In September 2019, the Green Button was introduced in Germany, the first state sustainability label to help improve textile production and label products that ensure compliance with social and ecological standards.
“Only products that come from responsible companies and are manufactured with sustainability aspects in mind bear the Green Button. At the start of the Green Button, these were in particular environmental requirements for bleaching and dyeing as well as requirements for social and working conditions for cutting and sewing,” says the sustainability label’s official website.
Green Button 2.0
There is now Green Button 2.0, which supplements the label with requirements for sustainable raw material extraction, which means that products may only consist of approved fibers and materials.
As proof of sustainable production, the Green Button accepts seals that meet the federal government’s credibility criteria and have verified the required social and environmental requirements in the supply chain. Companies must provide evidence of appropriate seals for these supply chain stages.
GOTS is recognized
The Global Organic Textile Standard, or GOTS for short, has been added to the list of seals accepted by the Green Button since Wednesday. It has successfully completed the benchmarking process and is now recognized as a recognized seal for the requirements for production processes (meta-seal approach) under the Green Button 2.0.
In the future, the GOTS seal can be used as evidence in the areas of clothing and wet processes, as well as, as was already the case, in the area of fiber and material use for the use of plant and animal fibers. Likewise for the use of chemical fibers with a weight proportion of between 10 and 30 percent.
16 established seals are currently recognized, including 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, Responsible Mohair Standard and Responsible Wool Standard.
The last three in particular are criticized by animal protection organizations such as PETA and Vier Pfoten because there are enough loopholes in their formulations that do not guarantee pain-free production.
In order to meet the Green Button requirements for production processes and be able to label products, companies must provide evidence of recognized seals for all three areas (fiber/material use, wet process, assembly). Beforehand, they must also demonstrate compliance with the requirements for corporate due diligence processes within a Green Button audit.