facility Environmental Module (Higg FEM) Version 3.0
The Higg Facility Environmental Module (Higg FEM) is a sustainability assessment tool that standardizes how facilities measure and evaluate their environmental performance, year over year.
The Higg FEM is designed to:
- Measure and quantify the sustainability impacts of a facility
- Reduce redundancy in measuring and reporting sustainability performance
- Drive business value through reducing risk and uncovering efficiencies
- Create a common language and system to communicate sustainability to stakeholders
The Higg FEM Measures:
- Environmental Management Systems
- Energy / GHG
- Water Use
- Wastewater
- Air Emissions
- Waste
- Chemicals Management
Higg FEM Consists of three sections:
- Continuous Improvement Sections:
- Know your sources
- Know major drivers of use
- Baseline your performance
- Set targets and action plan
- Demonstrate reductions
- Demonstrate leading practice
- Pollutant Limits
- Know your sources and volumes
- Know quality of pollutants (permit/standard)
- Control quality / take specific actions
- Demonstrate leading practice (best available
- equipment, aspirational standard)
- Management Sections
- Have right staff in place
- Adhere to the rules (regulations, laws, brand requirements)
- Have long-term, holistic strategies and action plans in place
- Take specific management actions (e.g., storage, handling, maintain equipment, etc.)
- Demonstrate leading practice (e.g., engage upstream and with community, innovation, deep traceability)
The Higg Environmental Management System (EMS) section requires you to:
- Identify staff responsible for coordinating environmental management activities and ensure technical competence
- Identify significant environmental impacts associated with current operations
- Set a long-term environmental management strategy
- Develop a system to ensure compliance with all laws, regulations, standards, codes and other legislative and regulatory requirements
- Continuously maintain all factory equipment
- Engage facility leadership and workers on environmental strategy and performance
- Engage with subcontractors and upstream suppliers on environmental performance using the Higg Index
- Engage with local stakeholders on environmental performance improvements
- Mostly Yes/No questions
- Some “Partial Yes” answer options in this section (guidance in the question hint and How to Higg guide)
- Some supporting documentation uploads are required for answering “Yes” or “Partial Yes” to a question – required uploads will be marked with:
The Higg Energy and GHG section requires you to:
- Track all energy and fuel sources and report quantity used in the last calendar year
- Identify which factors contribute most to energy use on site (e.g., machines, processes, or operations that use the most energy)
- Set a normalized baseline for energy use, such as “80 MJ per unit of production in 2016”
- Set normalized targets for energy reduction, such as “Reduce energy used per unit of production by 70% in 2020.”
- Set an action plan with specific actions and strategies to achieve energy reduction targets
- Demonstrate energy reductions against the baseline, such as “Last year we used 60 MJ per unit of production which is a 25% annual reduction.”
The Higg Water section requires you to:
- Track all water sources and report quantity used in the last calendar year
- Identify which factors require the most water use on site (e.g., machines, processes, or operations that use the most water)
- Set a normalized baseline for water use, such as “20 cubic meters per unit of production in 2016”
- Set normalized targets for water reduction, such as “Reduce water used per unit of production by 70% in 2020”
- Set an action plan with specific actions and strategies to achieve water reduction targets
- Demonstrate water reductions against the baseline such as “Last year we used 15 cubic meters per unit of production which is a 25% annual reduction.”
The Higg Waste section requires you to:
- Track all hazardous and non-hazardous waste streams
- Report the volume generated and disposal method for all waste streams
- Segregate, properly store, and train workers to handle all hazardous and non-hazardous waste streams
- Forbid open burning and dumping of waste on-site and properly control any onsite incineration
- Set normalized baselines for waste generated (e.g., generated 20 kgs of domestic waste per production unit in 2016) and disposal methods (e.g., landfilled 80% of domestic waste in 2016)
- Set normalized targets for waste reductions and improvements to disposal methods
- Set an action plan with specific actions and strategies to achieve waste reduction targets
- Demonstrate waste reductions against the baseline such as “Last year we generated 16 kgs of domestic waste per unit of production which is a 20% annual reduction since 2016.”
- Leading practice: Divert at least 90 percent of all discarded materials from landfills, incinerators and the environment
- Leading practice: Upcycle waste by transforming waste materials into new materials or products of better quality or for better environmental value.
The Higg Wastewater section requires you to:
- Track quantity of wastewater generated from industrial and/or domestic operations (not applicable for factories with only domestic wastewater)
- Report all wastewater quality parameters that were found to not meet permits or industry standard(s), such as the ZDHC Wastewater Guideline, in the most recent quality test
- Report name and quality results from the offsite wastewater treatment plant (if applicable)
- Describe backup process if regular treatment fails (if applicable)
- Ensure proper sludge disposal (if applicable)
- Report whether your site reuses and/or recycles process wastewater as process water (if applicable)
The Higg Air Emissions section requires you to:
- Track quantity of emissions from facility operations and refrigeration
- If you use refrigerants on-site you will be asked to specify which refrigerants are used. These refrigerants will factor into your GHG emission calculations.
- Track quantity of emissions from production processes
- List control devices / abatement processes and monitoring frequency for operating and refrigeration emissions.
- List control devices / abatement processes and monitoring frequency for production emissions.
- Specify achievements of advanced performance in Nitrogen Oxides (NOx), Sulfur Oxides (SOx) and Particulate Matter (PM)
- Specify whether your facility has a process for modernizing equipment to improve air emissions.
The chemicals management section will ask about basic and advanced practices in the following areas:
- Chemicals management policies, compliance procedures, and commitments
- Employee training and communication
- Chemical procurement and purchasing practices
- Chemical handling, use, and storage practices
- Chemical inventory management
- Emergency Response Plan (ERP), accidents and spills remediation plan
- Product quality and integrity
- Chemicals and process innovation
