#Sustainability

2023-01-19

OEKO-TEX® accepted as an ISEAL Community Member

Following a rigorous approval process, OEKO-TEX® joins as an ISEAL Community Member.

ISEAL supports ambitious sustainability systems and their partners to tackle the world’s most pressing challenges. With their growing global network and their focus on credible practices, they drive impact and make markets a force for good. Using ISEAL’s approach, an organisation tackles global challenges, such as the climate emergency, biodiversity crisis and human rights issues. By defining credible practice for sustainability, convening forums for collaboration and promotion innovation, ISEAL pushes systems to further improve.

“I’m very happy to congratulate OEKO-TEX® on becoming an ISEAL Community Member. Their standards focus on the reduction of harmful inputs and processes in leather and textile manufacturing" says Ms. Karin Kreider, Executive Director from ISEAL Alliance. "We are excited to have a fresh perspective in the ISEAL learning community, and to have a growing and significant group of members involved in the textile sector".

In becoming an ISEAL Community Member, OEKO-TEX® joins a growing number of well-respected sustainability systems that are driving positive social and environmental change across multiple sectors. As an ISEAL Community Member, we strive to continuously improve our system to create greater impact.

OEKO-TEX® fulfilled several credibility criteria, such as implementing a publicly available complaint mechanism, a publicly available governance structure and a public stakeholder consultation. Our membership underlines our commitment to generating trust and transparency through the improvement of our standards and management systems.

“We are proud of this achievement and looking for even more,” says Mr. Georg Dieners, General Secretary of OEKO-TEX®. “We strive to constantly improve our products and systems through collaborations and stakeholder engagement. We are looking forward to the next steps in our joint journey.”

OEKO-TEX® chooses TextileGenesis to advance digital traceability for organic cotton

OEKO-TEX® today announced a full collaboration with TextileGenesis, a Lectra company, to digitally trace and authenticate organic cotton, strengthening fraud prevention across the supply chain. This announcement follows a successful pilot and brings together OEKO-TEX®’s certification expertise and closed testing system with TextileGenesis’ digital traceability platform to deliver a secure, end-to-end solution for managing certified organic cotton flows.

OEKO-TEX® - New regulations 2025

Fostering trust within the textile and leather industry remains the mission of OEKO-TEX®. Since trust relies on consistently high standards, the OEKO-TEX® Association has released the updated testing criteria, limit values and guidelines for its certifications, based on the latest scientific research and legal developments.

OEKO-TEX® Annual Report 2023/2024 mentions 50,000+ valid certifications

The international OEKO-TEX® association has continued to demonstrate positive business growth, highlighting the critical role of close collaboration and shared commitment in accelerating sustainable change. More than 35,000 textile and leather companies depend on the certificates and product labels issued by OEKO-TEX®’s independent testing institutes. OEKO-TEX® issued more than 50,000 certificates and labels between July 1, 2023, and June 30, 2024 – an increase of 22% over the previous financial year.

OEKO-TEX® New regulations 2024

Creating trust within the textile and leather industry and for its customers is the mission of OEKO-TEX®. Since trust is based on consistently high quality, the OEKO-TEX® Association is again publishing updates to the applicable test criteria, limit values and guidelines for its certifications. Based on new scientific findings and legal developments, the OEKO-TEX® Association has published the annual updates to its test criteria, limit values and guidelines.

A new standard to combat plastic waste in forests

With DIN SPEC 35808 “Tree Shelter for Forestry Applications,” the testing and research service provider Hohenstein, in collaboration with Rottenburg University of Forestry, as well as forestry authorities and industry partners, has established a clear framework for bio-based and fully biodegradable tree shelters. The pre-standard defines requirements and practical testing methods designed to reduce plastic waste in forests and strengthen the long-term protection of soil and the environment.

Europe’s textile future at a turning point: New 2030 Circularity Blueprint aims to scale recycling and unlock investment opportunities

The EU textile system is at a critical crossroads. Today, less than 1% of discarded garments are recycled into new garments, despite EU-wide obligations for separate collection. In response, Global Fashion Agenda (GFA) is launching the 2030 Circularity Blueprint, in partnership with ReHubs. This ambitious initiative is designed to support the transformation of the EU textile ecosystem to advance textile-to-textile recycling and drive the transition to a circular economy.

Walter Reiners Foundation Prize awarded to three ITA graduates

Sabina Dann, Lukas Balon and Annegret Storm from the Institut für Textiltechnik (ITA) of RWTH Aachen University were awarded the Walter Reiners Foundation Prize by the German Engineering Federation (VDMA) for their master’s and bachelor’s theses. Peter Dornier, Chairman of the Walter Reiners Foundation, presented the awards during Techtextil at the VDMA stand in Frankfurt am Main, Germany.