Skip to main content
BoF Logo

The Business of Fashion

Agenda-setting intelligence, analysis and advice for the global fashion community.

Sustainable Apparel Coalition Rebrands as Cascale

The change distances the initiative from a greenwashing scandal focused on its Higg sustainability tool and signals an expanded focus beyond fashion.
Former Sustainable Apparel Coalition CEO Amina Razvi speaks at the organisation's annual meeting in Singapore in 2022.
The Sustainable Apparel Coalition is rebranding as Cascale. (Edwin Koo/Getty Images for Global Fashion Agenda)

The Sustainable Apparel Coalition is rebranding as Cascale, distancing the organisation from a greenwashing scandal focused on its Higg sustainability tools and indicating ambitions to expand beyond fashion.

The organisation, which counts as one of the industry’s most powerful and influential sustainability focused trade groups, has been working to move beyond criticism that its data on the environmental impact of materials is not robust enough to back up consumer-facing marketing claims. Its rebrand comes a little under a year after Higg Inc., a for-profit sustainability analytics platform originally spun out of the SAC, changed its name to Worldly.

But the SAC said the move is really designed to reflect the fact that it no longer only serves the apparel sector. Some 10 percent of its members operate in adjacent sectors, including home furnishings, sporting and outdoor goods and bags and luggage.

Learn more:

ADVERTISEMENT

What’s Next for Fashion’s Most Controversial Sustainability Tool?

After the Sustainable Apparel Coalition’s Higg Index became a central focus for greenwashing allegations, the trade group commissioned an independent review. Its recommendations include scrapping a stand-alone materials assessment and more work to improve the data.

© 2024 The Business of Fashion. All rights reserved. For more information read our Terms & Conditions

More from Sustainability
How fashion can do better for people and the planet.

Op-Ed | Circular Fashion Needs Government Incentives

Textile-to-textile recycling technologies could be a climate game changer for fashion’s environmental footprint. But like renewable energy, they need state support for market efforts to scale, argues Nicole Rycroft.


Fashion’s Supply Chain Is Still Full of Banned Chinese Cotton

A study published this week found traces of cotton from Xinjiang in nearly a fifth of the products it examined, highlighting the challenges brands face in policing their supply chains even as requirements to do so spread to raw materials from diamonds to leather and palm oil.


view more

Subscribe to the BoF Daily Digest

The essential daily round-up of fashion news, analysis, and breaking news alerts.

The Business of Fashion

Agenda-setting intelligence, analysis and advice for the global fashion community.
CONNECT WITH US ON
The Business of Beauty Global Forum
© 2024 The Business of Fashion. All rights reserved. For more information read our Terms & Conditions, Privacy Policy, Cookie Policy and Accessibility Statement.
The Business of Beauty Global Forum