WAKEFIELD – Our host Philip Berman speaks with Jeremy Lardeau, senior VP of the Higg Index at Cascale, and Quentin Thorel, group head of sustainability for CIEL Textile, for our latest podcast.
The first of a four part series, brought to you in association with Cascale – the new name of the Sustainable Apparel Coalition, features a discussion on the importance of ‘measuring for impact’.
Lardeau begins by explaining how the organisation’s new name is a combination of ‘CA’ for collective action and ‘scale’ representing the size of the challenge.
After hearing this rebrand was partly to enable a move into “adjacent industries”, such as outdoor equipment and home textiles, Berman asks whether this was aimed at reducing impacts or increasing revenues.
"We have many members already operating in these adjacent product verticals. And so this extension is just natural, organic and we're not looking at it as a trigger for revenue expansion," replies Lardeau
CIEL Textile, which supplies brands including Ralph Lauren, Levi's, Calvin Klein and Lacoste, has used two Higg tools – the Facility Environmental Module (FEM) and the Facility Social & Labor Module (FSLM) – since 2019.
Listeners hear that by 2022, the company was achieving an average FEM score of 88.4% across its 19 manufacturing facilities in Madagascar, Mauritius, India and Bangladesh – with some exceeding 90%.
Thorel tells Berman: “Thanks to the FEM. We have developed a common language across the group. Because we operate in four different countries, the understanding of a topic might be different.
“It is easier now to do benchmarking on factory performance. It's easier for us at group level to define who is doing well on which aspect and to extend the best practices of one factory to others.”
Lardeau comments: “I just want to commend Ciel, that's a really high score. To give you some perspective, the average FEM score typically hangs around 50, or just under, so those are really good scores.”
Berman and his guests go on to discuss the importance of impact measurement in enabling the fashion industry to meet its CO2 targets and ensure decent work for all. To hear the full podcast CLICK HERE.
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