Which fibres and materials will be within scope of the unified standard? 

During the development process, we will be moving from six standards (i.e., GRS, RCS, RDS, RWS, RMS, and RAS) to one harmonized standard system, which will have criteria applicable to different materials/feedstocks as well as supply chain tiers. The main impact areas of the unified standard system focus on Tier 4 raw material management (e.g., cultivation and extraction of raw materials from the earth, plants, or animals), and tier “3.5” first processing (e.g., ginning, retting, degumming, cottonizing, wool scouring, dissolving pulp, chemical/mechanical recycling). The materials proposed for the scope of the unified standard include: 

• Animal-derived: wool, mohair, alpaca, down and *cashmere

• Recycled: synthetic and natural materials

• Fiber Crops: *cotton

• Forest-derived: *MMCF

• Biomaterials: *biosynthetics

* Recognition at tier 4 / raw material / producer level