Apparel Certs: GOTS, Fair Trade, Better Cotton & Bluesign

In every industry, there are companies doing work, and other companies seeking to verify or validate that work. Sometimes that validation comes from governmental organizations like OSHA; other times it comes from third-party groups like Fairtrade International.

In the world of fashion and apparel, there are many different certifications, ranging from small independent organizations to larger national groups, often with similar but differing standards, goals, and validation processes.

What are these organizations, what do they look for, and can you get their certifications? Is it worthwhile to do so? Let's talk about it.

GOTS

GOTS is an organization and a standard and certification process. It was originally founded in 2002 by a coalition of the International Association of Natural Textile Industry, the Japan Organic Cotton Association, the Organic Trade Association, and the Soil Association. This coalition set up a legal entity under German law called the Global Standard gemeinnützige GmbH, aimed at developing and managing a global organic textile standard program. That program – called GOTS – has been growing in use and validation ever since.

GOTS is a very strict standard and encompasses the whole of the supply line. In order for a finished product to be able to be labeled GOTS-certified, the growing of cotton, the harvesting, the textile creation, the garment making, and the wholesaling – including exporting and importing – must be evaluated with on-site inspections to uphold their standards. If any part of that supply line fails, the finished product cannot be labeled GOTS certified.

There are quite a few benefits to obtaining a GOTS certification.

• It's globally recognized proof that the garment is of wholly organic origin and was created in environmentally and socially responsible ways.
• It's a validation that the entire supply line is covered, rather than being a limited-scope certification that brushes unethical production under the rug of a subsidiary or partner.
• It's ISO standardized and ensures consistent, equitable, and thorough evaluation in annual auditing.
• It's an assurance that not just the products are safe, but that the health, safety, and treatment of employees throughout the supply chain is up to modern standards of ethics and social behavior.
• It's an excellent statement for consumers to recognize that the products were organically and ethically made and that no harsh or dangerous chemicals were used in their production.

GOTS can be used to certify a wide range of different products. While garments and textiles are a significant part of their focus, they have expanded to other products like furniture, personal hygiene products, and food-contract textiles, among others.

What does GOTS look for? They review bookkeeping and financial reconciliation, they assess the processing and storage of garments, they review the separation and identification systems in use, they inspect chemical inputs and outputs, they evaluate wastewater, they review social governance and other social criteria, and they review risk assessment, contamination, residue, and testing processes.

GOTS can issue two certificates. The Scope Certificate is a certificate for suppliers that authorizes them to produce textile goods as listed in their scope documents. The Transaction Certificate attests that shipments processed and sold by an entity are GOTS-certified.

A GOTS certification can cost anywhere from 1,200 to 3,000 euros per year or more if the business is very large and uses multiple facilities. The fee for the certification itself is only 180 euros; the rest is in auditing and compliance actions.

Fairtrade

Fairtrade International is the overarching global organization that encompasses dozens of country-specific Fairtrade organizations, such as Fairtrade America. Different Fairtrade organizations may have slightly different standards or may have different concerns, largely due to their geographic region. For example, an area that exports a lot of cocoa is more likely to focus on ethical production of chocolate, while another region that focuses more on cotton may emphasize water and land management and ethical harvesting.

All Fairtrade organizations approach the same basic problem – rampant and exploitative consumerism – from a similar angle and with similar goals. For the most part, Fairtrade focuses on farming and raw material production. This is almost entirely focused on food items, but can extend to things like cotton for garments and even for some mines and the precious metals they produce.

Fairtrade can produce two certifications. One is a certification for a product, which a producer can obtain. A company making a candy bar can ensure that they use Fairtrade certified raw materials, Fairtrade certified processes, and Fairtrade certified suppliers, and their end result product can also be Fairtrade certified. The other certification is for the producers such as the farms that grow the raw materials.

Since operating ethically is generally much more expensive than operating unethically, Fairtrade charges steep fees for certification of everyone above the production of raw materials and uses that money to financially support ethical farms and producers so they can compete in the world of commerce.

Overall, Fairtrade emphasizes eco-friendly production methods for farming and material production, but they also put a lot of money and effort into validating workers' rights, gender equality, fair pay, and the support of farming communities. They also work to eliminate child labor as much as possible.

Fairtrade certification is performed by FLOCERT, a company that began as the Fairtrade certification organization and spun off to provide more and broader services in a similar vein later.

To obtain Fairtrade certification, a company or farm must comply with social, environmental, and economic standards as laid out by the Fairtrade organization's guidelines. Farmers and producers should look at the Fairtrade standards, while traders and vendors should look at the Trader Standards.

As mentioned, Fairtrade can be fairly expensive for non-farmers, to subsidize ethical farming. As such, full certification can be in the thousands of euros range. FLOCERT has a cost estimator you can use to get an idea of how much you'll need to pay to obtain certification and maintain it.

If you want to know more, we've written extensively about Fairtrade here on our blog before. Start with this guide, follow the links, and let us know if you want to know more.

