Supply Chain Certification

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Supply Chain Certification

Textile Exchange standards offer the industry a tool to verify that the raw material content of products through third-party verification and chain of custody. These standards allow you to show your commitment to preferred materials to your customers and give another voice to point to as you partner with your customers. You can use Textile Exchange standards to offer products certified to contain organically grown content, recycled content, and responsible down, wool, and mohair.

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What are the Essential Steps?

Ask for certified inputs.

You can immediately start requesting certified inputs from your suppliers and producers. You don’t need to be certified to place an order and receive a transaction certificate. Only products with accompanying transaction certificates are considered certified.

Find Certified Companies here.

Get certified.

The only way to keep the chain of custody intact is if all parts of the supply chain are certified. This means, as a supplier, you should also be certified; then the flow of certified products can continue on to your buyers and to the consumers.

Provide transaction certificates.

Only products that are accompanied by a transaction certificate (TC) are certified. If your customer is asking for certified products, make sure to apply for TCs with your certification body for each outgoing shipment of certified products.

Tell the story.

Talk about the standards or your commitments in places like the sustainability section of your website, annual reports, advertising or social media.

Make sure you have permission before attaching any hangtags on products that mention the standard. To label products, these three steps must be met:

The seller in the final business-to-business transaction must be certified,
All artwork and accompanying language must be in line with the applicable Logo Use and Claims Guide, and
The artwork must be approved by an authorized certification body.

Learn more about Labeling & Making Claims here.

Download: Supplier Certification Toolkit

How to Get Certified to Textile Exchange Standards

Contact an approved certification body (CB) to request services. The CB will be your point of contact throughout the entire process of certification, from beginning to final labeling / communications.

Fill out the application form from the CB and submit.
Tip! Applying with more than one CB allows you to compare estimates.

Upon receipt of your completed application, the CB will prepare an offer including estimates of price and timing.

After the offer is accepted, you will be asked to sign a contract with the CB. Typically, a contract is valid for one year, and will need to be renewed after that.

The CB will send an auditor to review documents and procedures against the requirements of the standard.
Tip! Read the standard and prepare relevant documents and staff. Good preparation can reduce certification costs by saving auditing time.

The results of the audit will be sent to the CB’s office in an audit report; a separate person will review them and make a final certification decision. If non-conformities (NC) are noted, you will be given a corrective action plan. All NCs must be closed in order for a scope certificate (SC) to be issued.

Upon successfully meeting all requirements of the standard, a scope certificate will be issued.

CBs may conduct unannounced inspections to verify that you are still complying with the standards.

Following the shipment of certified goods to the given standard, contact your CB to apply for a transaction certificate (TC). Only products with an accompanying TC are considered certified.

Supply Chain Certification