SAC parts company with its CEO, Amina Razvi

SAN FRANCISCO – The Sustainable Apparel Coalition (SAC) has announced its CEO, Amina Razvi, will leave the organisation as of December 29th. According to a press release, she and the board of directors have “mutually agreed the time is right for her to step away and for the board to identify a successor.”

Razvi joined the SAC eight years ago. Her time at the SAC can be viewed as a roaring triumph or a dismal failure, depending on the yardstick one is using to judge success.

If growth and expansion was the primary goal, Razvi’s time has gone according to plan. The SAC has doubled its membership since 2019, and now exceeds 300 organisations.

The Higg Index now has more than 24,000 organisations adopting its tools, and there has been a threefold increase in the SAC’s global team since 2019.

Razvi managed the Worldly spin-off in 2019 and oversaw plans for the Social & Labor Convergence Program spin-off in January 2024.

She established strategic partnerships with organisations including the Apparel Impact Institute, Textile Exchange, ZDHC Foundation, Worldly, The Industry We Want, and Global Fashion Agenda.

Also noteworthy, much of the above was achieved during and in the aftermath of the Covid-19 pandemic.

Despite all of this, the SAC has become mired in controversy during Razvi’s tenure, particularly during the past four years. The Higg MSI, a core tool, has been the subject of continued scrutiny, so much so that consumer facing Higg labels on clothing were cited for greenwashing by the Dutch and Norwegian authorities in 2022.

The fallout from this led to embarrassment for SAC brands such as H&M, which had trialled the use of consumer facing Higg labels.

This was also (arguably) the catalyst for a wider discussion about greenwashing generally in the fashion industry, which is still ongoing.

The SAC’s KPMG-led investigation into the Higg MSI concluded it is not fit for purpose as a standalone tool. This came as no surprise to many, and begged the question as to how previous, constructive critique of the tool had been ignored for so long.

It is unclear from the SAC press release as to whether Razvi has jumped or whether she has been pushed. Interestingly, when we asked the SAC whether she would step down in the wake of the KPMG investigation into the Higg MSI, they side-stepped our question.

Notably, a lack of transparency or willingness to answer reasonable journalist questions has been one of hallmarks of the SAC under Razvi’s leadership.

Her eight years at the SAC spanned a period during which the limitations of self-regulation by fashion brands on the issue of sustainability have become all too clear. With regulators the world over showing a growing appetite to hold the fashion industry accountable for its outsized environmental footprint, the precise role of organisations such as the SAC becomes less obvious. This shifting regulatory landscape and the SAC’s function within it is something Razvi’s successor will need to quickly get to grips with.

On her time, Razvi said: “… reflection is paramount, and as I step down from my role as CEO, I am excited about what lies ahead. The journey doesn’t end here; there are new opportunities and challenges on the horizon, and, while I will take some time to recharge and spend more time with my family, I’m eager to continue working on the issues I’m deeply passionate about. I look forward to the next opportunity to drive meaningful change, and positively impact people and the planet.”