Labeling & Standards Claims

Inspire others by promoting certified products.

Once you’ve started to source certified products, you might want to tell the world about it, both to show your commitment to climate action and to inspire others to do the same. Anytime you mention our standards, it’s important to follow our guidelines for claims. These help to protect the credibility of the standards and the organizations who keep to them, as well as the hard work being done all the way along the supply chain.

How it Works

A standards claim is any mention or reference to one of our standards.

This could involve logo use, something written down, and/or links to information that mentions the standard. There are two principal types of claims used to communicate around a standard. The first is a general marketing claim and the second is a product-related claim. Both of them can be used in business-to-business or in consumer-facing communications.

PRODUCT

Product-related claims
A product-related claim indicates that a product or product line is certified or contains certified content. These claims may be made on or off the product. Only products that meet each of the requirements below are eligible for product-related claims.
Final product certification
The final product is certified up to the seller in the last business-to-business transaction. If a brand is selling direct to consumers, they don’t need to be certified. If a brand is selling to a retailer, the brand does have to be certified.
Minimum material content
The final certified product contains the minimum required certified material. See Details
Certification body approval
Any product-related claims and associated hangtags or label artwork are approved by a certification body (CB). Find out how to make a claim below. Learn More
Valid scope certificate
A valid-scope certificate (SC) is held by the final certified company and includes the correct product category. Certificate Authentication
Printed claims by certified company
Printed claims such as hangtags or sewn-in labels are physically attached to certified products by certified companies only. Brands and retailers who don’t require certification need to ask their direct certified supplier to attach hangtags.

Labeling & Standards Claims: Minimum Material Content

	OCS BLENDED	OCS 100	RCS BLENDED	RCS 100	GRS	RDS	RWS	RMS
Minimum %	5%	95%	5%	95%	50%	5%	5%	5%
Blending with conventional material of the same allowed?	Yes	No	Yes	No	Yes	No	No	No

CONTENT

What to include

Standard logo
The logo of the relevant standard.
Certified material percentage
The percentage of certified material in the product (unless it’s 100% RDS, RWS, RMS, or RAS certified)
Last certified company
The name, logo as it appears on the scope certificate, or certification number (provided by the CB) of the last certified company.
Certification body
The name or logo of the CB of the last certified company.
Optional Additions
Claims and standards logos may include additional language as long as it’s accurate and doesn’t sound misleading.

PROCESS

How to make a claim

If a product-related claim is being made, make sure the product meets the eligibility criteria for “full-product certification.”
Design artwork following the relevant guidance document.
Request and fill in a Label Release Form from the relevant CB.
Submit the Label Release Form, along with a digital copy of your artwork, to the relevant CB.
Wait for feedback or approval from the relevant CB and make any adjustments needed.
Attach the label or publish your artwork.
Plan for roughly two weeks between the time of submitting the Label Release Form and artwork until final approval. This may vary between CBs and depends on the artwork’s compliance with the guidelines and the product. Be sure to allow enough time for the artwork approval process.

Frequently Asked Questions

If you have a question not answered here, get in touch with us directly, and we’ll be happy to answer it for you.

Can someone from Textile Exchange approve my standard claim or artwork?

No. Only certification bodies are authorized to approve your use of product-related claims or labels. They have in-depth knowledge of our Standards Claims Policy and Standards Logo Use Specifications and will use them to approve your company’s logo use or claim, as well as verify the certification of your product.

Can you send me a standard logo?

No. Logos have to be obtained through the certification body that you or your supplier are working with for certification. We’ll only issue logos for specific uses by media or others who want to promote our standards.

I have partial chain of custody and my product does not qualify for labeling. How can I communicate about the standards and the efforts we are making?

If you do not have full chain of custody and can’t make a product-related claim, you may still choose to make claims from the three other categories described in the Standards Claims Policy.

Resources

Dive deeper into labeling and making claims

View All Resources