FEM 2024 - Site Information

Table of Contents

1. Sitecountry
2. Sipfacilitytype
3. Sipproductcategories
4. Sipmaterialtype
5. Sipindustrysector
6. Sipoperatingdays
7. Siptotalnumemployees
8. Siptotalnumemployees Verification And Scoring
9. Sipfacilityannualprodvol
10. Sipfacilityannualprodvol Verification And Scoring
11. Sipfacilityindustrialzone
12. Sipfreshwaterpretreatused
13. Sipfreshwaterpretreatused Verification And Scoring
14. Sipindustryprograms
15. Sipindustryprograms Verification And Scoring
16. Sipaudit
17. Sipapprovedtraining
18. Sipapprovedtraining Verification And Scoring
19. Sipincludedindiscolsure
20. Sipincludedindiscolsure Verification And Scoring
21. Sip_Has_Osh_Id
22. Sip_Has_Osh_Id Verification And Scoring
23. Sip_Is_Part_Of_Group
24. Sip_Is_Part_Of_Group Verification And Scoring

Sitecountry

Country or Region

1. Select the country or region in which your facility is located.

Sipfacilitytype

Facility Types

1. Select your facility type(s) from these options. Based on the selection(s), you will then see additional questions for product categories, materials used, facility processes, and industry sector.
   1. Finished Product Assembler
      1. Finished goods production/ final product assembly
   2. Finished Product Processing
      1. Printing and dyeing of materials, including wet processing, and laundering
   3. Component / Sub-Assembly Manufacturing (including Packaging)
      1. Label, zipper, snap, button, elastic buggie, cardboard
   4. Material Production
      1. Fabric dye-house, fabric manufacturer, yarn dyeing, PCB manufacturer, Hardgoods: Metal pieces, wooden laminates, metal plating
   5. Raw Material Processing
      1. Yarn spinning Hardgoods: foundry, metal processing, plastic injection
   6. Raw Material Collection & Bulk Refining
      1. Cotton farming and ginning, processing of bottles, fabric scrap, etc. into new recycled materials, forestry, mining, crude oil refinery
2. If you are a facility with more than one type, you should select all that apply. For example:
   1. If you are a vertically integrated facility with cut and sew operations as well as wet processing (e.g., dyeing) you will select both “Final Product Assembler” and “Finished Product Processing”
   2. If you are a hardgoods facility that assembles final product and manufactures hard components on site, you will select both “Final Product Assembler” and “Component / Sub-Assembly Manufacturing (including Packaging)”

Sipproductcategories

Product Categories

1. Select all the applicable product categories from the list. Based on the selection(s), you will then see additional questions for more details about the specific products you manufacture.
2. This question is only applicable to facilities that selected the following as their facility type(s):
   1. Finished Product Assembler
   2. Finished Product Processing

Sipmaterialtype

Material Types

1. Select all the applicable material categories from the list. Based on the selection(s), you will then see additional questions for more details about the specific materials you use.
2. This question is only applicable to facilities that selected the following as their facility type(s):
   1. Component / Sub-Assembly Manufacturing (incl Packaging)
   2. Material Production
   3. Raw Material Processing

Sipindustrysector

Industry Sector

1. Select all the applicable industry sectors from the list. Industry sector refers to the industry which the facility makes products or materials for.
2. Packaging manufacturers that supply packaging materials should select “Other” as their facility type.

Sipoperatingdays

1. How many days did your facility operate in this reporting year? (Ref ID - sipoperatingdays)

Enter a total number (not a range) of days that the facility operated in the reporting year. Operating days are considered days when production and/or production related activities (e.g. product/raw material loading/shipment) were conducted at the facility.  Any operating day where the number of hours in operation OR the number of workers is less than 50%, then count the day as 0.5 day. Where the number of hours in operation OR the number of workers is greater than 50%, then count the day as 1 day.

For Higg FEM Verification, it is recommended that summaries of operating data be available in a format that is easy to review [e.g., spreadsheet (e.g., Microsoft Excel) or similar data analytics program that allows export of data in a human readable format (e.g., Excel, csv)] and any relevant supporting evidence be readily available for review. 

Siptotalnumemployees

2. Total Number of Employees: (Ref ID - siptotalnumemployees)

Enter the average number (not a range) of full-time and temporary employees that worked at the facility in this reporting year.  The calculation guidance below applies for both full-time and temporary employees.

