C&A’s Guide to FEM Completion
Thank you for being an important member of the C&A value chain. Learn how to use Worldly to share your facility environmental data.
C&A’s Commitment to Sustainability
With increasing expectations towards C&A and suppliers towards sound production processes and enforced legislations globallly, C&A is utilising FEM data for both compliance and beyond-compliance purposes.
To facilitate the due diligence process, C&A is working with Worldly, which will be sending email communications throughout the reporting period to each facility, to help facilities complete their assessments. These Worldly communications will provide resources and guidance on next steps to ensure facilities are getting the support they need to meet C&A’s completion requirements on time.
C&A’s FEM Requirements
Environmental Compliance
1. C&A requires existing Tier 1 facilities to complete a Higg FEM assessment (foundations, self-assessment or verification) on an annual basis.
2. C&A requires Tier 1 facilities to meet the following 9 compliance requirements:
Discharge
1. Ensure proper discharge of domestic and/or industrial wastewater without leakage and/or bypassing.
Refer to FEM How to Higg Guide: Wastewater, Question 7
This is a Zero Tolerance issue for C&A. Once found, SSC rating of the Production Unit will be downgraded to E. As a result, all connected supplier(s) will be suspended, and no new order can be placed until satisfactory remediation is confirmed by C&A ES team. Third-party investigation may be arranged by C&A ES team, of which the costs associated will be borne by the supplier(s) and PU.
Operating License
2. Have a valid operating license as required by law.
Refer to FEM How to Higg Guide: Site Info & Permits, Question 1 and 1.1
Production Units are required to ensure facilities producing for C&A are fully covered by legally required operating license with a copy provided for review.
Environmental Permits
3. Have valid environmental permits as required by law.
Refer to FEM How to Higg Guide: Site Info & Permits, Question 4
Production Units are required to ensure availability and validity of the legally required permits for establishment and running of the business in terms of water use, wastewater discharge, waste disposal etc.
Groundwater
4. Abstract groundwater within legal limit
Refer to FEM How to Higg Guide: Water, Question 6.2.4
Production Units are required to abstract groundwater within the legal limit, if applicable.
Wastewater
5. Maintain contract, permit, agreement or invoices for wastewater discharge to offsite wastewater treatment plant, if applicable.
Refer to FEM How to Higg Guide: Wastewater, Question 4
Indirectly discharging Production Units are required to ensure a valid document is in place for the discharge.
6. Ensure domestic and/or industrial wastewater is tested against legal requirements, if applicable.
Refer to FEM How to Higg Guide: Wastewater, Question 17
Air Emissions
7. Ensure compliance with all legal requirements related to air emissions, including reporting and testing requirements, if applicable.
Refer to FEM How to Higg Guide: Air, Question 3
Waste
8. Track every non-hazardous waste stream generated, including that of textile waste.
Refer to FEM How to Higg Guide: Waste, Question 3
9. Dispose of waste responsibly without open burning, open dumping, burying waste or intentional release of waste into soil and/or water.
Refer to FEM How to Higg Guide: Waste, Question 12
Environmental Stewardship (ES) Programme
1. C&A requires each facility to purchase the Higg Environmental Subscription to complete the Higg FEM self-assessment and verification by end of September.
Note: New facility with fewer than 12 months of operation in 2023 is allowed to purchase the Facility Starter Subscription to complete Facility Foundations self-assessment and verification instead as a preparation to the full FEM in following year.
