Wool industry body welcomes Higg suspension
Promotions body for Australian merino wool, The Woolmark Company, has said it welcomes the news that the Sustainable Apparel Coalition (SAC) is pausing the use of consumer-facing labels based on information from the Higg Materials Sustainability Index after the Norwegian Consumer Authority concluded these labels can mislead consumers.
“For years we have had significant concerns about the SAC’s Higg Index methodology and its inability to represent a level playing field for clothing made from different fibre types,” The Woolmark Company said.
It explained that it had funded a study of the Higg MSI in 2019, leading to a peer-reviewed paper in the journal Sustainability. “Since then, modifications to Higg methodology have become less visible, hidden behind a paywall and unavailable for public review and critique,” the wool industry body said.
It said wool was the only fibre type to have undertaken and published in peer-reviewed literature a full cradle-to-grave lifecycle assessment study. It said the main purpose of the study was to help the wool industry identify and address the environmental hotspots in its supply chain.
