In the world of fashion certifications, where countless options focus on distinct aspects, consumers and brands often find themselves lost in a sea of choices. The intricate nuances of each certification can confound consumers, leaving them uncertain about making informed purchases. Simultaneously, brands face the challenge of embarking on a sustainable journey, determining the most suitable certifications to adopt for a comprehensive approach, and effectively conveying their sustainable accomplishments without perplexing their clientele.

Critics have also raised concerns about the perceived limitations of existing certifications, urging the need for more precise and ideal impact scenarios. To address these issues, industry professionals in field such as textile manufacturing, compliance management, and environmental protection have spent the past seven years developing a groundbreaking international fashion standard. Their aim was to assist brands in commencing their sustainable transformations while encompassing environmental, social, and consumer health considerations. This endeavor has resulted in the birth of SANE.

SANE: Redefining Fashion Certification

SANE stands as a comprehensive fashion standard and is a proud member of the United Nations Conscious Fashion and Lifestyle Network, a platform dedicated to promoting initiatives that accelerate the implementation of the Sustainable Development Goals. This certification extends its coverage to textiles, accessories, footwear, and home textiles, adopting a holistic approach that evaluates multiple phases of a product’s life cycle. It focuses on areas where environmental and human impacts are most harmful and where brands and production facilities have the technical capability to implement more sustainable processing methods.

Unlike certifications that specializes on single aspects, such as Bluesign’s on sustainable textile processing, or those with narrow scopes like GOTS which covers chemical for natural fiber production, SANE’s scope of action extends beyond the usual. This standard places significant emphasis on the selection of low-impact materials across all material types, the chemical composition of final products, the ecological footprint of processing stages, and the welfare and remuneration of workers.

To ensure brand compliance with SANE’s stringent criteria, production facilities undergo rigorous evaluation through accredited third-party audits. However, recognizing the growing problem of audit fatigue within the industry and the fact that some brands or facilities might already have other certifications, SANE has taken the innovative step of accepting existing credible sustainability standards to avoid redundant assessments.

Accessible and Economical Textile Certification

SANE’s multifaceted approach ensures comprehensive coverage of crucial aspects while maintaining an attainable path for brands to initiate their sustainable journey. SANE allow brands to begin their transition with a single product or a capsule collection before extending their sustainable practices across their entire product range. Moreover, this standard aligns itself with the EU Green Claims Directive, positioning it as the future benchmark for fashion certification in Europe.

What sets SANE apart as an appealing choice for small and medium-sized companies is its cost structure. Instead of necessitating a substantial upfront investment, brands pay in proportion to their production volume. This flexible approach empowers brands to gradually expand their sustainable product offerings and certifications.

For consumers, SANE simplifies the process of making informed purchasing decisions. By scanning a QR code, they gain valuable insights into the sourcing and production practices of their favored brands. This empowers consumers to align their purchases with their values and choose brands actively engaged in their sustainable journey.

The distinctive SANE logo, prominently displayed on hang tags or stitched onto products, signifies a commitment to the environment, workers’ rights, and consumer well-being. SANE sets a new standard for sustainability in the textile and fashion industry, redefining the future of fashion certifications.

Guest article by SANE
autark.berlin has been following the SANE STANDARD approach for some time now and appreciates their holistic, systematic view of the effects on environment and society.
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photo copyright by SANE

Transparency in the textile supply chain is important for many reasons and is increasingly demanded politically as well as by us consumers. According to a study by Fashion Revolution, 75% of consumers say they want more information when buying clothes (Fashion Revolution Consumer Survey Report 2020). They want to know where the material comes from, under what circumstances was the garment produced, where and by whom?

With the legal requirements of the new Supply Chain Due Diligence Act (Lieferkettensorgfaltspflichtengesetz – LkSG), among others, larger companies are now being held accountable to fulfil their due diligence obligations in the supply chain and to ensure an improvement in the international human rights basis. We do not want to judge here to what extent the law is sufficient. Many experts have already spoken out on this.
To enable transparent sustainable communication, manufacturers and brand suppliers need to know their entire supply chain. For this they need relevant data. The textile value chain extends over various steps and often over several contingents. This can make data collection difficult. Only those who have the right data at the right time can draw conclusions about the social or ecological impact of their own actions. Only in this way can responsibility be taken, whether by the producer or the consumer.

The Düsseldorf-based start-up retraced has found a technological solution that makes it easier for companies to present their textile value chain on a platform and to bring together the data on sustainability, compliance, transparency in one place. This enables transparency all the way to the source of raw materials. They won the German Sustainability Award for Digitalisation for their platform.

They have now been on the market with their blockchain solution since 2019. They have been able to work with well-known partners since then and show that transparent and sustainable supply chains work. It is easier for users to meet their obligation to contribute but also to communicate with customers. One partner of retraced is for example the brand dedicated. They present information about producers on their website, what certifications they have and when they last visited them. This works because the brand offers a manageable range of sustainable fashion. You can read about the concrete use case on retraced’s site.

Other providers have developed solutions that do not require blockchain. They serve to make the quality of raw materials in the end product transparently traceable. For example, the start-up Tailorlux works with macerating fibres that function like an optical fingerprint and are mixed directly with the fibres. Sensors can be used to make the markings visible and draw conclusions about the proportion of the marked fibre. Proof of the quality of the raw materials can thus be made transparently traceable and secured across global supply routes. This is becoming more and more important with increasing tensions in the raw material markets.

Companies that take the time to audit and certify spend a lot of resources to provide transparency. What do we consumers do with this information? Do we use it? According to a study by Zalando (Attitude-Behaviour-Gap-Report), 60% of respondents say that transparency is important to them, but only 20% actively seek sustainability information when shopping.

So it is up to us to use the information that is already available in parts and to align our actions accordingly and, where information is not yet available, to ask for it.

Further information

www.retraced.com
www.tailorlux.com

photo: https://pixabay.com/de/illustrations/erde-planet-welt-globus-weltkarte-1617121/