2. C&A requires facilities to meet the following requirements
*This does not apply to FEM Foundations completed by newly established facilities
1. Receive no government-issued environmental violation records for the reporting year. Refer to FEM How to Higg Guide: Site Info & Permits, Question 2
2. Have a qualified person coordinating environmental management activities. Refer to FEM How to Higg Guide: Environmental Management System, Question 1
3. Identify the significant environmental risks and impacts of production activities. Refer to FEM How to Higg Guide: Environmental Management System, Question 2
4. Have a company environmental policy that guides production activities towards a sustainable approach. Refer to FEM How to Higg Guide: Environmental Management System, Question 3
5. Have a system in place to regularly review and monitor status and ensure compliance of environmental permits and licences. Refer to FEM How to Higg Guide: Environmental Management System, Question 5
6. Have a system in place to verify compliance with all laws and regulations according to environmental risks, on top of the permit and licence requirements. Refer to FEM How to Higg Guide: Environmental Management System, Question 6
7. Have documented procedures to allow for employees’ reporting of environmental incidents, within or outside of the proprietary boundary of the site. Refer to FEM How to Higg Guide: Environmental Management System, Question 8
8. Track all water usage from all sources. Refer to FEM How to Higg Guide: Water, Question 3
9. Have a system in place to inspect and monitor water supply for leaks. Refer to FEM How to Higg Guide: Water, Question 7
10. Track volume of domestic and/or industrial wastewater. Refer to FEM How to Higg Guide: Wastewater, Question 1
11. Have a monitoring system in place to ensure functioning of effluent treatment plant (ETP) suitable for the wastewater generated. Refer to FEM How to Higg Guide: Wastewater, Question 5
12. Have a back-up plan if there is an emergency situation related to wastewater. Refer to FEM How to Higg Guide: Wastewater, Question 6
13. Track industrial wastewater sludge generated. Refer to FEM How to Higg Guide: Wastewater, Question 9
14. Have proper storage area for wastewater sludge generated. Refer to FEM How to Higg Guide: Wastewater, Question 11
15. Dispose of sludge from industrial wastewater properly. Refer to FEM How to Higg Guide: Wastewater, Question 12
16. Maintain manifests or similar documentation of the handling, transportation, processing, and disposal of all industrial wastewater sludge generated. Refer to FEM How to Higg Guide: Wastewater, Question 13
17. Provide training to all employees involved in wastewater sludge handling. Refer to FEM How to Higg Guide: Wastewater, Question 14
18. Manage residue of the Septic System. Refer to FEM How to Higg Guide: Wastewater, Question 16
19. Maintain an air emissions inventory of all point source air emission sources that includes the following:
- Unique source identifier (name or number of emission point)
- Process or equipment linked to the source
- Legal testing or reporting requirements e.g. testing parameters and frequency, if required
- Refer to FEM How to Higg Guide: Air Emissions, Question 1
20. Have preventative maintenance procedures in place to avoid refrigerant leakage from any equipment. Refer to FEM How to Higg Guide: Air Emissions, Question 5
21. Track refrigerant usage. Refer to FEM How to Higg Guide: Air Emissions, Question 6
22. Track every hazardous waste stream generated. Refer to FEM How to Higg Guide: Waste, Question 7
23. Have segregated hazardous and non-hazardous waste and store them separately. Refer to FEM How to Higg Guide: Waste, Question 9
24. Have well-marked, designated storage areas and proper containers for all hazardous waste. Refer to FEM How to Higg Guide: Waste, Question 10
25. Have well-marked, designated storage areas and proper containers for all non-hazardous waste. Refer to FEM How to Higg Guide: Waste, Question 11
26. Provide awareness training to employees regarding segregation of waste. Refer to FEM How to Higg Guide: Waste, Question 13
27. Provide training to all employees whose work involves hazardous waste handling. Refer to FEM How to Higg Guide: Waste, Question 14
28. Have a written Chemical Management System (CMS) policy in place. Refer to FEM How to Higg Guide: Chemical Management, Question 1
29. Have assigned the responsibility of implementing and maintaining the Chemical Management System (CMS) to a competent team/staff member. Refer to FEM How to Higg Guide: Chemical Management, Question 2
30. Have a chemical purchasing policy in place. Refer to FEM How to Higg Guide: Chemical Management, Question 3
31. Ensure Safety Data Sheets (SDS) are available to employees for all chemicals used. Refer to FEM How to Higg Guide: Chemical Management, Question 6
