Know Your Suppliers at the Factory Level: Supplier Due Diligence and Compliance on One Platform

Article key points

• Worldly now brings Cascale’s Higg FEM, Foundational Environmental Performance (FEP), and Facility Data Manager together on one platform, alongside Supplier Compliance Management and Worldly Axion.
• Brands can run supplier due diligence, track remediation against a Code of Conduct, and see where climate risk could disrupt supply or raise prices.
• Suppliers complete one assessment that serves every customer, instead of answering repeated, overlapping requests.
• The Higg FEM 2026 adds guidance to help facilities finish faster, stronger water data validation, and emissions factors updated to continue aligning with the GHG Protocol.
• Facilities that completed the Higg FEM in 2025 made measurable progress: 61% had an energy improvement plan (up from 54%), and 48% had set Scope 1 and 2 targets (up from 41%).

Regulatory and reporting timelines and expectations are tightening, and brands face growing pressure to show results they can back up. That pressure travels down the supply chain, too. For many suppliers, it shows up as a stack of similar questionnaires from every customer they work with.

Worldly’s newest launch is built for both sides of that relationship: brands and suppliers. Our most expansive supplier compliance solution to date brings Cascale’s Higg FEM, Foundational Environmental Performance, and Facility Data Manager together on the Worldly platform. Paired with Supplier Compliance Management and Worldly Axion, it gives brands and suppliers a single place to meet reporting requirements, due diligence expectations, and improvement goals across environmental and social topics.

“In a market full of estimates and uncertainty, for a business to know its supply chain at the individual factory level is the most reliable way to manage risk, comply with regulation, and operate responsibly,” said Scott Raskin, CEO of Worldly.

Here’s what the solution includes, what’s new this year, and what it means for your team.

What’s included in Worldly’s supplier compliance solution

Worldly’s supplier compliance solution brings together four parts, and each answers a different question about a facility: where it stands today, what it can prove, and what it’s doing to improve. Having them in one place means brands and suppliers work from the same verified facility data instead of stitching together fragments.

• Higg FEM 2026: Cascale’s facility-level environmental assessment, now in its 2026 version, provides verified facility data built for reporting and audits.
• Foundational Environmental Performance (FEP): Sets out the baseline environmental practices expected of every facility producing consumer goods.
• Facility Data Manager: Enables brands, manufacturers, and facilities to track, analyze, and report environmental metrics monthly or quarterly.
• Supplier Compliance Management and Worldly Axion: Support due diligence and compliance, so teams can meet reporting requirements and act on risk across environmental and social topics.

Cascale sets the standard for both the Higg FEM and FEP. As a collaborative industry body, it gives brands and suppliers a shared framework they can all measure against. Worldly provides the platform that puts that framework to work at scale.

What is Foundational Environmental Performance?

Foundational Environmental Performance (FEP) gives facilities new to environmental assessments a performance baseline. FEP sets out the baseline environmental practices expected of every facility producing consumer goods. For suppliers earlier in their sustainability programs, it shows where they stand today and what to address first.

For brands, a shared baseline makes expectations easier to communicate across a supplier base. Instead of each customer defining “good enough” differently, suppliers can work toward one set of practices that the industry recognizes.

How the Higg FEM supports reporting and audits

Cascale’s Higg FEM produces facility-level environmental data that brands use for reporting and audits, and suppliers can share a single assessment with many customers. Cascale introduced the Higg FEM to the industry fifteen years ago as a spreadsheet. Since 2019, Worldly has helped scale it to more than 45,000. Today, suppliers share their Higg FEM assessments more than 100,000 times a year, and each assessment serves an average of four brands.

That sharing model matters. When one assessment can answer multiple customers, suppliers spend less time on duplicate data entry, and brands get consistent, comparable data across their supply chains.

What’s new in the Higg FEM 2026

The Higg FEM 2026 focuses on helping facilities complete their assessments with more confidence and producing data brands can rely on. It includes three updates:

• Guidance to help facilities finish faster, so teams spend less time searching for answers mid-assessment.
• Stronger water data validation, which helps catch errors earlier and improves the quality of water data.
• Emissions factors updated to align with the GHG Protocol, supporting more consistent emissions reporting.

What manufacturers are saying about the Higg FEM

For many manufacturers, the value of the Higg FEM comes down to readiness and credibility with customers.

“New legislation and regulations are arriving quickly. Thanks to Higg FEM and Worldly, we are future ready,” said Alagesan Senniappan, Executive Vice President of Quality Assurance and ESG at Eastman Exports.

“Brands now look to their preferred suppliers for sustainability commitments backed by action and tangible results, and the data behind those commitments matters,” said Abdul Azeez, AGM, EHSS, at Classic Fashion Apparel Industry Ltd. in Jordan. “With Higg FEM and Worldly, we can share credible and verifiable data with our brands.”

How brands move from due diligence to action

An annual assessment tells you where a facility stood. It doesn’t always tell you what’s changed since, or where to focus next. Two parts of the solution help fill that gap.

Tracking progress throughout the year

Facility Data Manager enables brands, manufacturers, and facilities to track, analyze, and report environmental metrics monthly or quarterly, rather than relying only on annual reviews. That shorter cycle helps teams spot shifts sooner and keep improvement plans on track between assessment cycles.

Seeing where risk sits and where to act first

The Worldly Insights Hub and Worldly’s AI solutions turn verified facility data into answers, showing companies where risk sits and where to act first. Because the AI works from data collected inside facilities rather than estimates, the answers reflect what’s actually happening on the ground.

Progress the data can show

Facilities that completed the Higg FEM in 2025 made measurable progress over the year before: 61% had an energy improvement plan, up from 54%; and 48% had set Scope 1 and 2 targets, up from 41%.

Those gains show what a consistent assessment framework can support: a shared starting point, clear priorities, and a way to show progress year over year.

“Primary data through Higg FEM has given us the common language we use with our suppliers as well as with other departments on our team, including procurement,” said Eleonora Lepri, Environmental Lead at Teddy Group. “We were able to replace generic standard emission factors with actual, far more precise figures.”

What this means for brands and suppliers

For brands: due diligence you can document

Brands need to show that they know their suppliers and that they act on what they find. The solution supports due diligence on existing suppliers by helping teams identify non-compliance and track remediation against a Code of Conduct in Supplier Compliance Management.

It also helps teams see where climate risk could disrupt supply or drive up prices, so they can act before it does. And because environmental, social, and chemical data sit together in one place at the facility and product level, teams can review a supplier’s full picture without switching between tools.

For suppliers: one assessment that serves every customer

For suppliers, the biggest change is fewer repeat requests. The solution replaces a cycle of overlapping questionnaires with one assessment that serves every customer.

That time savings is only part of the value. Suppliers on Worldly get education and capacity-building resources, benchmarking against peers, AI assistance, and practical guidance in their native languages. Better performance data helps them show customers what they’ve improved, which can help them win and keep business.

Solutions like the Worldly Collaboration Suite also make it easier for brands and suppliers to stay aligned on expectations throughout the assessment cycle.

See how Worldly supports your supplier compliance program

Reporting requirements will keep evolving, and teams that know their supply chains facility by facility are better placed to keep up. Starting from verified facility data gives teams a clearer view of risk today and a credible record of progress over time.

Here’s how to get started:

• Facilities: Begin your Higg FEM 2026 in the Worldly platform.
• Brands, retailers, and manufacturers: Contact your Worldly account team, or connect with Worldly to see how the solution can support due diligence, reporting, and supplier improvement across your supply chain.