SUSTAINABILITY INDICATORS

Measuring the immeasurable

Deepali Pandit | Prince Dogra | Varun Sindhia | BFT - 6

TRIPLE BOTTOM LINE THEORY

Sustainability Indicators

3. Economic Indicators

2. Environmental Indicators

1. Social Indicators

2.1 Input Indicators

3.1 Financial Indicators

2.2 Output Indicators

1.1 Employees Indicators

2.1.3 Material use Indicators

2.1.2 Water use Indicators

2.1.1 Energy use Indicators

2.2.3 Liquid Waste Indicator

2.2.2 Solid Waste Indicator

2.2.1 Product Indicator

2.2.4 Air Emissions Indicator

CRITERIA FOR SELECTING INDICATOR

• Desired outcomeSpecific• Quantitative mannerMeasurable• Practical & LocalizedPedagogical• Change with circumstanceSensitive• Systematic methodReliable• Regularity and timingData accessibility• Costing and benefitCost effectiveness• Clear definition Relevant & usable

SUSTAINABILITY AND APPAREL INDUSTRY

INPUT OUTPUT

EnergyMaterialWater

ProductsSolid waste Liquid wasteAir Emissions

The Sustainable Apparel Coalition is the apparel, footwear and home textile industry’s foremost alliance for sustainable production. The Coalition’s main focus is on building the Higg Index, a standardized supply chain measurement tool for all industry participants to understand the environmental and social and labor impacts of making and selling their products and services.

PLANET • Fresh water consumption: Total water consumed – recycled water used Products sold (kg) or dollar value

• Energy use: Total energy consumed – renewable energy used Products sold (kg) or dollar value

- Renewable energy fraction- Specific energy consumption- Energy Intensity

• Global warming potential: Global warming potential in tons of CO2 equivalent per year – Offset (if any)

• Percent of biodegradable packaging: Weight of biodegradable packaging Product Weight of total Packaging product

• Percent of products designed for disassembly, reuse or recycling.

Number of products designed for disassembly, reuse or recycling Total number of Product

MATERIAL INDICATOR

• Product Indicator:

• Mass fraction of products from recyclable materials : Mass fraction of products from recyclable materials Total mass of Products

• Mass fraction of products with an environmental label: Mass of products with environmental labels Total mass of products

AIR EMISSION INDICATOR

• Mass fraction of recyclable solid waste : Mass of recyclable solid waste Total mass of solid waste • Mass fraction of Hazardous solid waste: Mass of hazardous solid waste Total mass of solid waste

• Pollution mass concentration in liquid waste: Polluted liquid waste volume Total volume of liquid waste

The criteria for the sustainability assessment of the company have to reflect six aspects:

– Resource use aspect– Product aspect– Environment aspect– Economic aspect– Quality aspect– Social aspect

Social aspect is well explained as “PEOPLE” in TBL.

PEOPLE "People“ refer to social dimensions of a community or region and could include

measurements of education, equity and access to social resources, health and well-being, quality of life, and social capital.

Indicators that might be used include:

• Rate of complaints and how they have been addressed• Number of corruption charges or industrial relations actions• Number of safety incidents and environmental accidents with an impact on the

community or workers• Record of human rights and child labour complaints• Employee turnover rates and costs• Customer satisfaction (via surveys or tracking feedback and complaints)• Number of community consultations, number of attendees, issues raised and addressed• Number of and outcomes from community engagement initiatives• Level of contribution to charities – donations and/or employee days contributed• Column inches in local or state newspapers (and whether it was good or bad).

• Specific employee number Total number of employee Production in units

• Employee Turnover Number of employees who have resigned Total number of employee

• Payment Ratio The salary of the upper 10% of employees The salary of the lower 10% of employees

• Fraction of workers satisfied with their work: Number of employees satisfied with their work Total number of employees• Promotion rate: Number of promotions Total number employed• Time of employee illness: Time of lost workdays because of injuries and illnesses

• Ratio of female employee: Number of female in the firm Total number of employee

• Fraction of Charitable contribution: Charitable contributions to the community Total revenues

• Number of community projects:Number of projects of the company with its community.

• Mass fraction of local Consumption: Mass of locally consumed products Total output mass of products

PROFIT • In the Triple Bottom Line approach, • Economic sustainability is not the traditional corporate capital but also

the environmental and human capital.• Economic capital must be measured in terms of how much impact of

business on its economic environment. The business that strengthens the economy, that will continue to succeed in the future.

• Of course, a business needs to be aware of its traditional profits, and the Triple Bottom Line accounts for this as well.

Economic variables ought to be variables that deal with the bottom line and the flow of money. It could look at income or expenditures, taxes, business climate factors, employment, and business diversity factors. Specific examples include:• Personal income• Inventory turn• Establishment cost• Cost of goods sold• Job growth• Employment distribution by sector• Percentage of firms in each sector• Revenue by sector contributing to gross state product

• Value of investments in sustainable development: Investments in sustainable R&D as fraction of the expenses of the company.

• Value of investments in environmental protection: Investments of company in environmental protection.

• Total revenue generated• Net sales (in dollar)• Turnover of the firm for year • Total Profit generated by the firm • Number of sustainable environmental reports Yearly: Number of positive/negative paper reports on environmental and social activity of the company.

• Number of contract breaks: Number of contract breaks with suppliers because of disagreement with environmental standards.

• Investments in employee development: Investments in employee’s education and professional/personal development.

• Time of employee education: Average time of education per employee.

• Costs of health protection of employee: Total costs of health protection of employee.

THE HIGG INDEX • The Higg Index is the heart of the SAC. • It is a groundbreaking suite of self-assessment tools empowers brands, retailers

and facilities of all sizes, at every stage in their sustainability journey, to measure their environmental and social impacts and identify areas for improvement.

• Delivering a holistic picture of sustainability performance, The Higg Index helps drive transformative change.

• Assesses product-specific impacts based on the lifecycle impacts of raw materials and the materials efficiency of product designs.

Product module

• Assesses policies and practices that demonstrate sustainability leadership at a brand or company level.

Brand module

• Assesses practices at individual supplier facilities involved in manufacturing fabrics, assembling apparel, and creating packaging materials.

Facility module

• The Higg Index is a suite of self-assessment tools, called Modules, designed to measure the sustainability impacts of apparel and footwear products across the value chain at the brand, product and facility levels.

• Verification of responses: SAC is considering developing a Higg Index verification process/protocol.

• In The Higg Index each section in each Module is given a specific weighting to calculate the total score. Assigned weights for all sections are based on SAC member input to enable consistent benchmarking and comparison.

• In higg index there are no performance threshholds for evaluating scores, certainly reported data is required. It is up to each organization to determine how to interpret the score.

BRAND MODULE – SOCIAL LABOR

Brand module – Environmental

FACILITY MODULE – ENVIRONMENT

FACILITY MODULE – SOCIAL LABOR