32. Provide training to all employees who use chemicals on chemical hazards, risk, proper handling, and what to do in case of emergency or spill. Refer to FEM How to Higg Guide: Chemical Management, Question 7
33. Have a chemical spill and emergency response plan that is practiced periodically. Refer to FEM How to Higg Guide: Chemical Management, Question 8
34. Have appropriate and operable protective and safety equipment, as recommended by the Global Harmonization System compliant (or equivalent) Safety Data Sheet, in all areas where chemicals are stored and used. Refer to FEM How to Higg Guide: Chemical Management, Question 9
35. Have chemical hazard signage and safe handling equipment in all areas where chemicals are stored and used. Refer to FEM How to Higg Guide: Chemical Management, Question 10
36. Select and purchase chemicals based on their hazards and MRSL requirements. It is acceptable to have partial compliance to MRSL as long as PU has a documented process to select and purchase chemicals based on MRSL requirements as well as a clear plan to improve the chemical conformance percentage within 6 months. Refer to FEM How to Higg Guide: Chemical Management, Question 11
37. Have well marked, designated chemical storage areas and sub-storage areas, if applicable. Refer to FEM How to Higg Guide: Chemical Management, Question 14 & 15
38. Provide training to employees responsible for the chemical management system on Manufacturing Restricted Substance Lists (MRSLs). Refer to FEM How to Higg Guide: Chemical Management, Question 17
Important Deadlines
Worldly Dates 2023-2024
November 2, 2023
Higg FEM 2023 self-assessment is accessible
January 1, 2024
Higg FEM verification is accessible
April 30, 2024
Unlimited posting/unposting of Higg FEM self-assessments ends
October 31, 2024
Purchase access ends for Higg FEM 2023 and verification
December 31, 2024
Higg FEM 2023 reporting cycle ends; Last day to post both self and verified Higg FEM 2023
C&A Dates 2023-2024
April 30, 2024
All ES Programme facilities must complete, post and share Higg FEM 2023 self-assessments with C&A
September 30, 2024
All ES Programme facilities must complete, post and share Higg FEM 2023 verifications with C&A
December 31, 2024
All Tier 1 facilities must complete, post and share Higg FEM 2023 assessments with C&A
Frequently Asked Questions
Post
Once you have completed your FEM self assessment, you are ready to post it. You must be an Admin of an account to post the assessment, Editors do not have this permission.
Make sure you have completed every question in the assessment fully before trying to post. You can check this by viewing the completion rate bar which reaches 100% when you have fully completed all questions.
Then the assessment can be posted by using the ‘Submit/Post Assessment’ button in the left navigation bar. The platform will only allow you to post once the completion rate is 100%.
Share
If you are working with brand partners, you will need to share your FEM with them through the Higg platform. To do this, go to the FEM Modules page.
Once you are on the FEM Modules page you can click Share Modules on the right hand side.
Select which module you want to share, and search for C&A (Worldly ID: 8318), then select share. Once the brand accepts the share request, the module will be shared.
- Tier 1 facilities are suggested to purchase the standard FEM+FSLM subscription.
- Tier 2 facilities participating in ES Programme are suggested to purchase the FEM only subscription.
All subscription plans include:
- Access to your past data
- Unlimited outgoing share credits
- CSV export of your data
- Customer support live chat
- Multi-language training including English, Simplified Chinese, Japanese, Turkish, Spanish, and Vietnamese
Your C&A Environmental Stewardship (ES) team:
| Region | ES Regional Lead | Email Address |
|---|---|---|
| Greater China & South-East Asia | Angie Chen | Angie.chen@canda.com |
| Bangladesh, India & Sri Lanka | Karthick Shanmugasundaram | Karthick.shanmugasundaram@canda.com |
| Turkey, EMEA & Pakistan | Goksenin Sevdin | Goksenin.sevdin@canda.com |
| Global | – | Environment@canda.com |
- Higg’s training website, howtohigg.org, contains all of the information and guidance facilities need to help them at every stage of the module completion process.
- Worldly e-learning centre within Worldly portal
- Higg Facility Subscriptions Overview – the new way to purchase Higg facility modules
- Higg Facility Environmental Module (FEM)
- Live Training Webinars
- Watch past webinar recordings and register to attend upcoming training and office hour sessions through our Worldly Training Events Calendar.
- Customer Support
- Submit questions about Worldly accounts, modules, and subscriptions to the Worldly Support Team.
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