The Apparel and Footwear Quality Association (AFQA) is a new collaborative forum of apparel and footwear companies that aims to improve physical textile testing to...

The amfori Business Social Compliance Initiative (BSCI) was originally set up as an initiative of the Foreign Trade Association (now Amfori) to achieve convergence in...

The Bangladesh Accord on Fire and Building Safety was an agreement designed to make all garment factories in Bangladesh safe workplaces. The Accord agreement included...

Bilan Carbone is a methodology developed by the French Agency for Environment and Energy Control (ADEME). It is a useful tool for organisations (company, community or...

Focusing on consumer safety and the environment, the Swiss-based bluesign system examines natural resources and chemicals used in textile production, occupational health...

The reference documents on best available techniques (BREF) are a series of documents that reflect an information exchange in the European Union carried out according to...

The Water Quality Guidelines (WQG) are voluntary goals set by the non-profit business association, Business for Social Responsibility (BSR). The goal is to improve...

The Content Claim Standard is a voluntary standard that can be used to trace a material through the supply chain or used as a back-up for content claims if other...

The Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES) is a voluntary, international agreement between participating governments. It...

The Cradle-to-Cradle standard assesses product safety to humans and the environment, as well as product design for material reuse using a four-tier improvement system,...

Directive 94/11/EC is a legal act of the European Union concerning the labelling of materials used in footwear, including parts sold separately. The European Union has...

The EU Eco-Management and Audit Scheme (EMAS) regulation is a management tool for companies and other organisations to evaluate, report and improve their environmental...

An Environmental Product Declaration (EPD) is a verified and registered document that communicates transparent and comparable information about the life-cycle...

The Ethical Trading Initiative (ETI) is a tripartite multi-stakeholder organisation that aims to protect the rights of workers in supply chains and improve labour...

The EU General Product Safety Directive is a directive provided by the European Commission on the requirements and surveillance of non-food consumer products on the market.

The Fair Wear Foundation (FWF) is a Netherlands-based NGO, which works with companies in the textile industry to improve labour conditions and examines how brands are...

According to the FTC Recycled Content guidelines, it is deceptive to misrepresent, directly or by implication, that a product or package is made of recycled content.

The Global Recycled Standard (GRS) addresses input material verification, chain of custody, environmental principles, social requirements, and labelling for textile...

The Higg Index, is a suite of self-assessment tools developed and owned by Cascale that assesses the manufacturing, brand and product impacts of textile and consumer...

The International Labour Organisation (ILO) campaigns to improve rights at work, encourage decent employment opportunities, enhance social protection and strengthen...

The non-profit Nordic ‘Swan’ Ecolabel is a voluntary license designed to help companies make and indicate products to the consumer that are more sustainable. It is...

The Oeko-Tex Standard 100, introduced in 1992, is a global uniform testing and certification system for textile raw materials, intermediate products, and end products at...

Launched in 2017, the Oeko-Tex standard for leather goods allows producers and suppliers of leather goods to have their products certified and tested for harmful substances. 

SA8000 is a widely recognised social certification standard that ensures decent labour conditions and protects the basic human rights of employees across all industrial sectors.

The Science Based Targets Initiative (SBTi) originally aimed to secure commitments from large companies to set science-based targets to reduce carbon emissions. In May...

Launched in 2015, the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) are a universal set of goals, targets and indicators that UN member states will be expected to use to frame...

The United States Department of Agriculture administers the BioPreferred Program, which was created by the Farm Security and Rural Investment Act of 2002 (FSRIA or...

The ZDHC Gateway is a powerful tool and database designed to help eliminate harmful substances from global fashion and footwear supply chains.