Sustainability in Fashion, Retail & Home: Centric Software® PLM and Higg Join Forces to Enable Digital Transformation

Brands, retailers & manufacturers assess environmental impact of material choices prior to product launch

CAMPBELL, Calif., Dec. 8, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- Centric Software, the Product Lifecycle Management (PLM) market leader, is proud to announce its partnership with Higg, the sustainability insights platform. Centric Software provides the most innovative enterprise solutions to plan, design, develop, source and sell products such as apparel, footwear, sporting goods, furniture, home décor, cosmetics, food & beverage and luxury to achieve strategic and operational digital transformation goals.

Centric PLM™, the leading PLM solution for the apparel industry, is now integrated with Higg to provide product designers environmental impact data on material choices.     

Designers and product developers will be able to send materials from Centric PLM to Higg with the click of a button and receive impact scores for each material choice, such as its carbon footprint and water utilization, using the most robust and trusted sustainability dataset available. A product score is automatically generated once the Bill of Materials (BOM) is complete. Higg also offers information on product end of use options and impacts. Brands, retailers and manufacturers of all sizes can access Higg data through Centric PLM, regardless of where they are on their sustainability journey.

"Increased transparency and visibility enable teams to make decisions taking environmental impact into consideration while also ensuring target product margins are met, using reliable data that is accessible on a single platform," says Ron Watson, VP of Product at Centric Software. "When also coupled with other technologies such as 3D material libraries, avatars and prototypes as well as optimized processes such as efficient supplier collaboration, not only can a product's environmental impact be lessened but so can overall cost of goods sold. Being sustainable doesn't mean killing growth or profitability."

"Through Centric's integration with Higg, designers gain access to material-level environmental impacts, which enables them to make critical decisions to develop more sustainable products," says Higg CEO Jason Kibbey. "Conscious consumers are demanding both high-quality and environmentally-responsible products, and with Higg data, businesses can deliver on these expectations."

"Like all of our innovations, Centric PLM's integration with Higg was developed hand-in-hand with our customers," says Saurabh Deshpande, Director, Product Management at Centric Software. "We pay close attention to the needs and challenges of our customers, and sustainability is a core issue for many of them right now. We have developed a close relationship with Higg, working together to provide brands, retailers and manufacturers with accurate sustainability data."

Many Centric customers are already using PLM to drive and monitor sustainability initiatives, and are looking forward to the increased efficiency and accuracy the integration will bring.

"Centric PLM is a very important part of our digital transformation journey. Its interconnection with Higg will help Epic to analyze and understand the environmental impact of our products and help us make lower-impact, more sustainable product offerings to our customers," says Ranjan Mahtani, Executive Chairman of Epic Group.,     

"The importance of having standardized systems for data collection across the industry is crucial if we want to make the right decisions and have the right impact," says Kathleen Buckingham, Director, Sustainability at tentree & veritree. "Without having standardized approaches, methodologies will not be comparable. With an agreed standardized system, companies can set benchmarks and be able to learn from their peers from a standardized methodology. Since Higg delivers the      industry standard for apparel, it can be trusted to reflect the latest science and specific needs. It will benefit from the input of a network of users and grow to suit the needs of the industry as the needs evolve. Having access to Higg built into Centric PLM will streamline the data collection and analysis process and reduce confusion regarding alternative systems."

"It is important for us to be able to offer our customers full transparency regarding our products, where they are produced and what materials they contain. Centric Software's solution makes it possible to continuously save all data at product level, so that we can then easily retrieve all data related to materials, which facilitates our sustainability reporting," says Åsa Andersson, Sustainability Manager at Peak Performance.

"We are proud to partner with Higg, who lead the way in guiding consumer goods businesses through the maze of sustainable sourcing," says Chris Groves, President and CEO of Centric Software. "Centric PLM's integration with Higg will empower our customers to make better choices that benefit their environmental impact, brand reputation and bottom line."

Join tentree, Higg and Centric in AAFA's online event on December 16, 2021, as they discuss how product designers can access materials data to improve their design process. REGISTER.

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About Higg  (www.higg.com)

Higg is the sustainability insights platform for consumer goods businesses – delivering software and services for measuring, managing, and sharing supply chain performance data.

From materials to products, from facilities to stores, from emissions to working conditions, Higg unlocks a complete view of a business's social and environmental impact.

Built on the leading framework for sustainability measurement, Higg is trusted by global brands, retailers, and manufacturers to provide the single source of ESG intelligence they need to accelerate business and industry transformation.

Launched in 2019 as a public-benefit corporation, Higg is the exclusive licensee of the Higg Index, the industry-leading value chain measurement methodology developed by the Sustainable Apparel Coalition.

Centric Software (www.centricsoftware.com)

From its headquarters in Silicon Valley, Centric Software® provides a Product Concept to Consumer Digital Transformation Platform for fashion, retail, footwear, luxury, outdoor, consumer electronics and consumer goods including cosmetics and personal care and food and beverage. Centric's flagship Product Lifecycle Management (PLM) platform, Centric PLM™, delivers enterprise-class merchandise planning, product development, sourcing, quality and product portfolio optimization innovations specifically for fast-moving consumer industries. Centric Visual Innovation Platform (CVIP) offers highly visual digital board experiences for collaboration and decision-making. Centric Retail Planning is an innovative, cloud-native solution powered by Armonica Retail S.R.L., that delivers an end-to-end retail planning process designed to maximize retail business performance. Centric Software pioneered mobility, introducing the first mobile apps for PLM, and is widely known for connectivity to dozens of other enterprise systems including ERP, DAM, PIM, e-com, planning and more as well as creative tools such as Adobe® Illustrator and a host of 3D CAD connectors. Centric's innovations are 100% market-driven with the highest user adoption rate and fastest time to value in the industry. All Centric innovations shorten time to market, boost product innovation and reduce costs. 

Centric Software is majority-owned by Dassault Systèmes (Euronext Paris: #13065, DSY.PA), the world leader in 3D design software, 3D digital mock-up and PLM solutions. 

Centric Software has received multiple industry awards and recognition, including being named by Red Herring to its Top 100 Global list in 2013, 2015 and 2016. Centric also received various excellence awards from Frost & Sullivan in 2012, 2016, 2018 and 2021. 

Centric Software is a registered trademark of Centric Software Inc. All other brands and product names may be trademarks of their respective owners. 

SOURCE Centric Software