How To Track Facility Data:

Facilities should establish a process to track the number of workers in each pay period (e.g. weekly, bi-weekly, monthly). The average number of employees (full-time or temporary) can then be determined using the following guidance:

1. Add the total number of employees your facility paid in all pay periods during the year.
2. Count the number of pay periods your facility had during the year. 
3. Divide the number of employees by the number of pay periods.
4. Round the answer to the next highest whole number to get the annual average number of employees 

For example:

• Pay period 1: 520 employees
• Pay period 2: 525 employees
• Pay period 3: 545 employees
• Average number of employees: 530 [(520+525+545)/3]

Note: The same calculation methodology should be applied for full-time and temporary employees.

For Higg FEM Verification, it is recommended that summaries of this data be available in a format that is easy to review [e.g., spreadsheet (e.g., Microsoft Excel) or similar data analytics program that allows export of data in a human readable format (e.g., Excel, csv)] and any relevant supporting evidence be readily available for review. 

Siptotalnumemployees Verification And Scoring

How This Will Be Verified:

Documentation Required: 

• Payroll/accounting records that show the number of each worker category (full-time and temporary) in each pay period.
• Payroll/accounting records that show the number of pay periods in the reporting year. 

Sipfacilityannualprodvol

3. What was your facility's annual volume?(Ref ID - sipfacilityannualprodvol)

Facilities will be required to complete a table to provide the following information on their annual production volume in the FEM reporting year for each applicable facility type:

• Facility Type (This will be pre-populated based on the selected facility types)
• Annual Quantity
• Unit of Measure (This will be pre-populated based on the selected facility types)
  • Note: Annual production volume, must be input in the predefined unit of measure listed in the FEM (e.g., kg or pieces/pairs). If the facility uses a different unit to track production volume, this must be converted into the unit of measure listed in the FEM. 
• Annual Quantity (Additional Option)
• Unit of Measure (Additional Option)

Note: The additional options for reporting annual quantity and unit of measure are provided to allow for reporting of annual production in different units from a predefined list of units of measure for each facility type. 

Reporting Production Volume in the FEM

Facilities should report the total amount of product shipped/sold in the FEM reporting year.

Note: For facilities that have multiple facility types (e.g., Finished product assembler and finished product processing) the volume of final products shipped/sold should be reported under the Finished Product Assembler facility type, and the volume of products processed through the processing facility should be reported under the Finished Product Processing facility type. For example:

• A cut and sew operation with printing processes ships 100,000 pcs and processes 2,000 kg of garments through its printing processes should report annual volume as follows:
  • Finished Product Assembler: 100,000 pcs
  • Finished Product Processing: 2,000 kg

Note: This reporting logic applies to other facility type combinations as well where applicable. 

Note: Total amount of product shipped/sold should not include the total amount of rejects in the last calendar year. 

Why does the FEM use shipped/ sold quantity instead of annual production output?

The main rationale is to create a consistent production metric that all facilities are able to track and the data are more comparable for industry benchmarking at the end. Besides, using shipped/ sold amount as the metric is to discourage excessive or unnecessary production including leftovers, semi-products, samples and rejects which are also an environmental concern.

We understand that some products may have to be shipped / sold after the calendar year that they are actually manufactured. The limitation of using shipped/ sold quantity is - the reported energy, water and waste amounts are not covering the products being made in the same calendar year but shipped in the following year, instead they would cover some products which are shipped in the same year but actually being produced in the previous year. By considering this as a usual practice in the factory every year, the impact to the total shipped/ sold quantity should be relatively limited. However, if there is any exceptional case that may cause a significant impact on the environmental performance of the facility (e.g. demonstrate improved energy / water consumption), we encourage the factories to communicate to relative stakeholders to explain their situation if needed.

Reporting Standard Allowed Minutes in the FEM

For some facility types, additional production volume reporting options allow facilities to report in Standard Allowed Minute (SAM) which is a metric that provides an indicator of the time allowed to produce a product by workers including general allowances (e.g., efficiency, machine, personal, fatigue allowances, etc.). The guidance below provides an overview and examples how SAM can be determined.  

Different products utilize different amounts of time and resources during production which will in turn influence resource consumption (i.e., energy, water used, etc.). SAM can be used as a production metric to relate resources consumption and the environmental impact to different types of products or be added together and used as a metric to normalize resource consumption and environmental impacts for production over a period of time (e.g., a calendar year). It should be noted that the SAM will vary by the type of product (e.g. shorts versus a jacket).  

Year on year, tracking of SAM against energy, water and other parameters can allow facilities to review the efficiency of resource consumption and help inform performance improvement.

