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GLOBAL ORGANIC TEXTILE STANDARD
ECOLOGY & SOCIAL RESPONSIBILITY

IVN rejects H&M’s call for new ecolabel for textiles

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In Germany more and more calls for an overall sustainability textile standard can be heard.  Whereas the International Association of Natural Textile Industry (IVN), one of the four founding members of the GOTS international working group, considers this unnecessary. "The Fashion Industry doesn't need a new Ecolabel for environmental and social responsible production - we already have one: GOTS" Heike Scheuer, IVN Head Office, countered on the newest statements of H&M's chief executive officers Karl Johan-Persson, who claimed another worldwide label for fashion in an Interview with the big German Magazine "Der Spiegel". "In Germany and Europe GOTS has long proved its applicability despite its high demands. Even large retail companies like Aldi, Rewe, dm-drugstore chain or C&A have GOTS certified products in their selections" Heike Scheuer continues. In the view of the IVN the claim for a new label is simply obsolete because even today consumers are facing and impenetrable "Label jungle". Instead of that the big retailers and brands as well as policymakers should support and strengthen existing relevant standards. In the policy memorandum of the USDA from 2011, where GOTS was confirmed as organic standard the government of the USA set a good example.