With a growing team and customer base, Cotopaxi designs, manufactures, and sells packs, water bottles, apparel, and gear for good. © Cotopaxi

Cotopaxi, an outdoor gear brand, has announced its commitment to use the Higg Index, a performance measurement suite of tools developed by the Sustainable Apparel Coalition (SAC), to drive environmental and social responsibility throughout its supply chain.

Cotopaxi, a Benefit Corporation brand, already commits to sustainable business practices and product design, making this a natural next step in its dedication to “do good”, the company reports. In using the Higg Index, Cotopaxi joins more than 8,000 global brands, retailers, and manufacturers that also use the Higg Index tools, in a collective effort to improve supply chain sustainability in the apparel, footwear and textiles industry.

“We are thrilled to adopt the Higg Index and are grateful to the Sustainable Apparel Coalition for bringing to market such a useful suite of sustainability tools and metrics. Throughout our value chain, the Higg Index will help us advance our commitment to ethics and impact,” commented Karyn McKenna, Chief Merchandising Officer at Cotopaxi.

In leveraging the SAC tools, Cotopaxi will implement the Higg Index, which measures sustainability performance and drives supply chain transparency and decision-making to improve efficiency and sustainability impact. The Higg Index is an indicator-based suite of tools that enables suppliers, manufacturers, brands, and retailers to evaluate materials, products, facilities, and processes based on environmental performance, social labour practices, and product design choices.

“We welcome the addition of Cotopaxi to the growing number of global organizations that use the Higg Index and look forward to their participation in this industry-wide effort in sustainability,” said Amina Razvi, SAC Interim Executive Director. “Small and medium-sized enterprises make up the backbone of our industry, and the SAC highly values their commitment to accelerating the change we’re making towards responsible industry actions.”

www.cotopaxi.com