When reporting production volume in SAM, the user must report the TOTAL SUM of SAM for the reporting year and not the INDIVIDUAL SAM for each product type that is manufactured in your facility. 

Once individual SAM values are known for a specific product, the product SAM can be multiplied by the number of products shipped / sold. This is done across all product types / categories and the total is calculated to arrive at the TOTAL SAM. This total is reported as the “Annual Quantity”.

Example for Apparel facility:

Example for Hardgoods facility:

There are different approaches to calculating SAM, however if a consistent methodology is used across all products, this will produce comparable data that can be compared year over year.   Below are some resources that look at the different methods of determining SAM (which is often used interchangeably with Standard Minute Value or SMV):

• https://www.ilo.org/global/publications/ilo-bookstore/order-online/books/WCMS_PUBL_9221071081_EN/lang--en/index.htm
• https://www.onlinetextileacademy.com/sam-standard-allowed-minute/ 
• https://www.onlineclothingstudy.com/2011/02/how-to-calculate-sam-of-garment.html#:~:text=Standard%20allowed%20minutes%20(SAM)%20%3D,%2B0.048)%20%3D%200.31%20minutes. 
• https://ordnur.com/apparel/standard-minute-value-smv-garments-calculation-importance/

How To Track Facility Data:

Facilities should establish a process to track the amount of product shipped/sold in the last calendar year. For FEM Verification, it is recommended that summaries of this data (e.g., daily, weekly, monthly records) be tracked in a format that is easy to review [e.g. spreadsheet (e.g. Microsoft Excel) or similar data analytics program that allows export of data in a human readable format (e.g. Excel, csv)]  and any relevant supporting evidence be readily available for review during Verification.

Sipfacilityannualprodvol Verification And Scoring

How This Will Be Verified:

Documentation Required 

• Production, sales, product shipment records that show the quantity of products shipped/sold in the reporting year. 

Sipfacilityindustrialzone

4. Does your facility operate within an industry zone/park? (Ref ID - sipfacilityindustrialzone)

Answer Yes if: Your facility is located inside a designated industry zone/park.

Sipfreshwaterpretreatused

5. Does your facility have onsite water treatment (i.e., Incoming water pre-treatment and/or Wastewater treatment)?  (Ref ID - sipfreshwaterpretreatused)

Answer Yes if: Your facility performs onsite pre-treatment of incoming water (for domestic or production use) and/or your facility performs onsite treatment of wastewater.

If you answer Yes to this question, you will be asked to select the type of pre-treatment and/or wastewater treatment that your facility performs onsite from the list of treatment options below and complete the following sub questions:

Note: After selecting the applicable treatment options, facilities will also need to select the specific treatment methods/technologies used from a predefined list for each treatment option. 

• Select the type of treatment.
  • Incoming Water Pre-Treatment
  • Primary Treatment
  • Secondary Treatment
  • Tertiary Treatment
  • Advanced treatment / Zero Liquid Discharge (ZLD) / Salt recovery
  • Sludge Treatment
• How many employees are engaged in the operation and regular maintenance of the water treatment processes?
• Please upload your facility's water treatment process flow and hydraulic diagrams, if you have one.

Suggested Uploads: Facility’s water treatment process flow and/or hydraulic diagrams. 

Sipfreshwaterpretreatused Verification And Scoring

How This Will Be Verified:

Documentation Required 

• Facility’s water treatment flow chart and hydraulic diagrams

Inspection - Things to Physically Look For: 

• Observations onsite are consistent with the facility’s reported water/wastewater treatment processes. 

Sipindustryprograms

6. Has your facility participated in industry programs related to sustainability or have sustainability related certificates valid during the reporting year? (Ref ID - sipindustryprograms)

Answer Yes if: Your facility participated in industry programs related to sustainability and/or have valid sustainability related certificates during the FEM reporting year.

Note: Brand or customer-specific auditing schemes that include environmental aspects should not be reported in this question as the focus is on broader industry sustainability programs or initiatives such as those listed in the Higg FEM.

If you answer Yes to this question, you will be asked to select the program and provide the following information on your facility’s participation in the program, if applicable:

• How long have you been in this program?
• Enrollment/Validity Period. 
• Start Date (Month/Year)
• Enrollment/Validity Period. 
• End Date (Month/Year), if applicable. (Optional Field. Leave blank if there is no end date)
• What rating/status did you receive?
• If available, please enter a direct link you can provide to view the status of this program or certificate.
• If a direct link is not available, please upload a copy of the program enrollment status or certificate.
• Provide any additional notes.

