June was not a good month for the Sustainable Apparel Coalition (SAC) and the Higg Index suite of tools it has developed to monitor the social and environmental impacts of the fashion industry's global supply chain.

The SAC found itself obliged to suspend the global use of sustainability data from the Higg Materials Sustainability Index (Higg MSI) on consumer-facing product labels after watchdogs declared it illegal in Norway.

This came days after a critical article in the New York Times accused the SAC of "strongly favouring" fossil fuel-based synthetic textiles over natural fibres. It claimed that Higg Index data was based on misleading lifecycle assessment (LCA) reports and on research funded by the synthetics industry.

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Founded in 2006, Ecotextile News is the environmental magazine for the global textile and fashion industries and provides unrivalled daily coverage, comment and expertise in both print and online formats.