Self assessment

While working on my project of calculating the Higg index I have, more than once, found myself wondering about the self assessment aspect of the index. The Higg index has been developed as an universal tool for all industry to use. It includes organizations in all continents and a variety of cultures - that is hundreds, if not thousands of different views on how things should be done.

The RDM (Rapid Design Module) tool is made simple to use and at the moment it mainly serves as a support tool for the designers and other decision-makers within the organization. It helps to see the results of different decisions on e.g. material choices and production. The Higg index serves as an internal tool and currently it is rarely communicated outside the organization.

The purpose of the Higg index is to promote transparency in the industry. Honesty and integrity have also been sought-after. The fact that the index itself is calculated based on self assessment somehow makes me suspicious. It is not that people would distort the results on purpose but just the different view on - say - how precise you need to be. This is particularly difficult in the first section (Materials).

Luckily the tool is quite specific in the definitions. E.g. in the Product use section you need to select if the garment has a low impact care label. There is no space for interpretation, the garment either has it or not. I guess that you can never create a tool that would be 100% precise if there is space for interpretation and thus, human error. All in all, I guess that at this stage organizations are using the tool out of interest and with good intentions.

So these are my thoughts this Monday morning. Hope you guys have a great week!

Cheers,
Noora