Better Cotton

Where certification organizations like GOTS and Fairtrade take a broad perspective on production and ethics, some organizations are narrower. Better Cotton is one of those narrower organizations.

Better Cotton was founded in 2005 as a roundtable group led by WWF and included representatives from a wide range of organizations. Those organizations include businesses like Adidas, Gap, and H&M, as well as groups like the International Federation of Agricultural Producers, the International Finance Corporation, and the Pesticides Action Network. After a period of analysis, the Better Cotton Initiative was launched in 2009.

Better Cotton spends most of their time and effort focused on specific countries that produce much of the world's cotton. These include Brazil, India, Pakistan, and parts of west and central Africa. That's not to say they aren't present elsewhere – they've expanded a lot since 2009 – but this was where their core began.

While Better Cotton focuses solely on cotton production, its goals align with those of other certification organizations. They emphasize good management, stewardship of natural resources, the protection of crops through organic or safe means, gender equality in production, decent work environments, sustainable livelihoods, proactive climate change mitigation, and an assurance of the quality of the finished product so these initiatives don't compromise the finished product. You can read more about all of these here.

One interesting difference with Better Cotton is that until very recently (last August), they were not and had no intentions of being a certification program. They were a membership organization where members adhered to their values, but implementation varied. It was very hands-on and effective but not very scalable.

In order to provide more value across a more recognizable axis, Better Cotton has decided to develop a certification process. The goal will be to create a recognized certification similar to options like GOTS and Fairtrade certifications but focused solely on cotton production and use. However, at the moment, that certification has not yet been developed. They only recently announced it and hired Tom Owen as their head of certification. It's likely that next year will be an exciting time for Better Cotton as they develop this new process and function for their organization.

What can you do with Better Cotton now? Well, it depends on your commitment and, of course, your engagement with cotton in the first place. You can join their organization as a member of one of five membership types.

• Civil Society membership is aimed at non-profit organizations that are connected to the cotton supply chain in some way.
• Producer Organization membership is aimed at farms and farm workers who actually produce, or represent the producers of, cotton itself. Arguably this is the most important of their memberships.
• Supplier and Manufacturer membership is aimed at commercial organizations within the supply chain, from the moment cotton leaves the farm to the moment it's stocked on store shelves.
• Retailer and Brand membership is aimed at consumer-facing organizations in apparel, home, travel, and leisure, or any others that engage with cotton at any level.
• Associate membership is the catch-all membership for organizations that don't fall into one of the other categories.

With the overarching goal of making cotton more sustainable and powering more ethical garments around the world, Better Cotton shows a lot of promise, especially with their aim of creating a new, focused certification.

Bluesign

Bluesign is a group based in Switzerland called Bluesign Technologies. Their goal is to monitor and review every step of the journey from a finished garment – usually outdoor-focused garments – all the way back to the origins of every element of its production. That means the core materials like cotton and polyester, of course, but it also means evaluating the chemicals used, the water and land use, the health and safety of workers, and more. They have strict standards for everything from hazardous chemical usage to air and water emissions to worker and consumer safety.

Bluesign is unlike Fairtrade in that they offer a "halfway" certification. Finished products can be certified as fully Bluesign compliance, or they can be certified as "containing materials that are Bluesign certified." A product can, thus, be partially certified for using certain Bluesign raw materials, but not fully certified materials.

Bluesign is also somewhat unique in that they have a large staff of engineers, chemists, and materials scientists, who are able to analyze the chemical suppliers, risk management, hazardous nature, handling, and other aspects of the chemistry that goes into production. This offers a lot deeper of an analysis and nuance for their certification than many other certifications offer.

On top of all of this, Bluesign also offers an Academy. This Academy provides consultancy services, sustainability management and reporting, product stewardship, carbon footprint analysis, and company-tailored training for members who are chemical suppliers, manufacturers, or retailers and brands. All of this is on top of their normal certification process.

Which Certification is Right for You?

Picking the right certification, especially when they can be so very expensive, can be a very important decision. Unfortunately, we can't recommend any one certification in general; it's very dependent on your business.

In broad strokes:

• Fairtrade is the most widely recognized but also very stringent and expensive, and if you can't go all-in, it's not worth it.
• Bluesign is very innovative but still a very small market segment.
• GOTS is a powerful and flexible option for many producers and suppliers.
• Better Cotton is worth watching for when their certification is released.

If you're a consumer, all you need to know is that all of these certifications serve the same basic goals: to ensure better treatment of the people and environment surrounding the production of textiles and garments. As long as a garment you want to buy has one of these certifications, you can know that it's at least Pretty Good.

It's also important to remember that this is just a selection of four of the many different certification organizations available in the wider world. This is just scratching the surface, and not having one of these doesn't necessarily mean a product isn't ethical. If you have any questions, drop us a line! We love to chat about the industry, and what it means to be forward-thinking and sustainable in the modern world.