GOTS now recognised by Germany’s sustainable textile label Green Button

In September 2019, the Green Button was introduced in Germany, as the world's first government sustainable textile label designed to help improve textile production and label products that comply with social and environmental standards.

“The Green Button is only awarded to products that come from responsible companies and have been produced with sustainability aspects in mind. At the start of the Green Button, these were particularly environmental requirements for bleaching and dyeing as well as requirements for social and working conditions during cutting and sewing” explains the textile label’s official website.

Green Button 2.0 includes raw materials

Now, there is also the Green Button 2.0, which expands existing criteria and also includes requirements for the sustainable extraction of raw materials. Products may only contain approved fibres and materials.

As proof of sustainable production, the Green Button accepts certification labels that meet the credibility criteria of the German federal government and have evaluated the required social and environmental requirements in the supply chain. Companies must provide proof of corresponding certification labels for these supply chain stages.

GOTS now accepted certification label

The Global Organic Textile Standard, or GOTS for short, was recently added to the list of certification labels accepted by Green Button. It has successfully passed the benchmarking process and is now a recognised certification label for production process requirements (meta-seal approach) under Green Button 2.0.  

From now on, the GOTS certification label will be accepted for manufacturing and wet processes and as before for the fibre and material production for the use of plant-based and animal fibres and for the use of man-made fibres with a proportion between 10 and 30 percent in the final product.

Currently, 16 established certification label are recognised, among them Bluesign Product, Cotton Made in Africa (CmiA), Fairtrade Cotton, Fairtrade Textilstandard, Global Recycled Standard, Oeko-Tex Made in Green, Oeko-Tex Standard 100, Oeko-Tex Standard 100 „organic“ and Oeko-Tex Organic Cotton as well as the Responsible Down Standard, the Responsible Mohair Standard and the Responsible Wool Standard.

The last three in particular are criticised by animal welfare organisations such as PETA and Four Paws, as there are enough loopholes in their wording that do not guarantee pain-free production.

To meet the Green Button requirements for production processes and to be able to label products, companies must demonstrate recognised certification labels for all three areas (fibre and material use, wet processes, manufacturing). Prior to this, companies must demonstrate compliance with the requirements for corporate due diligence processes within a Green Button audit.