Kontoor Brands, Inc., a global lifestyle apparel company led by two of the world's most iconic consumer brands, Wrangler® and Lee®, announced a new supply chain coalition of denim leaders to improve critical data incorporated into the Higg Material Sustainability Index (MSI), the apparel industry's most widely used tool for measuring and assessing the environmental impact of products.

Arvind Limited, leading lifestyle and fashion conglomerate, and Cone Denim, a global leader in denim authenticity and sustainable innovation, will provide key data from the denim dying process that is not currently considered into the Higg MSI as part of these efforts. The firms intend to launch the updated Higg MSI tool for all apparel brands by summer 2022.

Jeremy Lardeau, VP Higg Index at the Sustainable Apparel Coalition, said that the Higg MSI is the most comprehensive tool on the market for evaluating the environmental impact of apparel and footwear materials, and it was designed to evolve as new data became available, assisting in the shift of the industry at scale. They're delighted to bring denim-dyeing process impacts to the Higg tool for usage by all garment companies.

The Higg MSI, which was launched a decade ago, assists designers and product developers in making more sustainable material selection decisions and can assess the implications of various materials, trims, and packaging of garment products. The tool is based on generally acknowledged, science-based data and metrics and is designed to measure environmental effects throughout the manufacturing process. The Higg MSI assesses environmental effects in five areas: global warming potential, pollution in water, chemistry, water scarcity, and fossil fuel depletion.

Dhruv Agarwal, Senior Director of Global Innovation, Sustainability, and Product Development at Kontoor Brands, said that data-driven decisions yield the best results. They believe the Higg MSI is an essential instrument for measuring the environmental impact of their products' processes and components. Through this work, their industry will have a more complete view of denim's impact, and their product development teams will have a better understanding of their products' environmental footprint, allowing them to make more sustainable design decisions.

Kontoor, Arvind, and Cone are dedicated to expanding on the denim-related information contained within the Higg suite of tools in order to standardize metrics of value chain sustainability and provide better transparency to apparel firms during product design and development.

Steve Maggard, president of Cone Denim, said that they’re delighted to investigate and enhance tools and resources, such as the Higg MSI, that fit with their customers' aims to design and make sustainable clothes. They appreciate the opportunity to work with like-minded firms, such as Kontoor, to improve supply chain transparency. Cone Denim has made significant capital expenditures in their manufacturing to create responsible and sustainable products, and they look forward to seeing the benefits of their endeavours.