Axion: Getting Started Guide

Table of Contents

• 1. Navigation
• 2. Requirements
• 3. KPIs
  • Filter by Locations
  • Filter by Factory Type
  • Filter by Tags
  • Filter by Year
• 4. Hotspots
• 5. Facilities
• 6. Scenarios
• 7. Filters

Climate and resource risks are no longer abstract — they’re reshaping where and how companies source, invest, and report. Trillions in GDP could be lost to a slow climate transition, disasters are projected to rise, and heat stress alone may erase millions of jobs. These aren’t distant scenarios — they translate into supply chain disruptions, wasted investments, missed impact opportunities, and financial losses today. 

At same time, companies must also work with their supply chains to reduce impact and transition to a low-carbon economy. To make the best decisions for reducing impact and managing risk, companies must take regional trends and facility performance data into account. This process of getting to the right insights, from so much data, can be time-consuming and expensive. 

To solve this challenge, retailers and consumer goods companies can now rely on Worldly Axion to get decision-ready insights for reducing impact, collaborating with suppliers, and managing risk. Worldly Axion leverages factory data and puts it into context needed for executive decisions: quantified risks and top-line opportunities. 

Worldly Axion has more actionable and accurate supply chain insights for retail and consumer goods companies than any other solution. Granular, verified data from facilities, combined with macro-level data from dozens of external datasets, is how companies get a true picture of risk and opportunities and prepare for the future. With Axion, companies can:

• Quantify productivity at risk at facilities by combining heat stress data with information on facility cooling systems 
• Understand water risk by linking water stress and drought exposure with on-site water conservation practices
• Identify the most effective path to decarbonization, tailored to each facility’s energy mix and the region’s available renewable energy credits

Also, Worldly Axion’s AI-driven Assistant helps companies quickly validate the next best action, based on those insights. The Axion Assistant recommends strategies at the corporate, regional and facility-level, saving companies time and focusing investment where it matters most. 

Without these insights from Worldly Axion, companies can’t get a true picture of risk, or adequately plan for the future. Only by bringing together facility-level data, with a complete set of contextual data and an expert AI-assistant, can companies get the insights they need for making the best decisions.

1. Navigation

• Navigate to Insights and select Worldly Axion.
• This takes you to the Worldly Axion Overview page.

2. Requirements

The best way to get started with Worldly Axion is to ensure your facilities submit their FEM assessments in a timely manner. Read the Facility Environmental Module (FEM) Getting Started Guide to learn more.

Axion uses 2023 to 2024 FEM Data, which can either be your own assessment or an assessment that has been shared with you.

We also recommend using the Worldly Collaboration Suite, which helps brands and retailers drive higher Higg FEM participation across the supply chain.

3. KPIs

Begin by selecting the KPIs tab at the top of the navigation bar.

On this page, notice the KPI Cards (Overall Emissions, Carbon Intensity, etc.) at the top of the page. These are the same metrics found in Insights Hub.

On the left filter menu, you can filter by location, factory type, industry sector, verification, tags, cadence, account, or year. This automatically updates all metrics throughout the KPI dashboard to reflect the filtered data set. These filters allow quick organization and slicing of data related to this risk area.

At the top right corner of the dashboard, use the drop-down menu to switch between different Risk areas, including carbon, energy, water, heat stress, and extreme events. Each KPI Card has a unique metric associated with the Risk area.

Depending on the organization’s area of focus, there are several ways to get started:

1. Filter by Locations
2. Filter by Factory Type
3. Filter by Tags
4. Filter by Year

Filter by Locations

If an organization has a majority of their facilities in China, they can use the Locations filter to update the dashboard.

Filter by Factory Type

The same organization can layer on multiple filters to drill down even further in their data. For example, if this organization wants to analyze their Raw Material Processing facilities in China, they can use both the Factory Type and Locations filters.

Filter by Tags

Users can even filter by tags. For example, an organization can use the tag filter to analyze, organize, and classify facilities.

Let’s say an organization organizes facilities by tiers (t1, t2, t3), they can filter by t1 to filter the KPI dashboard to show only tier 1 facilities.

Filter by Year

Use the year filter to compare how your facilities performed from the previous year. As you collect more data from your facilities each cadence, you can compare year-over-year performance.

The KPI dashboard allows users to do a quick visual comparison of supplier partners to their peers.

Each KPI card’s color-coding helps to quickly identify areas of concern versus those performing well. In addition to the KPI value, each card also includes:

• Year-over-year changes symbolized by the calendar icon, which show the % change from last year.
• Peer comparison that benchmarks against similar companies in your industry, symbolized by the three vertical bars and show the % difference from benchmark.
• Information tooltip that defines each KPI Card, as well as the source for each KPI.