Suggested Uploads:

• Documentation of ALL programs the facility has participated or enrolled in, which includes the name of the program, any certification or declaration of enrolling the program. 
• Result of the industry program (e.g., certification), if applicable.

Technical Guidance:

Industry Programs enable facilities to build robust programs and practices that can improve overall sustainability or specific impact areas.  There are a wide range of industry programs related to Environmental Sustainability that are focused on supporting facilities in identifying environmental impacts and providing solutions or standards of practice that can help mitigate impacts to the environment (e.g., Apparel Impact Institute’s Clean by Design, Textile Exchange’s Global Recycled Standard (GRS), ZDHC CleanChain, bluesign System Partner, etc.)

Facilities can select programs from the list in the FEM or select Other to add programs that are not listed. 

Note: Facilities can also use the listed programs to identify industry programs or initiatives that can be considered for adoption. The table below provides links to many of the available industry programs or initiatives.

Sipindustryprograms Verification And Scoring

How This Will Be Verified:

Documentation Required: 

• Documentation of ALL programs the facility has participated or enrolled in, which includes the name of the program, any certification or declaration of enrolling the program. 
• Result of the industry program (e.g., certification), if applicable.

Interview Questions to Ask: 

• Facility staff responsible for managing or implementing the program are knowledgeable on the program’s requirements or initiatives and what is required to meet or maintain the program requirements (e.g., certification maintenance)

Inspection - Things to Physically Look For: 

• Facility practices and onsite observations align with the reported program requirements or initiatives. 

Sipaudit

7. Has your facility undergone any Environmental Assessment /Audit within the reporting year (in addition to a Higg vFEM)? (Ref ID - sipaudit)

Answer Yes if: Your facility underwent one (1) or more environmental assessments or audits other than the Higg FEM in the FEM reporting year.

If you answer Yes to this question, you will be asked to complete the following sub question(s):

•  Please indicate how many assessments/audits the facility has undergone?
• Please indicate how many auditor person days in total these assessments/audits consisted of?
  • Notes: 
    • One person day is considered one day for one auditor (e.g., if there were 2 auditors for 1 day, the total for this audit would be 2 person days)
    • If the audit was combined with other aspects (e.g., social compliance) please indicate the number of person days spent on the environmental portion of the assessment/audit (e.g., 0.5 if a half day was used to cover the environmental portion of the assessment)
• Please list out the types of individual Assessment /Audits that have been indicated.
  • Note: Facilities can indicate the name and/or type of the assessment as well as other relevant details (e.g. 2nd or 3rd party audit/assessment etc.) 

Sipapprovedtraining

8. Has your facility or facility personnel attended a Cascale approved Higg FEM training course provided by a Higg FEM Trainer Body within the past 24 months? (Ref ID - sipapprovedtraining)

Answer Yes if: Your Facility has attended a Higg FEM Training course that was provided by an approved Higg FEM Trainer Body within the past 24 months (from the time of Higg FEM Self-Assessment completion)

If you select Yes, you will be asked to provide the following information on the most recent Higg FEM Training your facility has received:

• Name of the training course
• Year of the most recent training course attended.
• Name of the Trainer Body Company.
• Higg FEM Training Event Reference Number.
  • Note: This is the unique training reference number that should have been provided by your Instructor or Trainer Body. If this was not provided, please contact  your FEM Instructor or Trainer Body to request this number. 
• Number of person(s) that attended the training from your Facility?:
• If applicable, please upload the Individual or Facility training certificate(s) received.

Suggested Uploads: Copies of Training Certificates received (if applicable), Other relevant  records of training enrollment or attendance.

Technical Guidance:

The Cascale approved Higg FEM training program provides facilities with the opportunity to receive Higg FEM Training from an approved FEM Trainer Body and Trainer. Trainer Bodies and Trainers are vetted and approved by Cascale and develop and deliver FEM Trainings in accordance with the Higg FEM Training Protocols. 

Resources:

• List of approved Higg FEM Trainer Bodies 

Sipapprovedtraining Verification And Scoring

How This Will Be Verified:

Documentation Required: Documentation of training enrollment or attendance (e.g. copies of Training Certificates received if applicable). 

Sipincludedindiscolsure

9. Is this facility's GHG emissions included in a broader corporate disclosure? (Ref ID - sipincludedindiscolsure)

Answer Yes if: Your facility’s GHG emissions are included in a broader corporate GHG report/disclosure.

