How is chain of custody maintained in the standards system?

Textile Exchange uses a chain of custody system, whereas all points in the supply chain up until the brand must be certified in order to continue referring to the material or products as certified. We use a controlled blending/segregation model with Scope certificates and Transaction certificates. Scope certificates verify a company is qualified to produce certified products, whereas Transaction certificates verify that specific products are certified to a given standard. At this point we don’t allow tracers as equivalents to this system but we’re keeping a close eye on innovations in technologies. Additionally, our VR2 policy allows for a mass balance chain of custody model.