The Global Organic Textile Standard (GOTS) conducted a ‘GOTS Pre-Conference to 19th Organic World Congress of IFOAM – Organics International’ in New Delhi, India earlier this month.
The current GOTS standards remain valuable to the industry, however, the conference focused on the development of the social compliance rules and norms.
Over 80 prominent individuals from twelve countries attended the first of its kind event solely focused on ‘Social Compliance Issues in the Organic Textile Supply Chain’.
The participants were CSR managers and HR representatives of companies, certification bodies, standard setters, Government officials and NGOs.
Issues like income equality within countries and globally, land grabbing, and dealings with non-compliances were discussed at the conference.
The conference highlighted that social criteria in sustainability standards are important to improve working conditions across the industry.
It was also discussed that there is a need to better the already set standards with quantifiable criteria while keeping inspection and certification as the key diagnostic tools.
GOTS aims to safeguard the organic status of textiles through environmentally responsible production.
The experts also felt the requirement to ‘find and apply’ efficient ways to make big brands and retailers utilise their responsibility and true potential for sustainability in textiles.
