The SAC made the decision to pause the program this week and review its data practices after the Norwegian Consumer Agency (Forbrukertilsynet) concluded the Higg MSI was unfit for use in marketing.
In a post on LinkedIn, fashion industry analyst Veronica Bates Kassatly said: “No matter what anyone is telling us, we can see it with our own eyes: the MSI was designed to compare synthetic and natural fibres, and that those impact scores favour plastics is definitional. Just add them up.
“Presumably brands are still using these hollow numbers to guide sourcing decisions and to ‘calculate’ their impact, from their ‘science-based’ targets to their sustainability reports.”
Following confusion from multiple media outlets, including ILM, about the reality of SAC’s actions and whether it had suspended the Higg MSI or its “consumer-facing transparency program”, some have accused the organisation of deliberately muddying the water, with one commenter on Kassatly’s post outright accusing the SAC of gaslighting.
Kassatly’s post and the ongoing conversation about the Higg MSI can be found on LinkedIn.