Note: In this question a “broader corporate disclosure” refers to GHG reporting/disclosure that was performed by the facility or a business entity other than the facility (e.g., parent, or manufacturing group corporate headquarters, etc.) that includes the facility’s GHG emissions data in the overall GHG reporting/disclosure.

If you answer Yes to this question, you will be asked to select the program and provide the following information on your facility’s participation in the program:

• What reporting platform is used?
  • CDP 
  • Corporate website or Sustainability report
  • Other
    • If other, please describe.

Suggested Uploads:

• If available a copy of the corporate disclosure report (or link to reporting platform where the GHG report can be viewed.

Sipincludedindiscolsure Verification And Scoring

How This Will Be Verified:

Documentation Required: 

• Documentation  that demonstrates the facility’s GHG emissions are included in a broader corporate GHG report/disclosure. 
• A copy of the corporate disclosure report (or link to a reporting platform where the GHG report can be viewed, if applicable).

Interview Questions to Ask: 

• Facility staff responsible supporting the corporate reporting/disclosure can describe how the facility’s GHG emissions data was provided and involved in the corporate reporting/disclosure. 

Sip_has_osh_id

10. Does your facility have a claimed Open Supply Hub ID? (Ref ID - sip_has_osh_id)

Answer Yes if: Your facility is registered on Open Supply Hub and you have claimed your facility data (i.e. you have an Open Supply Hub ID).

Note: If you are unsure if your facility is registered in Open Supply Hub you can follow the guidance on Open Supply Hub’s website here to search for your facility or create an account.

If you select Yes, you will be asked to  provide your Open Supply Hub ID.

Suggested Uploads: A screenshot of the facility’s Open Supply Hub ID Page. 

Technical Guidance:

Open Supply Hub is an online registry that seeks to provide open and accessible data on production locations in the global supply chain. Facilities can submit or claim their facility data (if already registered by another party) on the Open Supply Hub platform to obtain their free Open Supply Hub ID, which is a unique universal identification number that allows stakeholders (e.g. customers) to better understand and collaborate across the supply chain. Facilities are also able to add additional information to their facility profile, including production capabilities, minimum order quantity (MOQ), certifications and more.

For additional information on Open Supply Hub you can visit their information page for facilities here,  as well as the additional resources provided below.   

Resources:

• Open Supply Hub website:  https://opensupplyhub.org/?sort_by=contributors_desc 
• Guidance on using Open Supply Hub for facilities:  https://info.opensupplyhub.org/facilities 

Sip_has_osh_id Verification And Scoring

How This Will Be Verified:

Note: These questions will not be verified in the FEM 2024 cadence, but they might be verified in future cadences. 

Sip_is_part_of_group

11. Is your facility part of a larger group of facilities (ie. subsidiary) owned by a parent company? (Ref ID - sip_is_part_of_group)

Answer Yes if: Your facility is part of a manufacturing group of facilities (i.e. a subsidiary) that is owned by a parent company.  

If you answer Yes to this question, you will be asked the following sub question(s):

• What is the Higg FEM /Worldly Account ID of your parent company (if they have one)? 
• What is the Open Supply Hub ID of your parent company (if they have one)? 

Suggested Uploads: Screenshot of FEM /Worldly account ID and Open Supply Hub ID of your parent company.

Technical Guidance:

A subsidiary company is a business entity or corporation that is either fully owned or partially controlled by another company, known as the parent company or holding company. The parent company typically holds a controlling interest in the subsidiary company, from 51 to 99%, however different corporate and subsidiary structures may exist. 

If your facility is a part of a manufacturing group, the name of your parent company may be listed on your Higg FEM Dashboard in your account profile. If this information is not listed in your Higg FEM account profile, the Higg FEM/Wordly account information (name and account ID) can be requested directly from your parent company.   

To obtain the Open Supply Hub ID of your parent company, facilities can search for their parent company’s information on the Open Supply Hub website here or this can be requested directly from the parent company. 

Note: If your facility uses the Open Supply Hub platform to obtain your parent company’s information, facilities should confirm with their parent company that the information obtained is correct.   

Resources:

• Open Supply Hub website:  https://opensupplyhub.org/?sort_by=contributors_desc 
• Example Definition of a subsidiary and parent company structure: https://corporatefinanceinstitute.com/resources/accounting/subsidiary-definition/  

Sip_is_part_of_group Verification And Scoring

How This Will Be Verified:

Note: These questions will not be verified in FEM 2024 cadence, but they might be verified in future cadences.