Non-SAC Member Facility Higg Index Guide: Overview

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1 Non-SAC Member Facility Higg Index Guide: Overview The Higg Index is an online self-assessment tool developed by the Sustainable Apparel Coalition, that standardizes the measurement of environmental and social impacts in the apparel, footwear, and home textiles industry. The Higg Index is now the standard sustainability reporting tool, already used by over 5000 manufacturers globally, eliminating the need for duplicative self-assessments. Note: If you are a manufacturer but not in the apparel, footwear, or home textiles industry, you may still be required to complete the Higg Index if requested by your customer. Some companies are using the Higg Index with manufacturers in other industries as well because the tool comprehensively measures environmental and social impacts across facilities. In order to successfully start, complete, and share your 2016 assessment, you will need to follow all of the steps outlined below: 1. REGISTER for a Higg Index account by going to Higg.org and clicking Register Here Either find an existing account to be added to, or create a new account You will get limited access to the Higg Index until your user profile is validated. Validation may take 1-2 business days. 2. CREATE A PROFILE for each individual facility you intend to complete a Higg module for Make sure the facility name you enter matches the facility name your customers have on file For facilities you own: Create a profile for each facility under your account For facilities you work with but do not own: Ask each facility to create their own Higg account and profiles, and instruct them to connect with you and your customer 3. PAYMENT Every individual facility is required to pay a fee of $85 USD once per year, which covers maintaining your data on the Higg Index platform. You can pay by credit card or generate an invoice to pay by wire transfer 4. CONNECT with each of your customers that you wish to share your assessment with. If you do not connect with your customer, they will not be able to see your Higg Index results. Both you and your connection need to accept the connection to be able to view each other s Higg Index modules 5. COMPLETE YOUR MODULE: Once you have completed steps 1-4 you can begin your Higg Index assessment (called a Module ) for each facility. Select the Environment or Social/Labor Module from the Quick Start menu on your dashboard 6. POST your module once you have completed all the questions in the assessment in order to share it with your connections Your module must be posted for your customer to view your Higg assessment results Training & Support If you need help while using the Higg Index, please contact support@apparelcoalition.org. There are a number of resources on the Higg Index website to help you use the tool. Find to the Training & Support link at the top right of the higg.org webpage, which takes you to a resource library of guides, training videos as well as the recommended How to Higg Manual which is translated into 5 different languages. We appreciate your effort as we work to enable an efficient and sustainable supply chain across the apparel, footwear, and home textiles industry and beyond.

2 Higg Index Guide 1: Setting up your Account and Profiles Step 1: Register for your Higg Index Account: If this is your first time using the Higg Index, you will need to register for a new account. To register for a new account go to Higg.org and click on Register Here. If you know your company is already listed in the Higg Index, or you are not sure if it is, you can search by the facility name to see if there is already an account created for it by someone else. If you find the company/facility name, click on it and hit Next. You will need to fill out the form fully and hit Submit Registration. This will notify all the primary users on the Higg account that you are trying to access the account. They will be notified to approve your registration. You will not be able to access the account until they approve you but you will still get limited access to the Higg Index, be able to set up profiles, and start a module. If your company/facility does not yet exist in the Higg Index database, you will need to Add It by filling out and submitting a registration form. Note: It may take up to 1-2 business days to be approved for your Higg Index account, but you will immediately get limited access to the Higg Index, be able to set up profiles, and start a module. Once your account is validated, you will be notified by . Search for an existing account Add a new Company Account

3 Step 2: Set up your Higg Index Profiles Once you have access to your Higg Index account, the next step is to set up your Facility Profile. To get started, go to the Account Profile tab at the top of the page, then select the Facility Profiles tab, and select Add New Profile. Please proceed to fill out the new profile form for every individual facility you own and plan to report on (e.g. if you own 3 facilities, you would create 3 separate facility profiles) Note: Please make sure the facility name you enter matches the facility name your customers have in their records. Note: Please only create facility profiles for facilities you own. If you do not own a facility, but work directly with it, please instruct them to follow Steps 1 and 2 to create their own Higg Account and Facility Profile and connect with you and the appropriate customers inside the tool. **If you are a Sourcing Agent, Vendor Rep, or Trading Company please do NOT create profiles or complete Modules for other facilities unless you own them. Facilities should create their own Accounts, Profiles, & Modules. Adding Users to Your Account To add additional users to your account, go to Account Profile and select the User Profiles tab. Click Add New User Profiles and complete the form. The new user will receive a notification to access your Higg Index account by

4 Higg Index Guide 2: Paying for Facilities All manufacturers using the Higg Index who are not SAC members are required to pay an annual Higg access fee for every facility profile within their account. This fee covers the cost of maintaining data on the Higg Index platform, allowing you to complete Higg Modules, connect with your customers, and benchmark your performance. Completing Payment for Your Facilities You will be prompted to pay USD $85 for each facility once you create your facility profile(s) in higg.org. If you have existing facility profiles that are due for payment, all the users in your account will receive notifications reminding them that they have facilities are about to expire and require payment. To pay your annual Higg access fee, please log into higg.org where you will see the following notification on your screen: Click on the Account Profile > Facility Profile link, which will take you to the Facility Profiles page. Select the facilities that are about to expire or listed as Inactive to submit payment for each (you can pay for multiple facilities all at once or separately) Select Pay Now to pay by credit card Select Generate Invoice if you prefer to pay manually by wire transfer or check o Note that an additional $25 USD processing fee is included for all wire transfer and check payments due to manual processing expenses. You can pay by credit card to avoid this fee. o Checks under $300 from countries outside the United States cannot be accepted due to banking requirements. Please pay by credit card or bank transfer if paying for only 1-3 facilities. o No refunds will be given for check or wire payments. Overpayment will result in credit towards an additional year of Higg.org access. If payment is not processed within 30 days of expiration, you will no longer be able to post modules, your customers will no longer see your Higg modules, and you will not be able to connect with anyone until payment is received. This short video shows how to process payments in higg.org:

5 Higg Index Guide 3: Connecting with your Business Partners You ve registered for an account, set up your profile(s), and paid your annual Higg fee! Now, the next step is to connect with the customers and supply chain partners you wish to share your Higg Index assessment with. If you do not connect with your customer, they will not be able to see your Higg Index results. Step 1: Sending an invitation to connect To connect with anyone within the Higg Index, go to the Connections tab and follow these steps: Search for the name of the company you are trying to connect with using the search bar, then hit Apply Filter. Look through the list of Accounts that show up and find the name of the company you are searching for, then select the checkbox to the right of their company name and information. Go to the top of the page and click on the Action for selected dropdown menu, and select Add Connection, then click Go. This will send a notification to the other account contacts that you are requesting to connect. They must accept the request for you to be able to view each others Higg Index information Step 2: Accepting connection requests Your supply chain partners may also be trying to connect with you inside the Higg Index. To check who is requesting to connect with you, go to the red handshake symbol at the top of your Higg Account. Review the list of pending connections, and simply select Accept for those you recognize and would like to connect with, or Reject for those you do not wish to connect with.

6 Higg Index Guide 4: Completing your Higg Module You have registered for an account, set up your profile(s), paid your annual Higg fee and connected with your customers! Now you can now begin completing your Higg Index Facility Module (assessment). Step 1: Starting your module Go to the Dashboard tab, find the Quick Start: Higg Index Tools section, and select the module you would like to complete If you are a manufacturer, you may be asked to complete just the Facility Environment Module, or the Facility Social/Labor Module, or both. If you re not certain which module to complete, please check with your customer. Note: If you are not an apparel/textile supplier, you are still expected to fill out this module if requested by your customer. Disregard the apparel/footwear text and apply the question to your type of facility. Once you select the module, fill out the sections that pop up to get started: Module Name, the current year, and select the facility the module is for. Then hit Start. 1 2 Step 2: Things to note while filling out your Higg Module: Click through all the tabs and answer all the questions. The sections on the left-side menu will turn from red to blue once you answer them completely. You will not be able to post your module until you have answered all the questions. If you are unsure about what the question is asking, you can click on the More Info link right below that question to get a more detailed explanation on the question and answer guidance. Make sure to hit Save at the bottom of the page every time you complete questions. Note: Use the How to Higg Manual to help guide you through the questions of the Facility Module. This manual is located in the Training & Support page and is translated into 5 languages (English, Chinese, Vietnamese, Spanish, and Bahasa).

7 Higg Index Guide 5: Posting Your Higg Module Congratulations, you ve registered for an account, set up your profile, paid your annual Higg fee, connected with your customers and completed your Higg module! The next step is to post your module. By posting your module, you allow companies that are connected with you to see your Higg module results. To post your module, go to the top of your module, then: Find the Posted section, and click on the No to change the status A pop up will come up, click on the Posted checkbox and click save Another pop up will come up asking if you are sure you would like to post, click Yes and your module will be successfully posted and your customers will be able to view your assessment now. The Posted section at the top of your module should now say Yes Note: Your module must be posted for your customer to view your Higg assessment 1 2 Editing your Module: If you realize you have made an error in your module after posting, you can still edit your module s information until May 31, To edit a posted module: Go back to the Posted field at the top of the module and click on the Yes Uncheck the Posted checkbox and click Save Return to the section of the module you need to edit and update the information, then hit save Once complete, be sure to re-post your module by going through the steps at the top of this page. If you do not re-post your module, your customer will not see your updated module. You can see all your modules and their status by clicking the Modules tab at any time.

8 Higg Index Guide 6: Analyzing and Benchmarking Your Results To View Your Posted Module Data Go to the Module tab at the top of the screen Click the Choose Module dropdown menu and select the module type you want to view the data for. Note: to download module data you must only select one module type at a time (e.g. Facility Modules: Environment). If you have multiple module types selected the system will not be able to pull the data. You can also filter by module Status and Year, or choose to show module scores broken down by Section (check the Section checkbox). Then click apply filter You can download high-level score results into an excel spreadsheet by hitting the Grid link You can do a full module data download of all module results by selecting the checkbox on the right side of the table (this selects all your modules listed. You can also select a specific module from the list and click the checkbox to the right of it). Then click the Module Data (Selected) link and the full excel document will be ed to you. This may take a few minutes. Note: If you are downloading Facility Environment Module data, you can use this excel macro to analyze your results more easily (click Download at the top of the page).

9 Benchmarking All Higg users have access to basic score benchmarking within the Higg Index Platform. You can benchmark any of your posted module score results against the aggregated median scores of all other posted modules in the database. To view benchmarking: Go to the Benchmarking tab and select the Module type (for example, Facility Modules: Environment) you would like to benchmark from the tabs below. You can filter by the module year by clicking on the dropdown menu on the right side and hitting apply filter. The results shown are the aggregated scores for each of the module sections from everyone who has posted that type of module in the selected year. If you have a posted module you d like to benchmark against the aggregate results, you can select it from the Benchmark a Specific Module section and then click apply filter. You can only do this if the module year of your module matches the module year you are filtering the benchmark results on.

10 Higg Index Checklist To successfully complete your Higg Index assessment, please make sure you have completed all of the following: Registered for a Higg Index Account Set up individual Facility Profiles for each facility you are reporting on Paid your $85 Higg facility fee for each facility Connected with your customers and supply chain partners Completed all the questions within the requested Facility Module (Environment or Social/Labor) Posted your module so your connections can view your results Analyzed your score results