Sustainability Certifications & Standards Guide

Do you want to make more sustainable decisions but don’t know where to start? Here’s a selective roundup of sustainability certifications and standards you can look out for during your purchases to wear your values.

B Corporation

A designation that a business is holistically meeting high standards of verified social and environmental performance, accountability and transparency (i.e. employee benefits, charitable giving to supply chain practices and input materials).

BCI – Better Cotton Initiative

A non-profit multistakeholder governance that promotes and scales better environmental, social and economic standards in cotton farming and practices (i.e. training farmers) worldwide.

Bluesign

A system that ensures that items are manufactured in a clean process by monitoring over 900 hazardous chemicals to responsibly build safer and more sustainable environments for people to work in, consumers and the environment.

Cradle to Cradle Certified™

A standard that assessed material health, product circularity, clean air and climate protection, water and soil stewardship, and social fairness while encouraging businesses to develop products for closed-loop systems and eliminate waste.

Fairtrade Certified Cotton

Ensures that farmers receive a fair price and additional trade premiums to invest back into their local communities and protect their health and safety by prohibiting the use of dangerous chemicals or genetically-modified cotton seeds.

GOTS – Global Organic Textile Standard

One of the leading and most trusted certifications for textiles made from organically grown raw materials (i.e. organic cotton) through every production stage (i.e. textile processing, manufacturing, packaging, distribution).

Global Recycled Standard

Certification for products made from (at least 50%) recycled content (i.e. recycled polyester or rPET), addressing input material verification, chain of custody, environmental principles and social requirements.

Higg Index

A suite for sustainability self-assessment tools to assess, measure and score the manufacturing, brand and product performance and impact of textile production that benefit the well-being of factory workers, local communities, and the environment.

Leather Working Group

All of the leather sourced in products with this label come from environmentally responsible leather manufacturers, audited and certified via the Leather Working Group protocol.

Oeko-Tex

A standard in three levels (100,1000 & 1000 plus) indicates the textile product is free of certain groups of harmful substances, ensuring that all certified products are harmless to health.

Organic Content Standard

A standard that tracks and verifies the content of organically grown materials, from the sourcing of raw material to the final product.

Responsible Down Standard

Ensures holistic respect for legal animal welfare regulations and prohibits the removal of down from live birds and force feeding.

Responsible Wool Standard

Addresses holistic respect for animal welfare and best practice regarding the management and protection of the land.

Sustainable Apparel Coalition

Leading alliance in the apparel, footwear, and textile industry for sustainable production which works to produce no unnecessary environmental harm and positively impacts the people and communities associated with its activities.

Discover more

Education

Read, watch and listen to fashion and sustainability resources.

Petitions

Sign these petitions for a more responsible fashion system.

Guides

Discover our latest how-to and step-by-step guides.

Did you find a label that is not on the list?

Hit us up via contact@wearethestitch.com.