In addition to tracking metrics sourced from the Higg FEM, Worldly Axion puts this supply chain data into context by integrating dozens of external datasets.

These include climate and energy system models, electricity grid mix data, water risk data, climate projections, risk and impact models, occupational health data, and market data.

Altogether, Worldly Axion merges dozens of data sources to track how the world is changing environmentally, climatically, and economically.

For example, textile and apparel organizations may find value in the water stress and water use metrics on the Water KPI Dashboard if they are focused on strengthening supply chain resilience. 

4. Hotspots

The Hotspots page provides an abundance of visualizations for you to identify high-risk areas related to each risk area.

At the top right corner of the page, the drop-down menu allows you to switch between different risk areas, including carbon, energy, water, heat stress, and extreme events. Each graph, chart, or table relates to a specific risk area and tells a visual story about your data in the context of what’s happening inside your supply chain and what’s happening in the world around it. 

On the left filter menu, you can filter by location, factory type, tags, or year, which automatically updates all Hotspot visualizations to reflect the filtered data set. These filters allow quick organization and slicing of data related to this risk area.

Learn more about each Risk Area’s corresponding visualizations below:

• Carbon Hotspots
  • Regional Hotspots
  • Electricity Grid Mix
  • Overall Emissions Profile
  • Emission Distributions
  • Facility Hotspots
  • Facilities
  • World Map
• Energy Hotspots
  • Regional Hotspots
  • Electricity Grid Mix
  • Grid Electricity Price Trends
  • Overall Energy Profile
  • Energy Usage
  • Facility Hotspots
  • Facilities
  • World Map
• Water Hotspots
  • Regional Hotspots
  • Overall Water Usage and Stress
  • Water Usage
  • Disruption Risk
  • Facilities
  • World Map
• Heat Stress Hotspots
  • Heat Risk Climate Filters
  • Regional Hotspots
  • Overall Heat Stress
  • Heat Stress
  • Facility Hotspots
  • Facilities
  • World Map
• Extreme Events Hotspots
  • Extreme Events Climate Filters
  • Regional Hotspots
  • Overall Extreme Events
  • Extreme Events
  • Facilities
  • World Map

5. Facilities

The Facilities page summarizes key information across carbon, energy, water, heat stress, and extreme events, where each risk area is given a rating from Very Low to Very High. This gives you a holistic evaluation and helps prioritize across categories. 

Clicking on each column heading allows you to filter by one, or multiple sub categories. Each table row can be opened into a detailed pop out, providing in-depth data and insights for that specific facility.

For example, let’s say an organization wants to evaluate the current water risk exposure for their facilities in Bangladesh. 

1. In the Locations filter, select Bangladesh. At the top of the Filter menu, you can see the total number of facilities. In this example, that means 21 facilities are located in Bangladesh.
   
2. Once the filter is applied, the Facilities table updates to only include those 21 facilities.
   
3. Select the Water header at the top of the table to filter the results. In this example, the organization filters to Very High to see that 5 facilities in Bangladesh are facing Very High water risk exposure.
   
4. Select the blue Supplier name to open the Facility Summary page. 
   
   • In addition to the data visualizations available in the Hotspots tab, users can view additional details on the Facility Summary page. This includes the location, completed assessments, production processes, production categories, and industry programs associated with the facility.
     

Learn more about Axion’s Facilities page here.

6. Scenarios

The Scenario planning tool allows you to model how different interventions can affect carbon intensity and other metrics. 

Apply the projection assumption toggles in the middle column to see how Emissions and Energy Metrics, as well as Transition Risk Scenario Metrics are impacted.

For example, let’s say an organization wants to evaluate how a 25% increase in energy efficiency by 2035 will impact the Total Emissions of all facilities located in China.

1. Begin by selecting China from the Locations filter. Notice how the default Total Emissions chart is flat and in its default state. The chart will update once the projection assumptions are applied.
2. Expand the Energy Efficiency tab to show what projection assumptions can be applied.
   
   • Select By 2035 from the dropdown menu
   • Move the slider to 25% or enter 25 in the freeform text field.
   • Select Update Charts.
     

Click here to learn more about how the scenarios page helps organizations forecast detailed possible scenarios in the future, better understand uncertainty, test potential business strategies, and develop flexibility around risks and opportunities.

7. Filters

The left-hand filter column automatically updates all metrics throughout the dashboard to reflect the filtered data set. Filters that are applied once are applied to all tabs within Worldly Axion. The dashboard filters enable users to organize and slice the data to quickly determine which facilities are best suited for intervention.

Adjust these filters to model different future states by country, facility type, production process and year. This enables more specific scenarios by facility, region or other combination of facilities based on filters. Further detail on how these metrics are defined can be found in the Methodology.